Course Schedule (NB: Changes may occur. Any updates will be made to the on-line syllabus)
ü All readings are available either on Moodle or as e-books via the Frohring Library Online Catalogue
January
Week 1
18 M Historical Thinking and the Renaissance
- Marc Bloch,The Historian's Craft, pp. 17-24
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 1-13
20 W The Renaissance and Humanism
- Kristeller, Renaissance Thought, Ch. 5: "Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian Renaissance", pp. 92-119
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. XIX-XX; 1-8 (Introduction; Quintilian)
Week 2
25 M Dante’s Inferno, and Boccaccio’s Decameron
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 17-32
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 13 (Dante and Medieval Italy); 17-20 (Dante's Inferno, Canto XV excluded); 46-52
(Boccaccio: A Description of the Plague)
27 W Francis Petrarch: the First Humanist
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 55-66
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 25-34 (Petrarch: Introduction; Letter to Posterity; The Ascent of Mount Ventoux;
Letter to the Shade of Cicero)
Week 3
February
1 M The Humanist School Curriculum
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 69-90
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 65-66 (Humanism: Introduction)
3 W Civic Pride and Cultural Glory
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 66-82 (Coluccio Salutati, Letter to Peregrino Zambeccari;
Vespasiano da Bisticci: Life of Poggio Bracciolini; Life of Niccolò Niccoli; Lorenzo Valla, The Glory of the Latin Language)
Week 4
8 M Women and Humanism
- Christine de Pizan, Defending Women, selected pp.
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 90-95 (Isotta Nogarola: Of the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve)
10 W Florence: The Cradle of the Renaissance
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 93-110
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 39-52 (Florence in the Renaissance: Intro; Giovanni Villani;
Giovanni Boccaccio: A Description of the Plague); 61-62 (Benedetto Dei: Letter to a Venetian)
- Richard Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence,pp. 9-43
12 F Make-Up Day for Monday, April 5
The Renaissance Critical Thinking
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 117-134
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 199-206 (The Church and the Papacy: Intro; Pius II: The Election); pp. 206-210
(Lorenzo Valla: The Principal Arguments from the Forged Donation of Constantine)
Week 5
15 M Venice
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 137-165
- Edwad Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 13-61 ("Myth and Ritual")
17 W Life in the Italian Courts
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 169-206
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 142-144 (Baldassarre Castiglione, from The Book of the Courtier)
Week 6
22 M Family and Women in the Renaissance
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 111-133 (Marriage, the Family, and Women: Intro; Francesco Barbaro; Leon Battista Alberti);
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 35-51
24 W Take-Home Mid-Term Exam
The Age of Explorations
- Barry Ife, Introduction to Cristopher Columbus: http://www.ems.kcl.ac.uk/content/pub/b001.html
- Journal of the First Voyage: https://www.americanjourneys.org/pdf/AJ-062.pdf (pp.: 87-111; 134-137; 149; 156-157 [27 Nov. excluded];
163-165 [3 Dec]
Week 7
March
1 M Neo-Platonism
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 209-222
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 97-104 (Florentine Neoplatonism and Mysticism: Intro; Marsilio Ficino)
3 W The "Universal Man" of the Renaissance
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 104-108 (Giovanni Pico della Mirandola); 176-181 (Leonardo da Vinci)
8-12 March: Spring Break
Week 8
15 M First Paper Due
Erotic Literature and a Pope as a Writer: Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini's (Pope Pius II) Two Lovers
- Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, The Tale of the Two Lovers, selected pp.
17 W An Age of Competition and Wars
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 225-244
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 221-222 (Savonarola: A Preacher of Reform), pp. 258-260 (Guicciardini: The French Artillery)
Week 9
22 M Learning and Power
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 183-194 (Learning and Education: Intro; Pietro Paolo Vergerio;
Leonardo Bruni; Battista Guarino)
- Lauro Martines, Power and Imagination (Ch."Humanism: A Program for Ruling Classes")
24 W The Italian Dynasties of the Renaissance: Myths and Realities
- Film Screening and discussion
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 247-262
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 108-109 (Angelo Poliziano: Stanzas on Giuliano de' Medici)
Week 10
29 M Political Thought: Francesco Guicciardini
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 265-282
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 240-244 (Guicciardini: A Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici)
- Guicciardini, Ricordi, selections from Bondanella and Musa (eds.), The Italian Renaissance Reader, pp. 298-303
31 W Political Thought: Niccolò Machiavelli
- Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, in Bondanella and Musa (eds.), The Italian Renaissance Reader, pp. 258-264; 273-274; 291-293
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 236-237 (Machiavelli, Letter to Francesco Vettori)
Week 11
April
5 M Holiday (make-up day Friday, February 12)
7 W Renaissance Art and Architecture
- Bartlett, A Short History of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 285-317
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 157-160 (Art and Architecture: Intro; Filippo Brunelleschi;
Mariano Taccola; Lorenzo Ghiberti); 164-176 (Isabella d'Este; Pietro Vanucci Perugino; Leon Battista Alberti)
Week 12
12 M The Late Italian Renaissance and Mannerism
- Bartelett, The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance, pp. 265-266 (The Late Italian Renaissance: Intro); 273-279 (Giovanni della Casa)
- The Index of Forbidden Books: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/indexlibrorum.asp
14 W The “Ugly” Renaissance
- Alexander Lee, The Ugly Renaissance: Sex, Disease and Excess in an Age of Beauty (2013), selected pp.
Week 13
19 M The Humanist and the Witches: A Renaissance Contradiction?
- Walter Stephens, "Learned Credulity in Gianfrancesco Pico's Strix", Renaissance and Reformation 42-4 (2019): 17-40
21 W Philosophy and Science Confronting Authority
- Giordano Bruno, On the Infinite, the Universe, and the Worlds, selected pp.
- Galileo Galilei's Indictment and Abjuration (1633): https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1630galileo.asp
25 April: Second Paper Due
Week 14
26 M Humanism between Past, Present, and Future in Education, Culture, and Society
- Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, selected pp.
28 W Final Discussion and Exam Preparation
Final Exam