Course Offerings

The following is a sampling of courses specifically designed for the Program in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Medieval Technology and Everyday Life
MEDI-UA 3 Offered regularly. Gans. 2 points.
Gives a tour of the mills, factories, schools, travel technology, cathedral builders, miners, merchants, masons, weavers, and nobles of the Middle Ages. Examines the impact of new technology on the lives of both the rich and the ordinary; on men, women, and children; and on medieval beliefs and politics. Also looks at the start of the process that propelled Western Europe from a pastoral backwater to the dominant region of the globe. No background in medieval history or science/technology is needed for this course.

The Civilization and Culture of the Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 11 Identical to HIST-UA 11. Offered every year. Bedos-Rezak, Griffiths. 4 points.
Concentrates on the culture of medieval Europe, a world that produced castles and crusades, cathedrals and tapestries, mystery plays and epics, and plainsong and philosophy. Examines the richness and diversity of medieval creativity through lectures, class discussions, literature, slides, and museum visits.

Philosophy in the Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 60 Identical to PHIL-UA 25. Offered regularly. 4 points.
Study of major medieval philosophers, their issues, schools, and current philosophic interests. Includes, among others, Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.

The Culture and Literature of the Renaissance
MEDI-UA 311 Identical to FREN-UA 311. Offered periodically. 4 points.
Concentrates on the culture of Renaissance Europe. Examines the richness and diversity of Renaissance creativity through lectures, class discussions, literature, and slides.

The Saints: Lore and Legend
MEDI-UA 365 Identical to FREN-UA 365. Offered periodically. Vitz. 2 points.
Focuses on the saint as a major figure in Western culture. Examines definitions of holiness and models of sanctity in the Old and New Testaments and in the early Christian church, then explores the important role played by saints in medieval culture and beyond. Topics considered include the theology of devotion to the saints and to the Virgin Mary in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, determination of sainthood, and gender differences among saints. Uses literary, historical, artistic, and religious documents.

Don Quixote
MEDI-UA 371 Dopico-Black. 4 points.
A reading of Cervantes's Don Quixote that explores its privileged position as the first modern novel while also attending to the rich and complex historical context from which it emerged.

The Medieval and Renaissance Love Lyric
MEDI-UA 420 Offered periodically. 4 points.
The courtly love lyric, one of the most enduring genres of Western literature, portrayed love as an experience ranging from a degrading passion to an ennobling force, often crucial to poetic inspiration. The course traces the medieval love lyric from its beginnings in 11th-century Provencal through its developments in Latin, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Examines how the themes and conventions of this lyric are transformed in the Renaissance by such major love poets as Petrarch, Sidney, Shakespeare, and Donne.

Medieval Theatre
MEDI-UA 712 Offered periodically. 4 points.
Survey of medieval theatre in Europe: the plays and their contexts in the church, courts, and carnival. A study of the plays themselves, ranging from mystery plays to farces, and a look at techniques of staging and accounts of festive celebrations. Includes videos and attendance at live performances. Texts are taught in translation.

Arthurian Legend
MEDI-UA 800 Identical to COLIT-UA 825, ENGL-UA 717, FREN-UA 813, RELST-UA 800. Offered regularly. 4 points.
Beginning with early stories of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, the course focuses on masterpieces of French, English, and German medieval literature. Through the European literary tradition, students examine larger problems of the development of medieval literature: the conception of history, the rise of the romance genre, the themes of courtly love, the code of chivalry, and philosophical and theological questions as the Arthurian material is developed through the stories of the Holy Grail.

Dante and His World
MEDI-UA 801 Identical to ENGL-UA 143, ITAL-UA 160. Offered every two to three years. Ardizzone, Freccero. 4 points.
Interdisciplinary introduction to late medieval culture, using Dante, its foremost literary artist, as a focus. Attention is directed to literature, art, and music, in addition to political, religious, and social developments of the time. Emphasizes the continuity of the Western tradition, especially the classical background of medieval culture and its transmission to the modern world.

