The Center for Renaissance Studies Consortium offers graduate seminars during the academic year. These courses permit instructors to direct an advanced seminar in their areas of specialization by drawing from a larger pool of participants than would be available on a single campus. They also serve as a first-hand introduction to the Newberry's holdings of manuscripts and early editions in areas of its special strengths. Consortium Seminars are conducted as symposia for scholars with common interests and goals, rather than as formal courses, and each participant is encouraged to develop his or her own research interests within the limits, broadly interpreted, of the general topic designated by the seminar leader.
Graduate students taking a seminar for credit must make arrangements with their own institutions. Faculty auditing is encouraged. All participants in the seminars must register with the Center for Renaissance Studies by completing this enrollment form and e-mailing or mailing it to renaissance@newberry.org. Funds may be available for faculty and graduate students at Consortium schools to participate in these seminars.
Noon-3 p.m. Fridays, October 3 to December 12
Lucy Pick, University of Chicago
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Course Description
This course will examine the intersection of religious and secular power and the way these were reflected in and shaped by the gender systems of early medieval Europe. Topics to be studied include Kantorowicz's notion of "the king's two bodies"; royal men and women; women and memorial culture, lineage, and gender; marriage; and monastic culture. We will examine the Carolingian world and its aftermath, Ottonian Germany, Anglo-Saxon England, Hungary, and the early Spanish kingdoms. The course will also provide an opportunity for students to gain experience working with documentary sources: transcribing them, reading them, and interpreting them. For this reason, the ability to read Latin is required for this course.
Prerequisite: At least one year of Latin language instruction.
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2-5 p.m. Fridays, January 9 to March 13
Nathan A. Breen, DePaul University
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Course Description
Participants will translate selections from the four Old English poems contained in the manuscript Junius 11 (Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and Christ and Satan), with an eye toward the functions of poetry based on Biblical translations in Anglo-Saxon England. Participants will read numerous critical essays concerning the literary and cultural elements of the manuscript and its individual poems to develop a greater understanding of the scholarly discussion that has accumulated over the years. In addition, they will become familiar with the Junius MS, its owner, and its history, through examination of facsimile editions (particularly Israel Gollancz's 1927 facsimile edition held in the collection at the Newberry) and books written or edited by Franciscus Junius (also held at the Newberry). This course will examine his role in the genesis of the scholarly study of Germanic philology and the recovery of the Old English language during the Early Modern Period.
Prerequisite: At least one course in Old English.