PRO TiPS

At the end of term each student was asked to recommend one reading, work of literature, or work of art to the interested public. After completing the whole course, what stuck out most in their mind? What affected them most? What do they think ought to be better known and appreciated? Here are their tips:

DIONEO

The Secret by Francesco Petrarca was such a fascinating read! It is a dialogue between a fictional Petrarch (Franciscus) and Petrarch’s version of St Augustine (Augustinus), with Augustine trying to save Petrarch’s soul from the earthly desires (Laura and glory) clouding him. It was interesting to see the ways that Petrarch pulled from historical figures to make logical arguments on both sides, with literal Truth being the judge.

To accept a lie as truth just because it is old and to judge a truth to be a lie just because it is newly discovered… is the height of dementia.

Emilia

Frank Snowden’s Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present is something I think everyone who is interested in medieval times and epidemiology should read. Snowden provides an easy to understand overview of pandemics, more specifically the plague. The Black Death is something we have all probably heard about, but there are many misconceptions about it. He approaches the plague through a more scientific lens which offers readers an understanding of the nature of the plague not usually told in history textbooks. Also given the current situation with COVID-19, connections can easily be drawn between the Black Death and the current pandemic.

[The conquest of plague] was partial because plague has never been eradicated. Animal reservoirs of plague bacteria remain on every continent except Antarctica, and the danger of reemergence persists.

Fiammetta

My favorite thing that we read during this course was the reading about Cola di Rienzo (Amanda Collins, Greater Than Emperor: Cola di Rienzo and the World of Fourteenth-Century Rome, 2002). This man tried to gain power in Rome by using rhetoric about restoring its past glory. We sometimes forget that looking back at the past as something much better than our present time is not a new phenomena. His story is so interesting because we have seen so many modern iterations of his political strategy.

Yet while operating on a lower level of the real world, he never gave up the rhetoric of the classical global dream.

Filostrato

The reading I would recommend from this class above all others would definitely be The Decameron. The book is both entertaining and historically fascinating: the stories within treat no subject as above laughter and in their irreverence reveal concerns of the time that don’t come through as clearly in theological texts, records, and journals.

Because if either now or then you were as wise as you want people to think you are, you should have been smart enough to see that fresh, lively young women like me need more than food and clothing, even if modesty prevents them from saying so. And you know what you did to take care of that.

lauretta

I recommend—and have been recommending—that everyone read Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron! While it was originally written in 1353, the short tales are still very understandable and in some cases still relatable. Especially in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Decameron is so relevant, as the characters are set in the Florentine countryside, trying to escape the plague.

To have compassion for those who suffer is a human quality which everyone should possess, especially those who have required comfort themselves in the past and have managed to find it in others.

Pampinea

I loved a lot of the readings in this course, but I would definitely recommend Dante’s Inferno. It is fascinating how Dante is able to use this work to criticize his contemporaries, and it is very revealing about how people may have perceived different public figure’s during Dante’s time. Also, this work is so significant because it really created our modern notion of hell.

In the middle of the journey of our life,
I came to myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost.

Panfilo

Read Boccaccio's Decameron! Despite being centuries old, the stories can still resonate with humor. It can be genuinely funny to read. It reminded me that, yes, people are in fact the same, no matter the time, and they can all tell good and relatable stories. It’s especially relevant now, with the characters keeping away from Florence in 1348, the height of the Black Death for them. The characters are all very much individuals.

Although my pain has ceased, I have not forgotten the benefits I once received from those who, because of the benevolence they felt toward me, shared my heavy burden, nor will this memory ever fade in me.

Page updated

Report abuse