Research Interests

Medieval and Renaissance Europe (especially Italy); History of Christianity; Religion, culture, society; Female religious life

Selected Publications

Medieval Christianity, ed. Daniel E. Bornstein (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009) (volume 4 of A People’s History of Christianity, general editor Denis R. Janz).

Florence and Beyond: Culture, Society and Politics in Renaissance Italy, ed. David S. Peterson with Daniel E. Bornstein (Toronto Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2008).

Bartolomea Riccoboni, Life and Death in a Venetian Convent:  The Chronicle and Necrology of Corpus Domini, 1395-1436, ed. and trans. Daniel Bornstein (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).

Women and Religion in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, ed. Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).

The Bianchi of 1399:  Popular Devotion in Late Medieval Italy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993).

Mistiche e devote nell’Italia tardomedievale, ed. Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi (Naples: Liguori, 1992).

Dino Compagni’s Chronicle of Florence, translated with introduction and notes by Daniel E. Bornstein (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986).

Teaching

L23 154 Freshman Seminar: Saints and Society

The topic of this course is saints and society in medieval and early modern Europe. It will explore the complex relationships between exceptional holy men and women, the historical settings in which they lived, and the religious and cultural traditions on which they drew. It will consider saints as both embodiments of the highest ideals of their societies and radical challenges to ordinary patterns of social existence. We will test different approaches to the study of saints and sainthood, and see what the study of such exceptional individuals can tell us about social and cultural norms. Throughout, the relations of saints to society will be seen as a point at which social, intellectual, political, economic, and religious history meet. Readings will include primary sources (in English translation) and modern scholarship. 3 units. Same as home course L22 History 154.

L23 180 Freshman Seminar in Religious Studies: Miracles

Miracles - those concrete manifestations of divine power at work in the world - have been a central feature of Christianity since its inception. This course uses the history of miracles to explore shifting notions of nature and the supernatural, power and grace, healing and holiness, community among the living and with the dead, and the functioning of the spiritual economy. 3 units. same as L22 180.

L23 301A Historical Methods: Saints and Society

This is a small-group reading course in which students are introduced to the skills essential to the historian's craft. Emphasis will be on acquiring research skills, learning to read historical works critically, and learning to use primary and secondary sources to make a persuasive and original argument. Required for history majors who have declared after 8/1/07. SECTION 1 IS CROSSLISTED WITH (L90 AFAS) ONLY and satisfies the modern course requirement for history majors. SECTION 2 IS CROSSLISTED WITH ( L23 RE ST) ONLY and satisfies the pre-modern course requirement for history majors. PREREQ: SEE HISTORY HEADNOTE. 3 units. Same as home course L22 History 301A.
SECT 02: SAINTS AND SOCIETY: The topic of this course is saints and society in medieval and early modern Europe. It will explore the complex relationships between exceptional holy men and women, the historical settings in which they lived, and the religious and cultural traditions on which they drew. It will consider saints as both embodiments of the highest ideals of their societies and radical challenges to ordinary patterns of social existence. We will test different approaches to the study of saints and sainthood, and see what the study of such exceptional individuals can tell us about social and cultural norms. Throughout, the relations of saints to society will be seen as a point at which social, intellectual, political, economic, and religious history meet. Readings will include both primary sources (in English translation) and modern scholarship. This course satisfies the pre-modern course requirement for history majors.

L23 343C Europe in the Age of the Reformation

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Europe was torn apart by the theological, social, and political upheaval created by Martin Luther's challenge to the Roman Catholic Church. We will examine the late medieval history of dissent and the social and religious environment that made the Reformation possible. We will also analyze the doctrines and the tactics of the principal branches of Protestantism and the Catholic Church's response, and the social and political impact of the Reformation. This course satisfies the pre-modern course requirement for the history major. PREREQ: SEE HISTORY HEADNOTE. 3 units. Same as home course L22 History 343C.

L23 393 Medieval Christianity

This course surveys the historical development of Christian doctrine, ecclesiastical organization, and religious practice between the fifth century and the fifteenth, with an emphasis on the interaction of religion, culture, politics, and society. Topics covered include the Christianization of Europe, monasticism, the liturgy, sacramental theology and practice, the Gregorian reform, religious architecture, the mendicant orders and the attack on heresy, lay devotions, the papal monarchy, schism and conciliarism, and the reform movements of the fifteenth century. 3 units. Same as L22 History 393.

L23 408 Nuns

Nuns - women vowed to a shared life of poverty, chastity, and obedience in a cloistered community - were central figures in medieval and early modern religion and society.  This course will explore life in the convent, with the distinctive culture that developed among communities of women, and the complex relations between the world of the cloister and the world outside the cloister.  We will look at how female celibacy served social and political as well as religious interests.  We will read works by nuns, both willing and unwilling, and works about nuns: nuns behaving well, and nuns behaving scandalously badly; nuns embracing their heavenly spouse, and nuns putting on plays; nuns possessed by the devil, and nuns managing their possessions; nuns as enraptured visionaries, and nuns grappling with the mundane realities of life in a cloistered community.  3 units.  Same as L22 History 4080, L77 WGSS 408A.

L23 4993 Advanced Seminar: Women and Religion in Medieval Europe

This course explores the religious experience of women in medieval Europe and attempts a gendered analysis of the Christian Middle Ages. In it, we will examine the religious experience of women in a variety of settings - from household to convent. In particular, we will try to understand how and why women came to assume public roles of unprecedented prominence in European religious culture between the twelfth century and the sixteenth, even though the institutional church barred them from the priesthood and religious precepts remained a principal source of the ideology of female inferiority. Pre-modern, Europe. PREREQUISITE: SEE HISTORY HEADNOTE. 4 units. Same as home course L22 4993.