Surviving Medieval Paris

Catalog description

What was it like to live in medieval Paris? This course explores this question from a variety of perspectives, including that of the urban poor, university students, sex workers, clergy, members of royal and noble courts, and merchants. Using sources ranging from poetry to chronicles to architecture, we will consider how cultural, political, and economic developments (including the construction of Notre Dame, the centralization of royal power in Paris, the emergence of one of the first universities, and the Black Death) impacted various individuals and communities within the city from around 1000 to 1500. The course also explores various moral perceptions of urban life in medieval Paris, a city which was described simultaneously as a city of plenty, a city of sacred learning, and a hotbed of sin.