Acting Medieval Literature
MEDI-UA 868 Identical to FREN-UA 868, THEA-UT 732. Offered regularly. Vitz. 4 points.
Presents medieval literature as a set of springboards to performance rather than as a series of books to be read. In this strongly performance-oriented course, students approach this "literature" as works that were acted out, sung, and narrated from memory as part of a storytelling tradition. Students are invited to draw on their dramatic and musical skills and interests and stage medieval works. For their final project, students participate in staging and putting on a play, performing a substantial piece of narrative poetry, singing or playing a body of medieval songs, or choosing a similar activity. Works studied/performed include songs of the troubadours and trouveres; The Song of Roland; Chretien de Troyes's romance, Yvain; French fabliaux; and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Passion and Desire in the Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 961 Identical to COLIT-UA 961, FREN-UA 214, RELST-UA 250. Offered regularly. Vitz. 2 points.
Study of the kinds of loves and desires portrayed in medieval literature: passionate love; refined "courtly" love; sexual or "carnal" love; love of kin; love of country; love of God. Discusses how literary genres can be largely defined by the nature of the desires represented, explores medieval theorists' views of human love, and investigates the conflicts among different kinds of love for medieval people.

Internship
MEDI-UA 980, 981 Prerequisite: written permission of the director of the program. Restricted to majors and minors. 1 to 4 points per term.
Working with a faculty director, the student secures a relevant internship and writes a substantial report.

Topics in Medieval Studies
MEDI-UA 983, 984 Offered regularly. 4 points.
Varies in content from term to term, focusing on special themes. Recent offerings include Tolkien and Lewis: The Medievalist's Answer to Modernism; Religion and Identity in Medieval Europe; The Kiss; Gothic Romance; Music and Cosmology; Poets, Patrons, and Public in Medieval Lyric; Gender Issues in the Art of the Middle Ages; Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages; Doomsday: The Last Judgment in Medieval Culture; Medieval Minstrels; Angels; Sexual Transgression in the Middle Ages and Renaissance; Saints: Lore and Legend; The Troubadours: Lyrics, Love, and War; Early Irish Art; The Middle Ages at the Movies; and The Medieval Book (held at the Pierpont Morgan Library).

Studies in Medieval Culture
MEDI-UA 985, 986 Offered regularly. 4 points.
This course, varying in content from term to term, focuses on special themes. Recent offerings include Love, Marriage, and the Family in Medieval Europe; Medieval Peasantry; Medieval Architecture at the Cloisters; The Medieval Manuscript and the Book of Hours; Medieval Theatre; The Wisdom Tradition; Medieval Literature in the Movies; Law and Moral Issues in Medieval Philosophy; Martyrs, Mystics, and Prophets; Happiness in the Christian Middle Ages; The Medieval Book: Materials, Forms, and Uses; and Two Medieval Minds.

Interdisciplinary Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Studies
MEDI-UA 991, 992 Offered every semester. 4 points.
Each semester, the course is devoted to a topic chosen for its interdisciplinary character. Recent offerings have included Chaucer's Italy; The Bible in the Middle Ages; Renaissance Libraries; Millenarianism; 1497-1498: The Renaissance at Full Tilt; Visions of Medieval History; The Age of Chivalry; The World of the Celts; Apocalypse, Then: Visions of the End in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; Journey in Medieval Christian Theology; Interpreting the Medieval World; Idealization and Satire in the 16th Century; The 12th-Century Renaissance; The Classical Tradition in the Middle Ages; Christian Culture in the Middle Ages; Literature and Culture of the Renaissance; Renaissance Monarchy; Medieval and Renaissance Travel Journals; and The Structure of Knowledge in the Renaissance.

Topics in Renaissance Studies
MEDI-UA 993, 994 Offered regularly. 4 points.
Varies in content from term to term, focusing on special themes. Recent offerings include The Court Masque and Renaissance Politics; Mary and Popular Religion; Material Culture of the Renaissance; Renaissance Fools and Foolery; Shakespeare and Chivalry; A Renaissance of Curiosity: Travel Books, Maps, and Marvels; and The Printed Book in the Renaissance (held at the New York Public Library).

