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Dept. of History
UMass/Amherst
History 304: Italian Renaissance, 1300-1527Prof. Brian W. Ogilvie - UMass/Amherst - Fall 2002 Course syllabus (HTML version) |
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History 304: The Italian Renaissance, 1300-1527 University of Massachusetts Amherst Prof. Brian W. Ogilvie I will try to answer e-mail within 24 hours during the week and within 48 hours over the weekend. If you need a response more quickly, please telephone. Brief description of courseThe Renaissance was a time of unprecedented cultural creativity. It has also been called the cradle of modern European politics, society, and culture. In this course we will attempt to define and explain this historical phenomenon; our main focus will be the complex relationships between politics, society, and culture, along with the interrelations between institutions, individuals, and ideas. The course will focus on themes and problems, not a continuous narrative. After discussing the problem of the Renaissance as historians have approached it, and the origins of the political and social world of the early Renaissance, we will turn to political forms and their transformations. We will then examine the social structures of the Renaissance, including the family, the role of women, and social hierarchies. Our focus will then shift to culture: the dramatic transformations in painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, education, and historical consciousness that gave the Renaissance its name. We will examine how culture served to reflect and legitimate the values of the society that produced and consumed it, but also the potential that it offered for social and intellectual transformation. The course will end by considering the development of a secular outlook in the Renaissance and the dramatic transformations of the early sixteenth century. Throughout the course we will be concerned not only with the fascinating panorama of Renaissance life but also with the differences and continuities between the Renaissance and the modern world. We will also develop models and concepts for analyzing culture, society, and politics that can be applied to many different situations, both historical and contemporary. Summary of requirements: about 125-150 pages of reading each week (on average), regular quizzes, three 5-page papers, final exam. Course goalsThis course has several different goals. By the end of the semester, you should be able to:
Your goals for the course You have just read my goals for the course. You should now take the time to reflect on those goals and think about any others you might have. In the space below, you can write the reasons you are in this course and any goals on which you wish to concentrate during it. • • • • Books for courseThe books are available at Atticus Books (8 Main Street, Amherst, tel. 256-1547). They are also on reserve in the DuBois Library. I have given ISBNs in case you want to order them yourself; I encourage you to support local businesses. Please let me know if prices differ significantly from those I have listed. Words in boldface indicate how the book will be referred to in the reading assignments and other course material. REQUIRED BOOKS Burke, Peter. The Italian Renaissance: Culture and society. 2d revised ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-691-00678-4. $21. Martines, Lauro. Power and imagination: City-states in Renaissance Italy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. (Reprint of 1979 edition.) ISBN 0-8018-3643-3. $18. Bondanella, Julia Conaway, and Mark Musa, eds. The Italian Renaissance reader. New York: Meridian, 1987. ISBN 0-452-01013-6. $17. Brucker, Gene, ed. The society of Renaissance Florence. Renaissance Society of America reprint text series, 8. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8020-8079-0. $20. (Reprint of the Harper Torchbooks edition, 1971.) Fedele, Cassandra. Letters and orations. Edited and translated by Diana Robin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN 0-226-23932-2. $15. Kohl, Benjamin G., and Ronald G. Witt, eds. The earthly republic: Italian humanists on government and society. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978. ISBN 0-8122-1097-2. $22. Machiavelli, Niccolò. The portable Machiavelli. Edited and translated by Peter Bondanella and Mark Musa. New York: Penguin, 1979. ISBN 0-14-015092-7. $16. RECOMMENDED BOOK Hale, J. R., ed. The Thames & Hudson dictionary of the Italian Renaissance. London: Thames & Hudson; New York: W.W. Norton, 1985. (Reprint of 1981 edition, which was published as the Concise encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance by Oxford University Press.) ISBN 0-500-20191-9. $15. Course requirements and gradingThis course is an upper-division history course. History, as a scholarly discipline, requires a lot of reading, careful attention to detail, and grasping difficult concepts. You should be prepared to spend four to six hours per week outside of class reading and reflecting, and a little more time when there are assignments due. The requirements are: 1. Quizzes (25% of final grade). Each class will begin with a brief quiz on the day’s assigned reading or the material already covered in class. Quizzes cannot be made up, but you may miss up to five quizzes without penalty. If you miss fewer, the "extra" quizzes will be counted as extra credit (worth up to one-half letter grade on the final course grade). 2. Three five-page papers (50% of final grade). Over the course of the semester, you will write three papers on the course readings. I must receive the first paper by October 10, the second by November 14, and the third by December 5. You may rewrite the papers if you are dissatisfied with the grade. 