|Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute||Home| The units gathered in
this volume span several phases of European history, from the
age of chivalry to the age of Louis XIV; they represent the many
disciplines from which the members of the seminar were drawn,
from history to the visual arts, language, and literature. The
units have in common, however, the use of interdisciplinary
approaches for teaching topics in western culture. In the
seminar, these were developed through our common study of the
growth of urban life and its impact on society and the arts
between 1250 and 1700. The city is an elusive entity, and the
limits of its influence are difficult to draw precisely. At the
lower and upper chronological limits of this volume are two
units which might seem to lie outside this influence, Benjamin
A. Gorman’s study of the feudal manor and Harriet Bauman’s study
of a play first performed at the chateau of Chambord. Yet in
both these units urban life presents itself as a challenge to
older, aristocratic values. It