Cities in medieval Europe – development trends, the socio–cultural and economic issues

elective courses
general courses

The lectures will refer to a history of medieval town and townspeople within Europe until the end of the 15th century. The socio-economic, legal, organizational and cultural issues will be taken up. Territorial scope will encompass Italy as well as Flanders, Germany and East–Central Europe.

The lectures will refer to a history of medieval town and townspeople within Europe until the end of the 15th century. The socio-economic, legal, and cultural issues will be taken up. Territorial scope will encompass Northern Italy as well as Germany and East–Central Europe. The title issue is to be depicted by taking into account both the broad topics (see below) and the choosen exemplifications (history of the famous businessman Niklas Wirsing–Wierzynek as well as a general history of the Russian towns);

* „City in medieval world. The introductory issues”;

*„The rebirth of urban life on the Italian Peninsula (11th–12th cents.)”;

* „The origins and development of Flemish cities. An example of Bruges (until the end of the 12th c.);

* „Power elites and the organizations of wholesale merchants in the Hanseatic cities”;

* „Centers and boundaries: space of medieval town”;

* „Cities and townspeople towards Catholic Church”;

* „Modesty or hypocrisy ? Sumptuary laws in the Italian cities”

* „The issue of urban historiography within Polish territories in the Middle Ages”;

* „Did the system of intercontinental trade exist in the Middle Ages” ?;

* „Mikołaj Wierzynek – an entreprenuer of Cracow”;

* „The Russian towns – a group portrait”.

* M. Weber, „Economy and Society”, v. 2, eds. G. Roth, C. Wittich, Berkeley– Los Angeles – London 1978 (chapter XVI <The City: Non–legitimate domination>, pp. 1212–1335);

* J. C. Russell, „Medieval Regions and Their Cities”, Bloomington 1972;

* N.J.G. Pounds, “An Economic History of Medieval Europe”, London – New York 1994;

* N.J.G. Pounds, ”An Historical Geography of Europe”, Cambridge 1990;

* J. Murray, “Bruges, Cradle of Capitalism (1280–1390”, Cambridge 2005;

* R. S. Lopez, „The Commercial Revolution of Middle Ages”, Cambridge 1976, 2005;

* “Italy in the Central Middle Ages”, ed. D. Abulafia, Oxford 2004, 2013;

* Ch. Kovesi–Killerby, “Sumptuary Law in Italy, 1200–1500”, Oxford 2002;

* J. Schildhauer, “The Hansa: history and culture”, Leipzig 1995;

* “Abu-Lughod J., “Before European Hegemony. The World System A.D. 1250–1350”, New York–Oxford 1989;

* Birnbaum H., “Kiev, Novgorod, Moscow. Three Varieties of Urban Society in East Slavic Territory, in The Urban Society of Eastern Europe in premodern Times”, ed. B. Krekić, Berkeley–Los Angeles – London 1987, pp. 1–61;

Students should acquire :

– basic knowledge of a history of some urban region and the selected cities in Europe during the 10th and 15th centuries;

– a knowledge and a skill of understanding the general similarities and differences between towns of various size and significance;

– a knowledge and an understanding connections and interrelations between social, economic, legal, and cultural dimensions of urban life in the Middle Ages.