This project was conceived in March 2016 by students in the pioneering class of Yale-NUS College. Creating timelines to contextualise readings was a practice we had already incorporated into our studies. We found that reading the Great Works with their context in mind – be it the century, year, or geographical region – helped us retain what we were learning, as well as connect the texts.
The title Tempus Mundi is a play on the term mappa mundi, or a medieval European map of the world. Such maps were created to illustrate different areas of knowledge, including the earth’s geography and climate, biblical locations, or various groups of people. They were like encyclopedias, and represented the peak of scholarship in the Middle Ages. Tempus Mundi enthusiastically follows the same spirit in charting the history of the Great Works, although it has simpler goals. These timelines were created to guide students and reinforce material taught in the Yale-NUS Common Curriculum. It is our hope that they also contribute to the joy of studying human thought.
Although all five of us have graduated, we hope that our work will inspire many other students to improve the site. If you are a current student of Yale-NUS and interested in gathering more data or taking this project further, please contact the Office of the Dean of Faculty.
Before we sign off, we’d like to thank Dr. Steven Green, Dr. Terry Nardin, Dr. Steven Bernasek, and the Yale-NUS IT team (especially Paul Tay and Shawn!) for their advice and support all throughout the planning and execution of this project. We would also like to thank our artist, Isabel Fang, Yale-NUS College ’20, for gracing our pages with her beautiful artwork.
Vale!
Carmen Denia, Theodore Lai,
Ng Sai Ying, Matilda Chia Pei Yun,
and Ronald Chen
Yale-NUS College ’17
9 August 2017