The Great Tours: Experiencing Medieval Europe

by Kenneth R. Bartlett

24 Lectures on four DVDs
1: The medieval city: feast for the senses
2: Rothenburg: jewel on the romantic road
3: Mdina: the silent city
4: Mdina and Rabat: in the steps of St. Paul
5: Palermo: a mosaic of cultures
6: Palermo: celebrating throne and altar
7: York: wool and prayer
8: York: Vikings and merchants
9: Avignon: the Babylonian captivity
10: Avignon: papal splendor
11: Carcassonne: fortress of the Languedoc
12: Carcassonne: Cathars and crusaders
13: Barcelona: the gothic quarter
14: Barcelona: imagination and inspiration
15: Dubrovnik: pearl of the Adriatic
16: Dubrovnik: city of seven flags
17: Krakow: the royal way
18: Krakow: crossroads of Europe
19: Prague: freedom of mind and spirit
20: Prague: Castle hill
21: Bruges: built on the sea and trade
22: Bruges: commerce and community
23: Siena: good government
24: Siena: the gothic dream.

Genres: History, Travel, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Medieval, Geography, Historical

12 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Kenneth Bartlett is a professor of History & Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, where he served as the editor of Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Reforme and president of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies. He has received multiple teaching awards and was appointed the first director of the Officer of Teaching Advancement for the University of Toronto. Professor Bartlett has written three books, including Humanism and the Northern Renaissance.

Reviews

[Wendelle]

Great series of lectures that focus on cities of medieval import and highlight their landmarks, noteworthy buildings, relics and local history

[BookCrazy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own the Audible version of this Great Courses program and have access to the video. I flipped back and forth between the two versions depending on what I was doing at the time. Both versions are excellent! There are typically 2 lectures per city, so a reasonably good top-level overview is provided.

Dr. Kenneth Bartlett is an excellent lecturer. He really knows how to make history interesting. He has an excellent lecturing voice - easy to understand, well spoken, funny when it's called for, and good variation in pitch and excitement.

The video program is great! Maps, historic pictures, photographs and videos all highlight the discussion.

I've been to a number of the places discussed and wish I'd had this course before visiting. For the places on my wish list, I'll be sure to listen/watch this again before I go.

[Jeff Beardsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenneth R. Bartlett delivers a delightful journey through the medieval history of twelve amazing European cities. He presents each city in the format of a tourist walking through the historic cores of each of the towns, focusing entirely on the medieval aspects of what make these places so special. While Bartlett himself is a bit awkward in the delivery, it carries through in a fun and energetic tour of these amazing places that makes the reader/listener want to go explore these cities for themselves. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys medieval history or those planning to visit them.

[Mizrob A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great idea, but too low on systematic analysis and full of anecdotes. Plus it need's more and higher quality footage.

[Mary Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot on information in this course. With many places to pick from you are at the author’s mercy as to which cities were chosen.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Information was hard to digest.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating!

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having listened to the CD version, I ended up watching the DVD version as well. Of course, it is a lecture series that is meant to be seen, so this felt more complete. Though since it apparently relies on stock footage or just has an insufficient budget for really good photography/videography, there were times I wished to see even more, or felt like something mentioned by the professor was given insufficient visual explanation. I also would have like more maps, like a clear map showing all the locations covered in the series that could have been shown at the start of each lecture; the title screen sort of features that, but you can't really make out enough detail to easily orient yourself. Also, the professor has some rather questionable taste in ties, suits, and the combination thereof.

Merged review:

This is the audio to a lecture series that is meant to be a DVD. I knew that going into it (in fact, the have something that is almost a disclaimer at the beginning of the first disk, unique in my experience so far), but thought it would be worth a listen anyway. And it was enjoyable; I picked up fragments of European history that I was otherwise completely unfamiliar with, and the narrative evoked a sort of feel of Medieval Europe and its history and cities. But the narration is clearly intended to be accompanied by images, with the visuals serving as the organizing structure; this makes it hard to follow at times because it leaps back and forth through time, describing the history of one structure, then describing the same period of history, but as it relates to another important building. I think this could be a very interesting course, in proper DVD form, but the audio is only acceptable.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. Not as good as his Great Tours Italy.

[Trung Nguyen Dang · Rating 4 out of 5]

the course is like a virtual tour to great European cities with a super knowledgeable guide.

[Gerry Cragun]

Great information. In Great Courses