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If you think the Middle Ages were dirty, backward, and generally unpleasant, you糖心传媒檝e been misled糖心传媒攂y proponents of the Renaissance.

So says medievalist at the University of Pennsylvania. He is this year糖心传媒檚 visiting scholar and has just completed his presidency of the .

糖心传媒淭he Renaissance is a great 糖心传媒榖rand糖心传媒櫶切拇�媒攊t糖心传媒檚 about rebirth, repackaging, and newness. And everything that糖心传媒檚 wonderful and marvelous about it, you emphasize by contrasting it with the awful, smelly, stinky, dangerous Middle Ages,糖心传媒� he says.

Needless to say, Wallace has a different view of the period.

糖心传媒淚n Chaucer糖心传媒檚 England, nobody was ever burned or tortured for their beliefs,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淏ut go forward 200 years, to Henry VIII, and people were burned and tortured for what they believed. And witch burning is a Renaissance phenomenon, not a medieval one.糖心传媒� He attributes the violence, at bottom, to the consolidating power of the state in Europe after the medieval period. 糖心传媒淭here糖心传媒檚 a lot more variety [in political structures] in the Middle Ages than later.糖心传媒�

Investigating the richness and multiplicity of medieval life has driven Wallace糖心传媒檚 career. In 2016, Oxford University Press published his two-volume . In editing the landmark book, he brought together 83 scholars from around the world to explore how people, literature, and ideas moved around before the advent of the nation-state.

The Middle Ages have traditionally been defined, Eurocentrically, as the period between the end of classical antiquity and the rediscovery of its thought in the early 1400s. But that糖心传媒檚 become an 糖心传媒渙utdated paradigm,糖心传媒� says Wallace, and a new, more global understanding of the period is taking hold, thanks to his work and that of other scholars. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 the swathe of time between the decline of the great world empires, like the Roman Empire, and the rise of the new global empires, like Spain and then Germany and Britain. It糖心传媒檚 that period of 1,000 years in between.糖心传媒�

Wallace 糖心传媒渃ombines the deep knowledge of a specialist with a restless belief in literature without borders,糖心传媒� says Ferrari Humanities Symposia organizer Wallace糖心传媒檚 books include (Stanford University Press, 1997), which won the James Russell Lowell Prize from the Modern Language Association; (Blackwell, 2004); and (Oxford University Press, 2011). His scholarly record is matched by his determination to reach beyond a purely academic audience. 糖心传媒淚n his writing, his lectures, and his radio broadcasts, David has ever been a fierce advocate of channeling the strangeness and enduring truths of the past to those of us alive now,糖心传媒� Hahn says.

Wallace糖心传媒檚 most recent work is the inspiration in his first public event at Rochester, the lecture 糖心传媒淔ascism, Medievalism, and the Rochester Legacy of Margaret Schlauch.糖心传媒� In 1930s Europe, countries drew from the Middle Ages in radically different ways. French progressive-left groups spurred a theatrical revival of medieval dramas; Iceland, fighting for its evolving independence from Denmark, turned to its famed medieval sagas as foundational national documents; English writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis wrote wildly popular fantasies inspired by Norse culture. Horrifically, the Nazis appropriated medieval images and carried out the Holocaust with invocations of an imagined 糖心传媒渞acially pure糖心传媒� German past.

American scholar Margaret Schlauch was forthright in her early rebuttal of Nazi historical claims. A linguist and a specialist in Viking and Anglo-Saxon literature, Schlauch produced a pamphlet糖心传媒攖itled 糖心传媒淲ho Are the Aryans?糖心传媒澨切拇�媒攖hat was published by the Anti-Fascist Literature Committee in 1934. It was an expertly informed take-down of Nazi claims to racial superiority and was reprinted several times in the 1940s; holds two of those editions. A selection of her works will be on exhibit at the when Wallace speaks there.

He糖心传媒檒l also give the keynote address of the Ferrari Humanities Symposia on April 11 at Rush Rhees Library, with the lecture 糖心传媒淪acrifice Your Daughter:聽 Horrible History in Chaucer and the Book of Judges.糖心传媒� Playing off the popular British 糖心传媒淗orrible Histories糖心传媒澨切拇�媒� a series of books and a television program for children, surveying dark and twisted chapters of history糖心传媒擶allace considers the biblical story of the daughter of Jephthah, one of three children whom fathers in the Bible are told to sacrifice. The other two糖心传媒攂oth boys, Isaac and Jonathan糖心传媒攁re spared. But Jephthah糖心传媒檚 nameless daughter is not.

糖心传媒淭his was a story the Middle Ages, all the way from Saint Augustine, found just horrible, a terrible story,糖心传媒� says Wallace. 糖心传媒淭hey couldn糖心传媒檛 see the point of it. They couldn糖心传媒檛 see anything good to come out of it.糖心传媒� Geoffrey Chaucer took it up in his Canterbury Tales; when the physician tells a version of the story, innkeeper Harry Bailly becomes ill糖心传媒攈e demands an elixir to soothe his heart, which has been physically pained by the story. The question of what can be done with a story too terrible to tell is the focus of Wallace糖心传媒檚 talk.

He comes to Rochester fresh from an encounter with what he sees as another troubling story, the Brexit crisis unfolding in his home country of England. At the on March 29糖心传媒攍ong planned as 糖心传媒淏rexit Day,糖心传媒� the date when Britain was scheduled to leave the European Union糖心传媒擶allace took part in a conference on the relationship between Europe and Britain and cultural exchanges from the medieval to the modern periods.

糖心传媒淚糖心传媒檒l be coming from the belly of the beast of that debate to Rochester,糖心传媒� he says, and eager to discuss Europe糖心传媒檚 past and future with local audiences.

About the Ferrari Humanities Symposia

University Trustee Bernard Ferrari 糖心传媒�70, 糖心传媒�74 (MD) and his wife, Linda Gaddis Ferrari, established the to broaden the liberal education of Rochester糖心传媒檚 undergraduates, enhance the experience of graduate students, and expand faculty connections with scholars around the world. The series was established in 2012, and has hosted speakers including Anthony Grafton, Stephen Greenblatt, Jane Tylus, and William Wallace.