Schedule of lectures:
This is the syllabus handed out in class on first day.
Wk I: Introduction:
Th
7/23 Was there a Renaissance? 1) Jakob Burckhardt and the Medievalists
2) Dante, medieval
The Rise of the Communes to
the 14th Century
Slides: Architecture in Dante's
Florence: Baptistery, Campanile, Bargello
Reading: Kaborycha, Short History of Renaissance Italy, Ch.
1, pp. 2-18
Griffiths, The Italian City State,
pp. 71-82 (top) link from web page
Fr
7/24 Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio and
Giotto
The
Black Plague of 1348: Economic & Social Effects
Reading: Kaborycha, Short History of
Renaissance Italy, Ch. 2, pp. 21-35
** Boccaccio, Preface to the Decameron
on Plague in Florence
Available on line at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/boccacio2.asp
Wk II
M
7/27 Florentine & Venetian Republics:
Aristocrats, merchants, office holders
Reading: David Herlihy,
Article on Family, pp. 1-13 link from web page
Griffiths, pp. 82- 105 link from
web page
** In class discussion: Diary of
Gregorio Dati, pp. 107-141 in
Gene Brucker,
Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence
Reading: Kaborycha,
Short History of Ren Italy, Ch. 3, pp 38-55; Ch
4, 58-71;
Tu 7/28 14th C: Republics vs signorie or despotisms: Siena & Venice vs
Milan
SLIDES: Venice and Siena: Lorenzetti, Allegories of Good & Bad
Government
** In class discussion of: Diary of Buonaccorso Pitti, in
Brucker
Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence
W 7/29 Office holding: citizen ambition in the
republic
**
In class
discussion Martines, Renaissance Sextet, Ch.
4, Bianco Alfani
Th 7/ 30
Petrarch and the origins of Italian humanism
**
In class discussion of documents -- see links from web page:
Petrarch
Letters & Ascent of Mount Ventoux
Coluccio
Salutati, Declamation of Lucretia
(with Livy’s version ) & On Liberal Studies
Fri 7/31
First short paper due in class
Fri 7/31 Florence before the Medici: Ciompi
Revolt 1378 to War with Milan 1402
Civic Humanism: Salutati
& Bruni
Slides: Early 15th C. Art & Architecture in Florence: Massaccio, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi
WK III
M 8/3
Cosimo di Medici: Politics & Patronage
Slides: Medici building and art projects: Gozzoli
frescoes
Reading: Kaborycha, Short History of
Ren Italy, Ch. 6, section on Medici pp. 108-116.
** In class
discussion: Link on line-- Vespasiano, Lives of Cosimo
& Strozzi
Tu 8/4
The Second Medici: Piero di Cosimo, il Gottoso
(1464- 1469)
Women in Florence: Alessandra Strozzi and her
exiled family
In-class
discussion: Documents on women: & Ricciarda
Bernard of
Siena, Salutati, Strozzi see links from web page
Reading: Kaborycha, Short History of
Renaissance Italy,
Ch. 5, pp. 80-97
Bernard of Siena, On the vanity of women -- see link from web page
Letters of Alessandra Strozzi -- see link
from web page
Ricciarda by Giovanni Gheradi,
in Martines, Renaissance Sextet, Ch 1, pp. 19-35
W 8/5 MIDTERM EXAM IN CLASS:
(bring bluebooks)
Reading
for Midterm:
Kaborycha, Short History of Renaissance Italy
On
line readings: Gordon Griffiths article on city states
Selections from Petrarch, Salutati
on Lucretia,
David Herlihy, "Family in Renaissance
Florence"
Strozzi letters, Bernard of Siena, Biography of Cosimo
Gene Brucker, Two
Memoirs of Renaissance Florence
Topics: Rise
of the Italian city states through 15th
C (republics/tyrannies)
Humanism: Petrarch, & Civic Humanism (Salutati, Bruni)
Economy/Society: Family structure, Plague,
Aristocrats vs Merchants
Th 8/6 Lorenzo
the Magnificent: also Leonardo da Vinci in Florence, Milan, and
Rome
Reading: Kaborycha,
Short History of Ren Italy, Ch. 9 pp. 164-167; 171-181; Ch
10, 207-208
In-class discussion:
Social
Hierarchies and Urban Rivalries
Martines, Renaissance Sextet, Ch 2, Scopone by
Gentile Sermini, pp. 39-68
Fri 8/7 Renaissance Individualism? Humanism: Self
Fashioning versus Group Identity
Reading: In-class discussion:
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, On the Dignity of Man link from web page
Antonio Manetti, The Fat Woodcarver, in Martines, Renaissance Sextet, Ch
6, pp. 171-241
Wk III
Mon 8/10 Family in Renaissance Florence
SLIDES: Images of Women in Renaissance Art
**
Reading: David Herlihy,
The Family in Renaissance Florence see links from web page
Kaborycha, Short History of Renaissance
Italy, Ch. 4, pp. 71-74 on Alberti
In
class discussion: Leon Battista Alberti, On the Family, Book 3
Boccaccio, Decameron,
Nastagio degli Onesti, Day 5, 8th story (()
“
“ Griselda, Day 10, 10th
story see link from web page
Tu 8/11 Savonarola,
the Republic of 1494 and Alexander VI, the Borgia Pope
Reading: Kaborycha,
Short History of Renaissance Italy, Ch. 10, pp. 184-197
**
In class discussion: Machiavelli as Diplomat,
Letters
from Camp of Cesare Borgia, in Adams, pp 75-88
1497-1512: Machiavelli, the Florentine
Republic and Medici Restoration
Reading: Kaborycha, Short History of
Renaissance Italy, Ch. 10, pp. 197-203
W
8/12 Political
theory from Augustine to the Humanists:
In
class discussion: The Prince, Part I, Ch 1-13, pp 4-40 in Adams edition
Th 8/13 ** The
European Context of Italian Wars: 1494-1530
In
class discussion: The Prince, Part II, Ch 14- 26, pp 40-72 in Adams edition
Fri 8/14
From Florence to Rome:
Julius II, the
Warrior Pope: SLIDES: Michelangelo and Raphael
Reading:
Kaborycha, Short History of Renaissance Italy,
Ch 11, pp. 213-221
In class discussion: Selections
of Mach’s Discourses on Livy, Adams
pp. 89-188
Machiavelli’s
Private Letters, Adams, pp 123-131
WK 5 LONGER PAPER DUE AT LECTURE
TUESDAY 8/18
M 8/17 Princely Courts: Mantua
and Urbino; Castiglione’s The Courtier
Reading: Kaborycha, Short History of
Ren, Ch. 11, pp. 209-211; Ch 12, pp. 224-236,
237-238
In class discussion: Giovanni della
Casa, Galateo
link from web page)
T 8/18 Rome: Medici Popes (Leo X and Clement VII) and The Sack
of Rome 1527
W
8/19 Rome and Italy after
1530 SLIDES: 16th C. Rome – the
City after the Sack
Th
8/20 In
class discussion: Review for final
Fri 8/21 FINAL EXAM IN CLASS