Medieval Literature Challenge

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I'm going to take another shot at a medieval challenge. This one is hosted by JNCL at The Beauty of Eclecticism. Here are the rules:

Join with us in challenging ourselves to read some of those incredibly famous books that few of us have ever actually read, the bright sparks in the midst of the "Dark Ages". Choose 12 books off the approved reading list--an average of one per month for the year, though you can read them in whatever increments you like. Out of the ten genres of books available, your choices must cover at least four. Put the challenge button on your site with the code located in the right sidebar, sign up on the initial link that is located at the bottom of this page, and come back to link up a new review on the last day of each month. The challenge will run from January 1-December 31, 2012, and only books read within that time frame may be counted.

By popular demand, the challenge now has three levels:

Inferno--at least 4 books, to meet the requirement of reading from at least four different genres
Purgatorio--a minimum of 8 books
Paradiso--12 books, an average of one for each month of the year

Whichever level you choose, at least half of your chosen books must come from the master list given below, and all must fall into one of the given genres.

In order to truly challenge ourselves, we are NOT reading fiction set in the Middle Ages, books by modern experts on the Middle Ages, or biographies of major figures from the Middle Ages. Sorry, the latest account of that daring temptress, Eleanor of Aquitaine, will not count for this challenge, nor will a Philippa Gregory novel. We are reading works written between the rather arbitrarily chosen dates of 400-1550 CE (chosen by me, because nobody can really seem to decide what the exact Medieval dates are). We are, however, reading them IN TRANSLATION! Believe me, I won't be tackling any of the originals! Please feel free to double dip this challenge with any others where there is overlap, especially my own "Read Your OWN Library!"


The host has chosen several categories and then selected titles for each category. Below are the ones I've chosen as possibilities, but that doesn't mean that I think I'm actually going to read all of these! I'm going to shoot for the Paradiso level (since no one wants to get stuck in Purgatory!)--but some of these are quite long, so we'll see. I do already own a bunch of them; at least they'll count for Mount TBR.


Allegory
The Romance of the Rose, by Guillaume de Lorris

Biography
The Life of Columba, by St. Adamnan of Iona

History
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, by the Venerable Bede
History of the Franks, by Gregory of Tours
The Muqaddimah, by Ibn Khaldun

Literature
The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio
Piers Plowman, by William Langland

Philosophy
The Consolations of Philosophy, by Boethius
The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli

Religion
The Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voraigne
Pastoral Care, by Pope St. Gregory I the Great

Romance
Troilus and Cresidye, by Geoffrey Chaucer
Yvain: The Knight of the Lion, by Chretien de Troyes

Science
The Book of Beasts
On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, by Nicolaus Copernicus

Travel
The Travels of Marco Polo, by Rustichello da Pisa

Women
The Alexiad of Anna Comnena
Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich
Scivias, by Hildegard of Bingen



Comments

  1. JenniferNovember 10, 2011 at 4:51 PM

    Welcome! Boy, that's an ambitious list. I'll be interested to see which ones you finally settle on.
    JNCL

    ReplyDelete
  2. JeanNovember 10, 2011 at 5:19 PM

    No, I just took away the ones that I've already read or really don't want to read! Like I said, I don't expect to read them all. :)

    Thanks for hosting the challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  3. EvaNovember 14, 2011 at 7:40 AM

    If you're reading Romance of the Rose, you should read The Book of the City of Ladies, since Christine de Pizan wrote it in large part as a reply to the Romance of the Rose's depiction of women! :) And it's very readable and fun!

    ReplyDelete
  4. JeanNovember 14, 2011 at 2:38 PM

    Oo! I will definitely keep that in mind, Eva. Thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete
  5. EvaNovember 14, 2011 at 3:18 PM

    :) I just realised that I think this was my first comment on your blog, and it was a little bit bossy! lol I've just started reading medieval lit this year (in middle of The Decameron), so I have all the ardour of a new convert. ;) There's a v good chapter in Reading the Middle Ages about Romance of the Rose & the Pizan, if you want some background! I haven't actually read RotR yet...maybe I need to join this challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  6. JeanNovember 14, 2011 at 4:21 PM

    Yes, join up! :) I guess I have to go find this Reading the Middle Ages book, maybe that can be Christmas break reading. I've been a medieval addict for a long time, but my knowledge is patchy. :)

    ReplyDelete

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