HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY

Academic Year 2025/2026 - Teacher: LAVINIA GAZZE'

Expected Learning Outcomes

1) Knowledge and understanding

The course explores the historical transformations of Sicily from late antiquity to the Middle Ages, placing them within the broader Euro-Mediterranean context and examining the interactions among political, cultural, economic, and territorial dimensions.

2) Applying knowledge and understanding

The acquired knowledge will enable students to interpret the medieval history of Sicily through a comparative approach, highlighting the combined role of social, institutional, and cultural factors in shaping the island’s historical structures and its relations with the imperial and monarchical systems of power.

3) Making judgements

The study of written sources and material evidence will support the development of independent interpretative skills and a critical approach to historical information.

4) Communication skills

Active participation in class discussions will be encouraged, allowing students to engage with the topics covered and, when appropriate, to use supplementary learning materials provided by the instructor.

5) Learning skills

Classroom interaction and the analysis of additional scholarly contributions will help strengthen independent study skills and prepare students for the final assessment.

 

Course Structure

Lectures (36 hours)

The course will be delivered through lectures, complemented by seminar activities. Significant space will also be devoted to moments of discussion and exchange, encouraging the active participation of students.

Attendance of Lessons

Attendance is not compulsory

Detailed Course Content

The course aims to provide a synthesis of the main historical processes that characterized Sicily throughout the long medieval period, examining its political, social, economic, and religious transformations from the early medieval period to the fifteenth century. Particular attention will be devoted to forms of political organization, patterns of urban and rural settlement, Mediterranean connections, and changes in productive and fiscal structures.

Further attention will also be devoted to the development of the island’s different political and institutional traditions during the Islamic, Norman, Swabian, Angevin, and Aragonese periods, with particular reference to processes of monarchical consolidation, ecclesiastical policies, migration dynamics, social transformations, and the progressive integration of Sicily into the economic and cultural networks of the medieval Mediterranean.

Textbook Information

- P. Delogu, Il Medioevo, Il Mulino, Bologna 2005 (123 pp.)

- A. Vanoli, La Sicilia musulmana, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012. (220 pp.)

- F. Maurici, La Sicilia di Federico II, in Storia della Sicilia, I. Dalle origini al Seicento, a cura di F. Benigno e G. Giarrizzo, Roma-Bari, Editori Laterza, 2003, pp. 94-107.

- F. Maurici, Per una storia dell’insediamento nella Sicilia federiciana, in Federico e la Sicilia. Dalla terra alla corona, I, Archeologia e architettura, a cura di C.A. Di Stefano, A. Cadei, Palermo, Ediprint, 1995, pp. 3-25

- H. Bresc e F. Maurici, I castelli demaniali in Sicilia, [A stampa in Castelli e fortezze nelle città italiane e nei centri minori italiani (secoli XIII-XV), a cura di F. Panero e G. Pinto, Cherasco, Centro Internazionale di Ricerca sui Beni Culturali, 2009, pp. 271-317 © dell’autore - Distribuito in formato digitale da “Reti Medievali”, www.retimedievali.it].

- F.P. Tocco, Il Regno di Sicilia tra angioini e aragonesi, Monduzzi editore, Bologna 2008, pp. 7-76.

- P. Corrao, Uomini d’affari stranieri nelle città siciliane del tardo medioevo, in «Revista d’historia medieval», 11, 2000, pp. 139-162.

 

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library.

 

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