Syllabus
Lectures:
1. Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. The role of Central Europe (RZ)
2. The Luxembourgs and Angevins in Central Europe (RZ)
3. Triangle trade: Italy, Flanders and Central Europe (RZ)
4. Anne of Bohemia. Dynastic marriage as a precondition for cultural and political contacts with England and Scandinavia in the late Middle Ages (MS)
5. Hussites and lollards; the anti-Hussite crusade in England (RZ)
6. Midterm essay (RZ)
7. Building the St Vitus cathedral. Everyday life at the medieval construction site (MS)
8. "On the Road" in partibus Boemie. The economic aspects of late medieval aristocratic travel (MS)
9. Pilgrimages. Journeys of papal legates and collectors to Central Europe (RZ)
10. Medieval book. An example of the Prague Metropolitan Chapter Library (MS)
11. The story of the sixth century fragment of St Mark’s gospel through fourteen centuries. Politics, relics and economy (MS)
12. Final essay (RZ) Required readings: Blockmans, W., Hoppenbrouwers, P., Introduction to Medieval Europe 300-1550. London: Routledge,
2007. Aston, M., The Fifteenth Century: The Prospect of Europe. London: Thames and Hudson,
1969. Recommended readings: Suchý, M., England and Bohemia in the Time of Anne of Luxembourg. Dynastic Marriage as a Precondition for Cultural Contact in the late Middle Ages, in: Prague and Bohemia. Medieval Art, Architecture and Cultural Exchange in Central Europe, (ed.) Zoe Opačić, Leeds: British Archaeological Association, 2009, pp. 8-21. Zaoral, R., Silver and glass in medieval trade and cultural exchange between Venice and the Bohemian Kingdom, Český časopis historický. The Czech Historical Review 109 (2011), pp. 235-261.
Annotation
The aim of the course is to present basic problems from the late medieval history of Central Europe in the all-European context. The attention is paid not only to political and economic development but also to everyday life, namely in the form of case studies relating to building the cathedral, travelling and book culture.