Medieval Paris

Catalog description

This course offers an immersive introduction to the history of Paris during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It explores how a sleepy community on the Seine emerged as a cultural, intellectual, and political powerhouse, and how developments in each of these domains spilled over into the others. How did the centralization of royal power shape the rise of the nascent university? How did the abstract reasonings of scholars spur the shift to a new architectural order? And how did an obsession with reason and logic fuel the systematic persecution of marginal communities? Although much of the city's medieval heritage has disappeared, we will trace (through walking trips and numerous site visits) the many ways in which its imprint is still perceptible in the streets and buildings of modern Paris.