BYZANTINE HISTORY

According to the Dublin Descriptors, learning objectives are:

Knowledge and understanding.

The student will have a good mastery of the methods and scientific contents related to the main processes and phenomena of Byzantine History; he /she will acquire the basic methodological tools that allow a critical reading of historical phenomena; he / she will know the fundamental instruments of historical investigation and the main interpretative lines of the contemporary scientific debate related to the discipline.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding.

The student will be able to frame the historical and cultural themes inherent to Byzantine History in a more general context of historical development; he/she will be able to critically read, explain and contextualize, in the light of the most modern methodological and historiographic acquisitions, the historical sources.

Autonomy of judgement.

The course will allow students to acquire:

- awareness of the basic methodological processes of historical research;

- awareness of the social and cultural relevance of the historical-cultural heritage.

Communication skills.

The student will be able:

- to communicate in oral and written form on the main themes of the discipline, using the most appropriate argumentative methods and using the disciplinary terminology of Byzantine History;

- to rework autonomously and communicate in an appropriate way the main issues related to Byzantine History and its heritage in the Western culture.

Learning skills.

The student will then have acquired the ability to use the main tools for finding information in the discipline, in particular the bibliographical updating tools. He/she will be able to deal autonomously with the study of specific themes of Byzantine History with methodological rigour, showing autonomous capacities of analysis and synthesis.

A) A sketch of Byzantine History (6 CFU).

Module A (6 Credits)

The first part (Part A) of the program consists of the study of these books:

G. Ravegnani, Introduzione alla storia bizantina, Bologna, Il Mulino 2006, pp. 1-186.

J. Harris, Costantinopoli, Bologna, Il Mulino 2015, pp. 1-278. 

A. Cameron, I bizantini, Bologna, Il Mulino, pp. 1-151 (cc. I-VI).

Module B (3 Credits)

On Byzantine South Italy and Sicily (Part B):

F. Burgarella, “Bisanzio in Sicilia e nell’Italia Meridionale: i riflessi politici”, in Il Mezzogiorno dai Bizantini a Federico II, Torino 1983 (Storia d’Italia diretta da G. Galasso, vol. III), pp. 129-248.

G. Ravegnani, I bizantini in Italia, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2004, pp. 11-204.

1) Constantinople: birth of a capital

2) The general characteristics of the Byzantine Empire

3) Justinian

4) The thematic order

5) Iconoclasm

6) The Isaurian dynasty

7) The Macedonian dynasty

8) The Comnenian dynasty

9) Byzantine humanism

10) Heresies in Byzantium

11) Monasticism

12) The IV Crusade

13) The Paleologists

14) The fall of Constantinople