The course programme will follow the chronological course of medieval history, from the first centuries following the decline of the Latin Roman Empire to the mid-15th century. The leitmotif will be the changes in borders, political systems, socio-economic identities, and the main European political and territorial entities. This general course is punctuated by some lectures dedicated instead to the reading and exegesis of some historical evidence, of various types: from documentary sources to literary ones, from figurative texts to monumental complexes and so on.

M. Montanari, Storia medievale, Roma, Bari 2002 (o seguenti).

Inspired by the Jubilee year 2025 and its theme, ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, the in-depth module of this year's medieval history course will be dedicated to the theme, so characteristic in the imagination of this era, of the medieval pilgrimage. First of all, the notion of ‘’pilgrimage‘’ will be circumscribed and defined, in order to clarify its interrelationships and differences from that of ‘’journey‘’. An overview of the multiple pilgrimage routes that crossed the medieval Euro-Mediterranean space will then be offered, with a particular focus on two experiences: firstly that of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrimage par excellence, and its political implications with the appropriation of the figure of Santiago by the Reconquista; secondly, that of the evolution of the pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre into an ‘’armed pilgrimage‘’ or ‘’crusade‘’, a juridical-ecclesiastical notion later extended to other contexts. The third part of the module will finally analyse in detail the specific theme of the pilgrimage to Rome, that of the Romei, and its specific connection with the Jubilee institution from 1300 onwards. In this latter context, the topic of confraternities and hospitals will also be mentioned, with reference to the confraternities that stood under the name of Roch da Montpellier (Saint Roch) and specialised in assisting Jubilee pilgrims. It is a figure, that of San Rocco, deeply rooted in the territory of Tuscia, starting from the disseminating centre of the cult represented by the town of Acquapendente.

Programme for attending and non-attending students
1. Romei e Giubilei. Il pellegrinaggio medievale a San Pietro (350-13509), a cura di M. D'Onofrio, Electa 1999 (copy of the text, out of print, will be deposited at the university copy shop)
2. Dossier on Moodle during the lessons