I’m really looking forward to my class at Ohio State University beginning in January. It’s called Gothic Paris: 1100 – 1300. It’s offered by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. My professor Leslie Lockett for this last semester’s class, Intro to Medieval Literature, is the Associate Director of the Center.
Her colleague Kristen Figg teaches the Gothic Paris class, which is described like this: “This course explores the arts, architecture, poetry, history, music, theology, food, and fashion of Paris in 1100-1300, the age of Gothic cathedrals and the birth of the university.” That’s a lot of stuff to explore!
I wonder how much history we’ll be doing? It’s such an interesting period…
Here are some of our books for the class:
I’ve already gotten them from Amazon. Maybe it’s time to check them out! Speaking of checking things out, did you look at the naked guy on the left in the image at the top? Never say people weren’t naughty in the Middle Ages! 😛
Let Us Live Like We Mean It! 
Gothic Paris sounds so interesting. Maybe I can buy one of these books too 😉
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You should buy one! I’ll let you know once I start reading them which one I think is best! 🙂
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You’re so kind! That would be great 😀
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No problem–I’m always happy to make book suggestions! 🙂
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Thank you for sharing the books. I was going to ask about them. I’ve got the translation of Abelard and Eloise, although I haven’t read it.
I follow lots of people on Twitter who tweet about medieval manuscripts and some of them are really rather surprising. I also follow the blog of the British Library about medieval and earlier manuscripts, which is often very interesting – http://www.blogs.bl.uk in case you’re interested.
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Thank you, April. I already follow the British Library medieval manuscripts blog–isn’t it delightful, at least at times? It only makes me wish that I had taken Latin in high school with everyone who was Catholic or was going into science for their higher education. I did take one term of Latin at university, but it wasn’t nearly enough for me to catch onto the grammar. Do you have Latin?
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I did four terms of Latin in the sixth form, but it didn’t stick. It’s a shame, because I had a really good teacher. It was supposed to be useful because I was going to study French at university, but it wasn’t. I suppose I could start again now, but I’m learning Spanish at the moment.
I do love the BL blog. I’m less fascinated by the Greek manuscripts, but I’m amused by the knights and fighting snails debates.
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I did Spanish in secondary school, as well as at university and my mother was a Spanish professor, but little good it did me. With my Mexican boyfriend and during the times I visited Mexico, I was completely tongue-tied. I could understand parts of what was said, but simply could not come up with responses. Part of it was fear of making mistakes. Good luck with your Spanish tuition: it’s a very valuable language to have!
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Hi Timi, somehow I missed your comment before, sorry.
I’m enjoying Spanish, but I do confuse it a lot with Italian, of which I know a few words. I’m concentrating on vocabulary and basic grammar at the moment. Spaniards, and, I assume, South Americans, speak very quickly, but I am doing some listening as well. There are some very useful podcasts.
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April, I found my Spanish a lot more useful during my month (nearly) in Italy than I have during the times I’ve traveled in Mexico. Strange, huh? For me, finding the cognates when I was in Italy was somehow more enlightening than trying to follow the hurricane-force winds of words when I was in Mexico. Enjoy learning Spanish–it is a very good language to have in this day and age! 🙂
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Intriguing indeed! That is the period of Europe beginningto emerge from the “dark ages”. It is also the advent of the crusades, quite a few that were led by Frenchmen of that time including Richard coeur de lion!
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Exactly!
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It certainly sounds like a packed syllabus, but what an interesting one! There’ll be little you don’t know about what went on in Paris 1100-1300 when you’ve finished. I’ll look forward to hearing a few interesting snippets next year.
As for that naughty little man, I’m just wondering what ‘point’ he’s trying to make. 🙂 His head and face look like the Green Man, but I’ve never seen him with a body. It looks as though he could be out in the greenwood, though.
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Ah–I hadn’t thought of him in conjunction with the Green Man. But then that’s such a very British thing to think of, right?
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Yes I suppose it is very British. I love the whole idea of the Green Man and always look for him in churches and cathedrals. There are something like 13 of them hidden inside Southwell Minster, about ten miles from where I live, and I keep meaning to hop along and seek them out. I’ve been intending to write a blog post about him since before last Christmas, but this year’s been a bit of a blur. I can’t believe it’s gone so fast! Roll on 2017… and spring!
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I wholeheartedly agree–it’s already time for Spring! 🙂
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