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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Magic in the Middle Ages by Universitat de Barcelona

4.6
stars
1,606 ratings

About the Course

Magical thought has always attracted human imagination. In this course we will introduce you to the Middle Ages through a wide conception of magic. Students will have an approach to medieval culture, beliefs and practices from the perspective of History and History of Science. Popular magic, as well as learned magic (alchemy, geomancy and necromancy) will be addressed. Moreover, we will also deal with how eastern practices and texts influenced western culture. In July 2016, the course will contain a brand-new module devoted to astrology. Magic in the Middle Ages offers a captivating overview of medieval society and promotes reflection about certain stereotypes associated with this period. At the end of the course, the students: a) will have overcome the usual prejudices about the Middle Ages, b) will be able to analyze historical documentation from the Middle Ages and recognize the most common patterns of juridical documents regarding witchcraft, and c) will be capable of distinguishing between popular magic and the magic of the learned people; will have a notion of which spiritual practices were allowed in medieval Europe and which ones were related to the devil, and will be aware of the link between a cultural product and the society that produced it. This course is taught in English, although subtitles in English, Catalan and Spanish will also be provided. COURSE SYLLABUS Week 1. Introduction to medieval magic (Pau Castell). Week 2. Magic & Heresy (Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel). Week 3. From Magic to Witchcraft (Pau Castell). Week 4. Magic in Islam (Godefroid de Callataÿ and Sébastien Moureau). Week 5. Astrology & Geomancy (Theo Loinaz, Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel, Godefroid de Callataÿ and Blanca Villuendas). © Gemma Pellissa Prades (coord.), Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel and Joana Palau Mumany Magic in the Middle Ages by Gemma Pellissa Prades (coord.), Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel and Joana Palau Mumany is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License....

Top reviews

A

Feb 17, 2022

Thank you for preparing such an informative course from an objective perspective and allowing us students to gain a new view of seeing thi s still controversial-topic. It was well informative and fun!

BW

Mar 23, 2018

Helpful and insightful. I try to learn as much about witchcraft and all religions as I can. The first set of videos were well lit and well read. I recommend this for anyone who wants to learn more.

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401 - 425 of 524 Reviews for Magic in the Middle Ages

By Michael M

Dec 9, 2022

A great introduction. I wish there was a bit more on the earlier periods (say from 1000-1400 CE) rather than so much focus on the late middle ages (15th/16th centuries), though I do understand that there is much more documentation from the Inquisition than earlier.

The lectures were nicely organized and provided a lot we could investigate further on our own.

By Alvaro F O G

Sep 11, 2020

It was truly a pleasure to take this course. I am a historian, and this course give me new information and bibliographical resources to understand medieval cosmovision. The only problem that I see, it is that it had a really cathedratical structure, therefore it could be a little bit more didactic. Besides that, I enojoyed and learned a lot with this course.

By Phillip A C

Aug 12, 2016

The only reason this course did not get top marks is because very often the audio and the video did not match. Even with captions turned on it was, at times, difficult to follow as the captions follow the audio and end when the video ends even if the audio is not quite finished.

Other than that I found this course enjoyable as well as educational.

By Ashley M

May 12, 2020

The assignments could be updated (both of the links for the second assignment do not work, even though there was a lot of discussion about them in the forums!)

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the course. The professors were very thorough and seemed to really be experts and passionate about the field of study.

Great course and fun to learn about!

By Helga W

Apr 9, 2020

It was my first course in this platform and was really amazing. This new experience, in addition to bringing me more knowledge, brought me a routine, a excellent way to invert my time. I choose Magic in the Middle Age because always it seemed to me a incredible part of the Universal History. And, I love the Magic.

Thank for this course.

By Paul D

Oct 19, 2021

The course had some very interesting content in some areas but was a bit superficial in other areas. Overall, it was a good experience. However, the peer graded exercises were not clearly written and it was necessary to go to the discussion forums to get some more input on what was actually required to satisfy the review criteria.

By Jaime J

Jul 14, 2020

A decent overview of a complex topic. I appreciate the care the creators have taken in creating the range of content. I wish the lectures included real imagery from the sources they cite: photographs of the original texts and so on. In Week 5, the final assignment needs an update to correct the broken web links.