Studies in Renaissance Culture
MEDI-UA 995, 996 Offered regularly. 4 points.
This course, varying in content from term to term, focuses on special themes. Recent offerings include Love in the Renaissance; French Women Writers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; Classics in the Middle Ages and Renaissance; Pagan Mythology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance; Renaissance Philosophy; and Renaissance 2000 (Telecourse).

Independent Study
MEDI-UA 997, 998 Prerequisite: written permission of the director of the program. Restricted to majors and minors. May not duplicate the content of a regularly scheduled course. 1 to 4 points per term.

Senior Honors Seminar
MEDI-UA 998 Prerequisite: permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Open only to majors. Offered in the fall. 4 points.
Provides an opportunity for seniors majoring in medieval and Renaissance studies and who have excelled academically to engage in a substantial, original research project on a topic related to their field(s) of concentration and chosen by them in consultation with a faculty adviser and the director of undergraduate studies. It introduces students to appropriate critical methodologies, to the tools available in Bobst Library for advanced research, to the field standards for preparing research papers (forms of documentation, citation, and bibliography), and to current theories in the field of literary and cultural criticism.

Honors Independent Study
MEDI-UA 999 Prerequisite: permission of the director of undergraduate studies and completion of Senior Honors Seminar (MEDI-UA 998). Open only to majors. Offered in the spring. 4 points.
Students meet regularly with their faculty advisers as they complete the research and writing of the 40-page senior honors thesis.

Cross-Listed Courses

The following courses in individual disciplines are regularly offered at New York University. They are cross-listed with medieval and Renaissance studies and can count toward its major and minor. However, courses marked with an asterisk (*) must first be approved by the director of the program to count toward the major or minor. See the appropriate departmental sections in this Bulletin for course descriptions.

For cross-listed electives offered at NYU's Global Academic Centers, see the class directory. Approval of the director of the program is required to count other courses taken overseas toward the major or minor.

Art History

*History of Western Art I
MEDI-UA 1 Identical to ARTH-UA 1. 4 points.

*Art in the Islamic World
MEDI-UA 98 Identical to ARTH-UA 540. 4 points.

Medieval Art
MEDI-UA 200 Identical to ARTH-UA 4. 4 points.

Art of the Early Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 201 Identical to ARTH-UA 201. 4 points.

Romanesque Art
MEDI-UA 202 Identical to ARTH-UA 202. 4 points.

Gothic Art in Northern Europe
MEDI-UA 203 Identical to ARTH-UA 203. 4 points.

Art and Architecture in the Age of Giotto: Italian Art, 1200–1420
MEDI-UA 204 Identical to ARTH-UA 204. 4 points.

Architecture and Urbanism in Renaissance Europe
MEDI-UA 301 Identical to ARTH-UA 301. 4 points.

*Architecture and Urbanism in the Age of the Baroque
MEDI-UA 302 Identical to ARTH-UA 302. 4 points.

Northern Renaissance Art, 1400–1530
MEDI-UA 303 Identical to ARTH-UA 303. 4 points.

Italian Renaissance Sculpture
MEDI-UA 305 Identical to ARTH-UA 305. 4 points.

Early Masters of Italian Renaissance Painting
MEDI-UA 306 Identical to ARTH-UA 306. 4 points.

The Age of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo
MEDI-UA 307 Identical to ARTH-UA 307. 4 points.

The Golden Age of Venetian Painting
MEDI-UA 308 Identical to ARTH-UA 308. 4 points.

Italian Art in the Age of the Baroque
MEDI-UA 309 Identical to ARTH-UA 309. 4 points.

Dutch and Flemish Painting 1600–1700
MEDI-UA 311 Identical to ARTH-UA 311. 4 points.

