PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Cities, Saints, and Society:
History, Art & Culture in Italy and Rome

The University of Washington's History Department is excited to offer its first quarter-long study abroad program in Rome! Its imperial past shattered by invasions, the city emerged as the center of European Christianity. On site study of Roman art and monuments from Augustus to Bernini will be accompanied by a focus on the culture and politics of medieval Italian city states, culminating in the Renaissance of the 15th and early 16th centuries. Visits to Orvieto, Assisi and Florence are included.

The seminar will be based at the UW's Rome Center, housed in the 17th century Palazzo Pio in the heart of historic Rome - the Campo de’ Fiori. This piazza is an open-air fruit and vegetable market by day and a gathering place by night. The Rome Center provides classroom space, computer lab, library, and logistical assistance.



Cities, Saints and Society in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
7 credits
Mary O’Neil, History Department

This course will study the urban history of Italy during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, especially Rome and Florence. The dense presence of martyrs to the faith, along with the Papacy, made Rome and its churches the most important pilgrimage destinations in medieval Europe.

By the 12th and 13th centuries, many other cities had developed their own political and religious identities, clearly visible in the architecture of Italian hill towns, such as Orvieto and Assisi, both of which will be visited. The continuity between the Italian Middle Ages and the Renaissance is seen in the writings of Dante, Petrarch, and Cola di Rienzo, whose competing visions of Roman political life reflected the classical tensions between republican and princely forms of government.

Florence provides a crucial example of these political conflicts, as the rise of the Medici family gradually undermined the republican traditions of the city-state. The Medici ascendancy and the re-established republic of Savonarola and Machiavelli will be the focus of a stay in Florence. Returning to Rome, the course turns to the Renaissance Papacy and the uniquely cosmopolitan society of the Eternal City, home to clerics, aristocrats, intellectuals and artists, along with artisans, nuns and prostitutes. Devastated in 1527 by the Sack of Rome, the city changed drastically in tone as the Counter Reformation signaled an end to the more permissive atmosphere of the Renaissance. The last week of the course will focus on the Roman Inquisition and the heresy trial of Giordano Bruno, whose looming statue stands prominently in Campo de’ Fiori, site of the UW Rome Center.


The Power of Images, the Art of Propaganda
5 credits
Lisa Schultz, Art Historian

In this course students will study the interaction of art, politics, and religion in Rome through outstanding representative monuments that show both continuity and change over the major epochs of the city’s history. Specifically, we will examine how art and architecture functioned as a tool of propaganda to advance the goals of the state, the church, and the individual in Rome.

Renaissance Florence was the center of a true flowering of art and culture and produced some of the world’s greatest artists; Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo, to name but a few. The city owed its cultural identity to Medici patronage - the Medici had an eye for new talent and for the greater glory of their family, they paid for and protected these gifted artists and thinkers. The city becomes our classroom as we explore the paintings and sculptures, churches and palaces, streets and piazzas.


By studying the monuments, and works of art and architecture in their original setting students gain a deeper understanding of their place in art history and the history of civilization in Italy. The students will take an active role in presenting key monuments to the class based on advance preparation and research begun in Seattle.

Communicating in Italian
3 credits
ItaliaIdea Language School
Students will be encouraged to utilize the Italian language while in Rome. To this end, we will work with one of Rome's most outstanding language schools – ItaliaIdea. Students will participate in an intensive "survival Italian" language class that will familiarize them with idiomatic expressions, the basic rules of grammar and proper pronunciation. They will also learn important cultural skills that will enable them to navigate Rome with confidence.

HISTORY SYLLABUS

Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Cities, Saints and Society
(7 credits + 3 for Italian)
Instructor: Professor Mary O'Neil

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Our history of Italy will begin with medieval accounts of the early Christian martyrs, whose deaths laid the foundation for the central role of Rome as a site of pilgrimage and of the Papacy.

By the 12th and 13th centuries, many other cities had developed their own political and religious identities, clearly visible in the architecture of Italian hill towns, such as Orvieto and Assisi. The continuity between the Italian Middle Ages and the Renaissance will be approached through the figures of Petrarch and Cola di Rienzo, whose visions of political life drew on the northern tradition of the commune (city state) as well as reviving the classical idea of Rome as a republic.