3. Final examination (25% of final grade). Two-hour, in-class essay exam. You may bring your notes but not your books (leave them at home or outside the classroom). The final will be held in the scheduled final exam period for the course, to be announced when the University has prepared the final exam schedule. Option: term paper Students interested in writing a 20-page term paper may do so instead of doing the three five-page papers. The term paper will count for 50% of the final course grade. Instructions, guidelines, and deadlines for the term paper are detailed in a separate handout. Index cards Please bring several 3x5 index cards to each class meeting. You will use them to write your answers to quizzes and for informal, ungraded assessment activities. A pack of 100 index cards will be enough for the semester. Journal I encourage you to keep a journal for the course. A journal is a place for you to develop interpretations of what you read, to relate it to previous course material, and to reflect on its significance for your understanding of past and present. It differs from notes, which are summaries of readings, lectures, and class discussion, in that a journal records your responses, interpretations, questions, and frustrations. It will allow you to identify your strengths and weaknesses in the course, and it will also reveal your intellectual progress during the semester. A note on readingsIt may look like there’s a lot of reading for this course. Well, there is; reading is inevitable in history. But I have carefully chosen the readings so they address the course themes. For each unit I will hand out detailed instructions on what to look for as you do the course reading. If you follow the instructions, the readings will be manageable. Course schedule with topics, readings, and assignments
Thurs. 9/5: Introduction to the course Tues. 9/10: Introducing the Renaissance: approaches to Renaissance history
Thurs. 9/12: Introducing the Renaissance: Petrarch
UNIT 1: POLITICAL FORMS AND IDEAS Tues. 9/17: The political background to the Renaissance
Thurs. 9/19: Petrarch on good government
Tues. 9/24: Republican oligarchies
Thurs. 9/26: Florence: the ideal and the reality
UNIT 2: FAMILIES AND MARRIAGE Tues. 10/1: The Renaissance family
Thurs. 10/3: Renaissance family values
Tues. 10/8: The Renaissance view of women (and men)
Thurs. 10/10: In defense of women
UNIT 3: THE SOCIAL ORDER Tues. 10/15: The social and economic order
Thurs. 10/17: Social structure in Renaissance Florence
Tues. 10/22: Religion, public morals, and outsiders
UNIT 4: THE PRODUCTION OF CULTURE
Thurs. 10/24: Artists and writers
Tues. 10/29: Patrons, clients, and courts
Thurs. 10/31: The meanings of art
Tues. 11/5: Taste and iconography
Thurs. 11/7: NO CLASS (Prof. Ogilvie at conference)
UNIT 5: RENAISSANCE HUMANISM Tues. 11/12: Renaissance "worldviews"
Thurs. 11/14: Humanism, ideology, and society
Tues. 11/19: The Renaissance and the classical past
Thurs. 11/21: Humanist ethics and sociability
Tues. 11/26: The question of fortune
Thurs. 11/28: NO CLASS (Thanksgiving recess)
UNIT 6: TRANSFORMATIONS Tues. 12/3: Religion, irreligion, and secularization
Thurs. 12/5: Religious and secular virtues
Tues. 12/10: The end of the Renaissance
Thurs. 12/12: Conclusions, review, make-up day
FINALS WEEK: FINAL EXAMINATION (PLACE AND TIME TO BE ANNOUNCED)
Course policies Policy on late assignments 1. Quizzes cannot be made up (but you may miss up to five with no penalty). If you miss the final examination for a reason that is not approved by the university, you may take a makeup for half credit. 2. The maximum grade on the five-page papers will be reduced by one-half letter grade for each working day they are late after the deadline. For example, a paper that is three working days late can get at best a BC. Note that this is not a deduction from the grade but a reduction of the maximum: a C paper turned in four days late will still get a C, as will an A paper that is turned in four days late. Policy on attendance In accordance with university policy, I expect you to attend class. There is no separate attendance grade, but if I give a quiz on a day you miss, you cannot make it up unless you were absent for a legitimate, University-approved reason. If you do miss class for an approved reason, I will happily stay after class or meet with you in office hours to go over the material you missed. If you skip class for any other reason, I can suggest additional reading but I will not go over the material with you. I will take attendance at class, to learn names and to have a record for administrative purposes, but your attendance will not be factored into your final grade. Policy on classroom conduct Our classroom demeanor should facilitate the goals of this course. Please arrive on time, because it distracts everyone in a discussion if someone arrives late. Turn off your cell phone or beeper. If your phone rings, I get to answer it; if the call is really important I will let you take it in the hall. University rules prohibit eating and drinking in classrooms; if it becomes a problem, I will have to enforce the rule. If someone in the class does something that distracts or offends you, please talk to them or me and try to resolve it. Policy on academic honesty Plagiarism and cheating on the exams are both grounds for failure in the course. Plagiarism consists of either (a) copying the exact words of another work without both enclosing them in quotation marks and providing a reference, or (b) using information or ideas from another work without providing credit, in notes, to the source of the information or ideas. Submission of a paper copied from another work, or which contains fictitious or falsified notes, will result in automatic failure of the course. Please refer to the Undergraduate Rights and Responsibilities booklet for the University’s full policy on academic honesty. Cheating on the exam and quizzes includes, but is not limited to, copying from another student during the exam or quiz. It is not cheating to discuss material with classmates beforehand–indeed, I encourage it. However, that kind of collaboration should stop when the exam or quiz begins. Tips for successHistory 304 is not an easy course, but if you keep a few simple points in mind, it will be a lot easier. Here are some tips for doing well in the course. They all are really aspects of one overarching principle: take responsibility for your own education!
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| Fall 2002 Dept. of History UMass/Amherst |
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