Medieval Challenge

1 January 2012 - 31 December 2012

JNCL from The Beauty of Eclecticism is hosting the Medieval Challenge.

The Medieval Challenge challenges you to read books written/published during the so-called "Dark Ages" (400-1550).  JNCL provides of list of titles to choose from, broken down into 10 "genre's".  Participants can choose from 3 levels, but at lease 4 of the books must be from a different genre and at least half of your titles must be from the master list (given below).

The 3 levels are:
Inferno - 4-7 books
Purgatorio - 8-11 books
Paradiso - 12+ books

The master list:

Allegory - The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri / The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris

Biography - The Confessions by St. Augustine of Hippo / The Life of Columbia by St. Adamnan of Iona

History - Ecclesiastical History of the English People by the Venerable Bede / History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours / The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun

Literature - Beowulf / The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer / The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio / The Dream of the Rood / History of the Kings of Britian by Geoffrey of Monmouth / The Lay of El Cid / Mabinogion / Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs) / Njal's Saga / Piers Plowman by William Langland / Poetic Edda / Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson / The Song of Roland / The Tain

Philosophy - The City of God by St. Augustine of Hippo / The Consolations of Philosophy by Boethius / The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Religion - The Cloud of Unknowing / The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voraigne / On Christian Doctrine by St. Augustine of Hippo / On the Trinity by St. Augustine of Hippo / Pastoral Care by Pope St. Gregory I the Great / Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas

Romance - The Lais of Marie de France / The Letters of Abelard and Heloise by Peter Abelard and Heloise d'Argenteuil / Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory / Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach / Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / Troilus and Cresidye by Geoffrey Chaucer / Yvain: The Knight of the Lion by Chretien de Troyes

Science - Bestiary / The Book of Beasts / On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus

Travel - The Travels of Ibn Battuta / The Travels of Marco Polo by Rustichello da Pisa

Women - The Alexiad of Anna Comnena / The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan / The Book of Margery Kempe / Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich / Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen

*****

I think I'll be attempting the middle level - Purgatorio (8-11 books).  I've listed (tenative) choices below, mostly taken from the master list and a few of my own. 

As titles are read, they will be dated, a link to a review posted, and (finally, since I love to do it!) crossed out.
1.  The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Allegory)
2.  The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (Literature)
3.  The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (Philosophy)
4.  The Letters of Abelard and Heloise by Peter Abelard and Heloise d'Argenteuil (Romance)
5.  The Travels of Marco Polo by Rustichello da Pisa (Travel)
6.  Mabinogion (Literature)
7.  Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson (Literature)
8.  The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan (Women)
9.  The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (?)
10. 
11.