History 723.1: The Renaissance

Professor Margaret L. King  king@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Fall 2009 - Tuesday 6:55 - 8:35 PM

SYLLABUS

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Four great cultural movements transformed the civilization of the 7West during the early modern centuries: the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment.  This course examines the first of these, the Renaissance of 1300-1650, which was the foundation for those that follow.  It does so through a close reading of key works by major authors, beginning with Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), or Petrarch, who brought to European culture the sonnet, the concept of the Middle Ages, and a new understanding of the self.  It then skips to Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), the architect of the modern notion of the state, and the herald of the fall of republican Italy.  It proceeds to Machiavelli's contemporaries Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529), who defines the new ideal of the gentleman and courtier; Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536), who calls for a fundamental reform of the Church and of social norms; and Thomas More (1478-1535), a religious conservative who yet envisions a society based on the communal ownership of property and complete freedom of conscience. After a look at the alternative utopian visions of Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) and Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673), it concludes with the work of female authors Moderata Fonte (1555-1592) and Marie de Gournay (1565-1645), advocates of new freedoms for women.

Students will be expected to do all weekly readings and to make regular oral presentations. In addition, students will prepare a research project (4000-5000 words) on a Renaissance figure of their choosing: a research paper (utilizing at least fifteen primary and secondary sources); a historiographical essay (discussing at least three scholarly monographs); or an annotated bibliography (at least 30 annotated citations, including at least ten monographs and ten scholarly articles).

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