French Art: Renaissance to Rococo, 1520–1770
MEDI-UA 313 Identical to ARTH-UA 313. 4 points.

Renaissance and Baroque Art
MEDI-UA 333 Identical to ARTH-UA 5. 4 points.

Classics

Medieval Latin
MEDI-UA 824 Identical to CLASS-UA 824. 4 points.

Comparative Literature

Masterpieces of Renaissance Literature
MEDI-UA 17 Identical to COLIT-UA 151. 4 points.

English

*History of Drama and Theatre I
MEDI-UA 127 Identical to ENGL-UA 125, DRLIT-UA 110. 4 points.

British Literature I
MEDI-UA 210 Identical to ENGL-UA 210. 4 points.

Medieval Literature in Translation
MEDI-UA 310 Identical to ENGL-UA 310. 4 points.

Colloquium: Chaucer
MEDI-UA 320 Identical to ENGL-UA 320. 4 points.

Medieval Visionary Literature
MEDI-UA 321 Identical to ENGL-UA 309. 4 points.

16th-Century English Literature
MEDI-UA 400 Identical to ENGL-UA 400. 4 points.

Shakespeare I, II
MEDI-UA 410, 411 Identical to ENGL-UA 410, 411. 4 points per term.

Colloquium: Shakespeare
MEDI-UA 415 Identical to ENGL-UA 415. 4 points.

*17th-Century English Literature
MEDI-UA 440 Identical to ENGL-UA 440. 4 points.

Colloquium: The Renaissance Writer
MEDI-UA 445 Identical to ENGL-UA 445. 4 points.

Colloquium: Milton
MEDI-UA 450 Identical to ENGL-UA 450. 4 points.

Topics: Medieval Literature
MEDI-UA 953 Identical to ENGL-UA 950. 4 points.

Topics: Renaissance Literature
MEDI-UA 954 Identical to ENGL-UA 951. 4 points.

*Topics: 17th-Century British Literature
MEDI-UA 955 Identical to ENGL-UA 952. 4 points.

French

*Topics in French Culture
MEDI-UA 864 (in English), MEDI-UA 965 (in French) Identical to FREN-UA 865 (in English), FREN-UA 965 (in French). 4 points.

*Topics in French Literature
MEDI-UA 869 (in English), MEDI-UA 969 (in French) Identical to FREN-UA 868 (in English), FREN-UA 968 (in French). 4 points.

Hebrew and Judaic Studies

Foundations of the Christian-Jewish Argument
MEDI-UA 160 Identical to HBRJD-UA 106. 4 points.

Jewish Philosophy in the Medieval World
MEDI-UA 425 Identical to HBRJD-UA 425. 4 points.

Jewish Mysticism and Hasidism
MEDI-UA 430 Identical to HBRJD-UA 430. 4 points.

The Jews in Medieval Spain
MEDI-UA 913 Identical to HBRJD-UA 113. 4 points.

History

The Early Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 111 Identical to HIST-UA 111. 4 points.

The Crusades
MEDI-UA 113 Identical to HIST-UA 113. 4 points.

The High Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 114 Identical to HIST-UA 114. 4 points.

The Renaissance
MEDI-UA 121 Identical to HIST-UA 121. 4 points.

Gendering the Middle Ages
MEDI-UA 190 Identical to HIST-UA 197. 4 points.

Seminar: Crusade and Trade: Western Expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean, 11th to 15th Centuries
MEDI-UA 265 Identical to HIST-UA 265. 4 points.

Seminar: Women in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
MEDI-UA 270 Identical to HIST-UA 270. 4 points.

*Seminar: Topics in Early Modern Europe
MEDI-UA 279 Identical to HIST-UA 279. 4 points.

Italian

The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance
MEDI-UA 161 Identical to ITAL-UA 161. 4 points.

Dante's Divine Comedy
MEDI-UA 271 Identical to ITAL-UA 270. 4 points.