By al l

Jan 31, 2021

Interesting material, well organized and presented. Things really fell apart in the final assignment, where the 2 main links remain broken. I managed to find links in the forums, but judging by the comments these have been broken for a while. PLEASE fix this, it leaves an unfortunate bad final impression.

By Maitreyi S

Jul 15, 2019

I had so much fun in this course. It catered to my interests and peaked my curiosity at the same time. I'm grateful to all the teachers for providing us with such brilliant works and for their painstaking efforts, providing us with so much knowledge and wisdom. Thank you so much for this wonderful journey.

By Jennifer D

Aug 31, 2017

It was awesome - apart from the video on Geomancy as that made absolutely no sense to me!!

I was much more interested in the History side of the course than the technical parts of the last two weeks - but I did find the stuff on Islam really interesting and really liked that this was included.

By Jorge d R G

Mar 19, 2017

Un curso atractivo y divertido, pero centrado en los últimos momentos de la Edad Media. Se debería puntualizar en el título "Baja Edad Media". Por lo demás, mi más sincera enhorabuena por todo el trabajo que, desde la Universitat de Barcelona, habéis realizado para sacar adelante este curso.

By Isabelle A A

May 11, 2017

Very interesting course - I enjoyed it immensely. I also liked the assignments, but I would recommend improving the peer-review rubrics (which others have recommended as well). Also, please double-check video transcripts for their accuracy. Thank you for offering Magic in the Middle Ages!

By laura u m

May 18, 2020

Es muy interesante y la verdad que es bastante completo y se hace ameno. Me gustaría saber un poco más acerca de la caza de brujas, quizás algo de sitios míticos como Salem o algo así. Pero la verdad que me ha gustado mucho, interesante, entretenido y bien explicado. ¡Recomendado!

By Jurgens P

Jan 16, 2017

The course gives a good historical view on magic and how it was perceived without being biased in terms of the practice of magic itself. Rather it looks at how the practices were perceived and the factors that influenced the development and dimise of magic and related practices.

By Cassandra S

Sep 6, 2021

Assignment objectives could be a little clearer in the initial instructions, perhaps providing the grading rubric upfront so students have a clear understanding on what direction they should be heading with their assignment and understand how their grade will be formed.

By Tina M

Feb 28, 2022

Thank you for an amazing course!! I was thrilled with the content, tittilated by the possibilities of further knowledge and went into a whole new wold understanding. I did the audit only, so I'm sure I would have gained more if I'd gone for certificate. Next time.

By Jillian M

Sep 18, 2020

Amazing course! The content is very interesting and presented very well by experts in the field. As just a course, I would highly recommend it. 4 stars because of the peer reviewed format and that the rubric often didn't match up with the questions in the assignment.

By James J

Jul 4, 2019

This course was good. I learned some things beyond a highschool education. I wish that it went more into the actual spells cast in medieval times. However, this is a history class, and it mentioned the key characters and key events that changed how magic was viewed.

By Ivan D T G

Oct 21, 2016

it's a good course but i think it would be better if they have it also in spanish and apart from that as a suggestion, teachers should talk a little slow, sometimes it's hard to understand some words because of it. apart from that it's a very good course

By P A P

May 9, 2020

I feel i got a basic idea of magic in middle ages , in different religions , connecting it to the social , economic and political conditions of that time. The videos were quite useful , will definitely delve into more thorough the provided bibliography

By Rhiannon E

Feb 16, 2020

This was a a very enjoyable and beginner-friendly course which provided some interesting historical insights. My favourite part was learning about how knowledge was shared between the Arab and Latin world during the Middle Ages.

By Amanda O

Jul 3, 2021

The professors are fun and they seem to really care about the subject matter. This is the first course I chose to audit on Coursera. It is more of an overview and can go quickly at times but is still a good supplemental course.

By Pilar P d C

Apr 12, 2018

Fascinating insight into the reality of magic during the middle ages. Well thought out course generally speaking with interesting information. Maybe during the first two modules could have done with more pictorial aids. Thanks.

By Megan B

Oct 27, 2019

This is a great toe-dip into the vast world of Medieval magic and it's contemporary reception. I highly recommend this course to anyone who needs a head start on the subject, is looking for a refresher, or is simply curious.

By Renee N

Apr 20, 2018

Loved it! Found some of the lessons hard to understand but the content was constantly very intriguing and engaging. Great for anyone interested in the topic/concept of magic, and how it existed among people centuries ago.