Illuminating the Middle Ages with Prof. Albrecht Classen

Join Professor Albrecht Classen and doctoral candidate Martina Schwalm in a tour of UAMA's magnificent altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo. Fernando Gallego and His Workshop: The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo is an ongoing exhibition at the University of Arizona's Art Museum. The 26 panels from the altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo comprise one of the most important groups of paintings produced in late 15th-century Spain by the artists Fernando Gallego and Master Bartolomé (the latter virtually unknown, until now) and their workshops. Such "master painters" often commanded large, dynamic workshops with many apprentice artists and frequently joined together on monumental commissions like this cathedral altarpiece. Visit the Art Museum on the Web at http://artmuseum.arizona.edu/

Dr. Albrecht Classen and teaching assistant Martina Schwalm recorded this video for students in the Fall 2011 GER 160D "Eroticism and Love in the Middle Ages" class. The video was recorded for the class meeting Sept. 22, 2011. Dr. Classen is a UA Faculty Fellow and Distinguished Professor in the German studies department.

Dr. Albrecht Classen teaches TRAD 104: Eroticism & Love in the Middle Ages as one of the large Centennial Hall class offerings. Dr. Classen was going to be out of the country during the second week of classes. So what could he do to cover his class while he was gone? The solution: create a special video to show students during their regular class time. Dr. Classen tell us: "Since we are all also researchers and have to attend conferences and workshops out of town, sometimes we cannot help missing a class. But this new technology proved to be a fantastic opportunity to substitute myself. I have done it already a second time, and will use this video approach several more times during the semester even when I'll be in class so as to change the teaching approach."

Dr. Albrecht Classen teaches TRAD 104: Eroticism & Love in the Middle Ages as one of the large Centennial Hall class offerings. Dr. Classen was going to be out of the country during the second week of classes. So what could he do to cover his class while he was gone? The solution: create a special video to show students during their regular class time. For this class he and grad student James F. Howell reviewed illuminated manuscripts from the medieval ages, courtly love poetry in the wider social context, troubadours, and in particular by the first troubadour Guillaume le Neuf.

Dr. Albrecht Classen introduces his TRAD 104 students to the UA Library's Special Collections during Fall Semester 2010. He and Ph.D. candidate James K. Howell meet archivist Erika Castaño who takes them into the Special Collections vault where they look at incunabula and rare books. Dr. Classen shows a collection of Chaucer's works from 1550, examines it's beautiful binding, reads the title page aloud and shows pages from the book. Later he shows students the library's replica of the Codex Manesse, one of the most beautifully illumined German manuscripts originally illustrated between 1304 and 1340.

University of Arizona Professor Albrecht Classen and graduate student Martina Schwalm recorded this lecture for Dr. Classen's Fall 2011 Ger 160D1 course. They discuss Aucassin and Nicolette. Aucassin et Nicolette (12th or 13th century) is an anonymous medieval French chantefable, or combination of prose and verse, that probably dates from the late 12th or early 13th century.

University of Arizona Professor Albrecht Classen, with graduate students Martina Schwalm and Annika Mack, recorded this lecture for Dr. Classen's Spring 2012 Ger/Hist 278 course. The visit the University of Arizona's Special Collections to show students one of the jewels of Special Collections, the facsimile of Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan, facsimile of the Munich manuscript cgm 51 (Staatsbibliothek).