WEEK I (August 27-31):

Dante, Divine Comedy: Inferno.

Erwin Panofsky, "Renaissance and Renascences" (pamphlet).

 

Lecture: Dantean Allegory and the Modernity of Medieval Florence (Knapp).

WEEK II (September 3-7) [Labor Day holiday Sept. 3]:

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 2nd Part of the 2nd Part: Question 8, The Gift of Understanding, Question115, Flattery, and Question 182, The Active Life in Comparison With the Contemplative Life. The Summa is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.newadvent.org/summa. The required reading is at the following sites: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/300800.htm, http://www.newadvent.org/summa/311500.htm, and http://www.newadvent.org/summa/318200.htm. Note that Question 8 has 8 parts; Question 115 has 2 parts; and Question 182 has 4 parts--be sure to read them all. Copies of this reading will also be on reserve.

Petrarch, "Ascent of Mount Ventoux," Renaissance Philosophy of Man, edited by Cassirer et al., 36-46

Pico della Mirandola, "Oration on the Dignity of Man," Renaissance Philosophy of Man, 215-254.

Rice/Grafton, The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1-18; 45-104.

 

Lecture: (on Wednesday) The Humanist Response to Scholasticism (Garrett).

WEEK III (September 10-14):

Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in 15th-Century Italy, 29-93 [optional: 1-27, 94-108].

Randolph Starn and Loren Partridge, Arts of Power, 83-148 (reserve)

 

Lecture: The Art of Andrea Mantegna: Humanism, Affective Piety, Politics (Ben David).

WEEK IV (September 17-21):

Castiglione, Book of the Courtier, Prologue, 31-36; Book I, 39-45, 51-98, 102-104; Book II, 107-133, 199-202; Book III, 208-231, 274-277; Book IV, 281-282, 288-304, 315-345.

Rice/Grafton, Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 18-44, 90-109.

 

Lecture: Impersonating a Courtier (Steinman)

WEEK V (September 24-28):

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (entire); The Discourses, Book I: Preface, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 55; Book II: Chapter 2; Book III: Chapter 41 (both in Selected Political Writings).

Rice/Grafton, Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 110-45.

 

Lecture: Machiavelli and the Renaissance Art of History (Garrett).

WEEK VI (October 1-5):

Desiderius Erasmus, Praise of Folly.

 

Lecture: Foolish Rhetoric (Steinman).

WEEK VII (October 8-12):

Thomas More, Utopia.

 

Lecture: (on Wednesday) Christian Humanism as Political Philosophy (Garrett).

 

 

 

 FALL BREAK 15-19 OCTOBER

WEEK VIII (October 22-26):

Bartolomé Las Casas, "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies," (pamphlet).

"The New World" (pamphlet).

Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of New Spain, 88-99, 107-118, 166-188, 189-204, 284-305, 383-413.

Hernan Cortes, "The Letters of Cortes, Selections" (pamphlet).

We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico (pamphlet).

 

Lecture: Encountering the Other (Garrett).

 

WEEK IX (October 29-November 2):

Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel: 1) Pantagruel, Prologue and chapters 1-9, 16, 23-34 and
2) Gargantua, Prologue and chapters 1, 3-8, 14-17, 21-32, 34-36, 48-57.

Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, 59-101 (pamphlet).

 

Lecture: Literature and Morality in Rabelais (Knapp).

WEEK X (November 5-9):

M. Luther, "The Freedom of a Christian" in Luther, Three Treatises, 277-316 (pamphlet).

Luther and Erasmus, Free Will and Salvation, 35-64; 68-69; 74-79; 85-97; 101-144; 169-173; 208-215; 246-249; 329-334.

Erasmus, "Hyperaspites," 96-97; 135-137; 157-160; 296-297 (pamphlet).

Natalie Davis, Society and Culture, "The Rites of Violence," 152-187.

Rice/Grafton, Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 146-177.

 

Lecture: Sin, Free-Will, and Future Contingents in Luther and Erasmus (Knapp).

WEEK XI (November 12-16):

S. Lotzer, "Twelve Articles of the Peasantry" (pamphlet).

Luther, "Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants" (pamphlet).

John Sleidan, The General History of the Reformation (1555), selections (pamphlet).

John Bossy, Christianity in the West, 1400-1700. Part I.

Natalie Davis, Society and Culture, "City Women and Religious Change," 65-95.

Jean Calvin, "Of Eternal Election," "On Resistance and Magistracy" (pamphlet).

 

Lecture: Reformation and Society (Knapp).

WEEK XII (November 19-21) [Thanksgiving vacation Nov. 23-25]:

Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms.

Natalie Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France, "Reasons of Misrule" and "Women on Top," 97-151.

 

Lecture: High and Low: Elite and Popular Culture in the Renaissance (Kierstead).

WEEK XIII (November 26-30):

Michel de Montaigne, Essays: "On the Power of Imagination," "On Cannibals," "On the Custom of Wearing Clothes," "On Experience."

 

Lecture: Montaigne: ‘What Do I Know?’ (Kierstead).

 

Books for Purchase

Hum 210 Course pamphlet (available for purchase in Bookstore)

John Bossy, Christianity in the West, 1400-1700. (Oxford)

Dante, The Divine Comedy of Dante Aligheri: Inferno, trans. A. Mandelbaum. (Bantam)

E. Cassirer, Renaissance Philosophy of Man. (Yale)

E. Rice and A. Grafton, Foundations of Early Modern Europe. (Norton)

M. Baxandall, Painting and Experience in 15th-Century Italy. (Oxford)

Castiglione, Book of the Courtier. (Penguin, 1976)†

Machiavelli, Selected Political Writings. (Hackett)

Erasmus, Praise of Folly. (Penguin, 1994)†

Thomas More, Utopia. (Cambridge)

Bernal Diaz, Conquest of New Spain. (Penguin)

Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, trans. J. M. Cohen. (Penguin)†

Luther and Erasmus, Free Will and Salvation. (Westminster John Knox Press)

Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms. (Johns Hopkins)

Natalie Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France. (Stanford)

M. de Montaigne, Essays, trans. J. M. Cohen. (Penguin, 1993)†

 

†Editions so marked differ in pagination from others with this title by the same publisher; if you buy a different edition, be sure to consult one of the editions on reserve in order to arrive at the correct pagination for your edition.

All readings not required for purchase will be placed on reserve in the Library. In some cases a limited number of copies of books for purchase will also be available on reserve. For your convenience reserve books will be on two-hour desk reserve. Lectures will be on Mondays unless announced otherwise.