Syllabus
Lectures:
1. Introduction: primary and secondary sources
2. Medieval church: origins and development in the Middle Ages
3. Building the cathedral: technology, crafts, and everyday life at the building site
4. Financing cathedral building: economic aspects of building the cathedral
5. Liturgy: cathedral as a space for daily church services
6. Cathedral treasure, library, and archive: movable equipment of the church
7. Cathedral school and scriptorium: cathedral as a center of education
8. Relics and pilgrimage: spiritual journeys in the Middle Ages
9. Coronations: ceremonial sacring of the monarch
10. Funerals: tombs and burial rituals in the cathedral
11. Cathedral and medieval town: medieval town as a seat of (arch)bishop
12. Cathedral and metropolitan chapter: organization, authority, way of life, and finances of the canons
13. Final test Required readings: DUBY, G. The Age of the Cathedrals: Art and Society, 980-1420. Chicago
1983. ISBN: 0-226-16770-4. SUCHÝ, Marek. St Vitus building accounts (1372-78): The economic aspects of building the cathedral. In: Zaoral, Roman (ed.). Money and Finance in Central Europe during the Later Middle Ages. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2016, s. 222-246. ISBN 978-1-137-46022-6.
Annotation
The course provides students with insights into different aspects of medieval cathedrals in wider political and cultural context. Source criticism to contemporary sources (chronicles, charters, church inventories, liturgical books, etc.) within major topics (such as building the church, cathedral as a place for prayer, liturgy, coronation or funeral) constitutes an important feature of the course.
Special attention is paid to St Vitus cathedral in Prague.