Date

Topic/Readings - For response guidelines, click here

 Defining the Renaissance

         Margaret L King, The Renaissance in Europe (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005), Introduction.

 September 1  

 September 6 

 Quiz #1: From Roman Republic to Second Republic (King, Chapter 1)

 The Middle Ages: Political & economic foundations

            j King, The Renaissance in Europe, 1-30.

 September 11  

 September 13

 The Italian Recipe for Change, I: The Commercial Revolution

   j Read the lecture notes (available online)

   j Review King, 18-22.

   j Richard Goldthwaite, “The Preconditions for Luxury,” in Benjamin Kohl and Alison Andrews Smith, eds.  Major Problems in the History of the      

                   Renaissance (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath &Co., 1995), 61-67.  For the text, click here.

 Note: you must read this material prior to today's meeting, as we will not discuss this material in class, but rather build upon it.

 Quiz #2: Renaissance Statecraft (King, Chapters 2 & 7)

 The Italian Recipe for Change, II: The communal revolution & the rise of city-states

   j King, The Renaissance in Europe, 33-62 & 197-216.

   j Read the lecture notes (available online) 

 Note: you must read this lecture prior to today's meeting, as we will not discuss this material in class, but rather build upon it.

 Quiz #3: At Home and in the Piazza (King, Chapter 5)

 The Italian Recipe for Change, III: Social characteristics

   j King, The Renaissance in Europe, 138-164.

   j David Herlihy, “Social Mobility in Florence,” in Kohl, Major Problems, 94-99.  For the text, click here.

   j Diane Owens Hughes, “Sumptuary Law and Social Relations in Renaissance Italy,” in Kohl, Major Problems, 362-373.  For the text, click here.

 Discussion: Real and imagined communities (Click on the discussion title for the guide questions.)

   j Richard Trexler, “The Friendship of Citizens,” in Public Life in Renaissance Florence (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press), 131- 58. (For the text,

                   click here: Part I, Part II)

   j Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, "'Kin, Friends, and Neighbors': The Urban Territory of a Merchant Family in 1400," in Women, Family and Ritual in

                   Renaissance  Italy (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1985), 68-93. (For the text, click here: Part I, Part II)

Response Paper #1 Due: Kinship & Patronage

 Discussion: Renaissance gendered life (Click on the discussion title for the guide questions.)

   j Francesco Barbaro, “On Wifely Duties,” in Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and

                   Society (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978), 189-228.

   j Margaret King, “Book Lined Cells: Women and Humanism…,” in Kohl, Major Problems.  For the text, click here.

   j Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, “Maternity, Widowhood, and Dowry in Florence,” in Kohl, Major Problems, 319-326.  For the text, click here.

The Great Renaissance Centers, I: Florence

   j Leonardo Bruni, “Panegyric to the City of Florence,” selections.

   j John Najemy, “Guild Republicanism in Trecento Florence,” in Kohl, Major Problems, 120-130.  For the text, click here.

   j Dale Kent, “The Rise of the Medici,” in Kohl, Major Problems, 156-165.  For the text, click here.

The Great Renaissance Centers, II: Venice

   j Patricia Fortini Brown, “Venezianità: The Otherness of Venetians,” in Art and Life in Reniassance Venice (New York: Abrams, 1997), 9-38.

   j Frederick Lane, “The Venetian Aristocracy Takes Control,” in Kohl, Major Problems, 130-139.

   j Edward Muir, “The Myth of Venice,” in Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,  1981), 13-61.

 The Italian Recipe for Change, IV: A New Intellectual World

   j King, 102-134.

 Discussion: Petrarch’s Break with the past (Click on the discussion title for the guide questions.)

   j Francesco Petrarca, “A Disapproval of the Unreasonable Use… of Dialectic,” in Ernst Cassirer, The Renaissance Philosophy of Man (Chicago:

                   University of Chicago Press, 1948), 134-139.

   j Petrarch, “How a Ruler Ought to Govern His State,” in Kohl and Witt, 35-78.

 Quiz #4: Human Dignity and Humanist Studies (King, Chapter 4)

 Civic Humanism

 Discussion: Civitas & the active vs. the contemplative life (Click on the discussion title for the guide questions.)

   j Coluccio Salutati, “Letter to Pellegrino Zambeccari,” in Kohl and Witt, 81-118.

   j Salutati, “Letter to Caterina di Messer Vieri,” in Kohl and Witt, 121-175.

 Response Paper #2 due: The active vs. the contemplative life 

 Neo-Platonism & Renaissance Syncretism

 Discussion: A Renaissance Manifesto & the Renaissance Man (Click on the discussion title for the guide questions.)

   j Leon Battista Alberti, “Self-Portrait of a Universal Man,” in James B. Ross and Mary M. McLaughlin, eds. The Portable Renaissance Reader  (New

                   York: Penguin, 1953), 480-492.

   j Pico della Mirandola, “Oration on the Dignity of Man,” in Cassirer, Renaissance Philosophy, 215-254. (Part I, Part II)

 Quiz # 5: The Church and the People (King, Chapter 6)

 Renaissance Religion, Humanism, and the Church

   j King, 167-192.

   j Richard Trexler, “Ritual Behavior in Renaissance Florence,” in Kohl, Major Problems, 393-403.

 Humanist ideals embodied: Renaissance art

   j King, 102-134.

 Quiz #6: New Visions (King, Chapter 4)

 Continuation: Renaissance art

 Discussion: The Italian Wars and The Prince: Can Italy be saved? (Click on the discussion title for the guide questions.)

   j Read the lecture notes (available online) Note: you must read this  lecture prior to today's meeting, as we will not discuss this material in class, but

                   rather build upon it.

   j King, 216-222.

   j Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (New York: Dover Editions), entire.

 The Later Renaissance: The rise of the court

   j Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, translated by George Bull (New York: Penguin, 1967), selections to be announced.