Boccaccio's Decameron
MEDI-UA 274 Identical to ITAL-UA 271. 4 points.

Linguistics

Etymology
MEDI-UA 76 Identical to LING-UA 76. 4 points.

Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

The Making of the Muslim Middle East, 600–1250
MEDI-UA 640 Identical to MEIS-UA 640. 4 points.

*The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It
MEDI-UA 651 Identical to MEIS-UA 650. 4 points.

*Islam and the West
MEDI-UA 694 Identical to MEIS-UA 694, HIST-UA 250. 4 points.

*Masterpieces of Islamic Literature in Translation
MEDI-UA 710 Identical to MEIS-UA 710. 4 points.

The Arabian Nights
MEDI-UA 714 Identical to MEIS-UA 716. 4 points.

*Seminar: Introduction to Islamic Texts
MEDI-UA 720 Identical to MEIS-UA 720. 4 points.

*Seminar: Women and Islamic Law
MEDI-UA 783 Identical to MEIS-UA 783. 4 points.

The Sufis: Mystics of Islam
MEDI-UA 863 Identical to RELST-UA 863, MEIS-UA 863. 4 points.

Morse Academic Plan

Texts and Ideas: Antiquity and the Middle Ages
MAP-UA 401 4 points.

Texts and Ideas: Antiquity and the Renaissance
MAP-UA 402 4 points.

Music

Medieval and Renaissance Music
MEDI-UA 101 Identical to MUSIC-UA 101. 4 points.

Physics

Origins of Astronomy
MEDI-UA 8 Identical to PHYS-UA 8. 4 points.

Politics

Topics in Premodern Political Philosophy
MEDI-UA 110 Identical to POL-UA 110. 4 points.

Religious Studies

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
MEDI-UA 25 Identical to MEIS-UA 800, HBRJD-UA 160, RELST-UA 102. 4 points.

Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures

Chronicles and Travel Literature of the Colonial World
MEDI-UA 273 Identical to SPAN-UA 273. 4 points.

Cervantes
MEDI-UA 335 Identical to SPAN-UA 371. 4 points.

Theatre and Poetry of the Spanish Golden Age
MEDI-UA 421 Identical to SPAN-UA 421. 4 points.

Forms of the Picaresque in Spain and Spanish America
MEDI-UA 438 Identical to SPAN-UA 438. 4 points.

Graduate Courses Open to Undergraduates

Comparative Literature

Themes and Forms of Medieval Literature
COLIT-GA 1452 4 points.

European Renaissance Literature I
COLIT-GA 1500 4 points.

European Renaissance Literature II
COLIT-GA 1550 4 points.

English

Introductory Old English
ENGL-GA 1060 4 points.

Introductory Middle English
ENGL-GA 1061 4 points.

Studies in Beowulf
ENGL-GA 1152 Prerequisite: ENGL-GA 1060 or the equivalent. 4 points.

The Renaissance in England
ENGL-GA 1322 4 points.

Shakespeare I, II
ENGL-GA 1344, 1345 4 points per term.

17th-Century Poetry
ENGL-GA 1420 4 points.

French

Introduction to Medieval French Literature
FREN-GA 1211 4 points.

The Medieval Epic
FREN-GA 1241 4 points.

Prose Writers of the 16th Century
FREN-GA 1331 4 points.

La Pleiade
FREN-GA 1342 4 points.

Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

History of the Islamic Near East to 1200
MEIS-GA 1640 4 points.

Medieval Iran
MEIS-GA 1660 4 points.

Music

Collegium Musicum
MUSIC-GA 1001 4 points.

Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures

Introduction to Medieval Spanish Literature
SPAN-GA 1211 4 points.

16th-Century Novelistic Forms
SPAN-GA 1334 4 points.

Spanish Poetry of the Renaissance
SPAN-GA 1341 4 points.

Mystics and Contemplatives
SPAN-GA 2311 4 points.

Portuguese Literature: The Cancioneiros to Camoes
PORT-GA 1817 4 points.