Florence provides a central example of the evolution of the Italian city state, as the rise of the Medici family gradually undermined the republican traditions of the medieval commune. The Medici ascendancy and the re-established republic will be examined from Cosimo to the Pazzi Conspiracy and the Republic of Savonarola and Machiavelli. Returning to Rome, we will focus on the family and women, Renaissance Papacy and the uniquely cosmopolitan society of the Eternal City. Devastated in 1527 by the Sack of Rome, the city changed drastically in tone as the Counter Reformation signalled an end to the permissive atmosphere of the Renaissance.
Preliminary Syllabus: selections from Boccaccio, Decameron to be assigned during quarter

Reading ahead: Week I readings should be read before the first week if possible.
Week 5 Martines April Blood is longest reading; start it when you can.

Week 1:Christan Rome: Martyrs, Papacy & Pilgrimage
Xerox packet: Golden Legend on Agnes, Cecilia, Clement, Gregory the Great, Chapters from Joyce Salisbury, on martyrs; Debra Birch on pilgrimage to Rome

Week 2: The Medieval Commune: Orvieto
Carla Frugoni, A Day in a Medieval City
Xerox: Gordon Griffiths, “The City State in Medieval & Renaissance Italy”

Week 3: 13th C. Religious Movements: Francis of Assisi: selected writings
Xerox: Thomas of Celano, Life of Francis (selections)
Lester Little, Francis & Dominic. Religious Poverty & the Profit Economy

Week 4: 14-15th C. Rome: Petrarch, Cola di Rienzo;
Florence: rise of the Medici
Xerox: 1) Petrarch: Mommsen article “Petrarch’s Concept of Dark Ages”
Letters on Rome, to Cicero, posterity, Cola di Rienzo
2) Florence: Vespasiano, Life of Cosimo di Medici

Week 5: Medici Florence: from Cosimo to Lorenzo, Sixtus IV
Lauro Martines, April Blood: Florence and the Plot against the Medici

Week 6: Italian Family: Public and Private Spheres
Leon Battista Alberti, The Family in Renaissance Florence, Book 3
Xerox: Alessandra Strozzi, selected letters; Lorenzo letter to Cardinal Giovanni

Week 7: Machiavelli: Politics & Papacy: Pius II, Alexander VI,
Julius II della Rovere
Xerox: Selections from Memoirs of Pius II (conclave, riots in Rome, St Andrew),Burchard diary from Borgia court of Alex IV, Machiavelli, The Prince and selected letters (or Discourses)

Week 8: Roman Society
Cohen, Words & Deeds in Ren. Rome selections TBA

Week 9: Sack of Rome:
Xerox: Leo X & Martin Luther, Letters; article on Sack, Francesco Guicciardini The Sack of Rome

Week 10: Roman Inquisition: Giordano Bruno
Cohen, Words & Deeds in Ren. Rome selection TBA


COURSE REQUIREMENTS
*Assignments: Due dates will be scheduled during the quarter.
*3 short papers, first 3-4 pages, second 4-5, third 5-7 (12-15 pages total)
*Final take home essay: (topics to be suggested from second half of course)

First paper on saints:
How do the criteria for sainthood change from early Christian Rome to the Middle Ages? Compare the martyrs, Benedict, Pope Gregory the Great, Francis of Assisi,
discussing how their different styles of sanctity reflect the social and political circumstances in which they lived.

Second paper: Petrarch or Renaissance family
Petrach and Cola di Rienzo:
What was Petrarch’s new concept of Rome and its history, and how does the republican revolution of Cola di Rienzo fit into his emerging view of Rome and its legacy?

Family:
Using Alberti, On the Family Book 3, the letters of Alessandra Strozzi and some Boccaccio stories (including Griselda X, 10 -- other suggestions will be made),
discuss the multiple roles of women in the Renaissance family and society.

Third paper: Machiavelli, the Papacy, or Sack of Rome
Machiavelli, Italy and Florence: many possible topics
Popes: Pius II, Sixtus IV, Alexander VI, Julius II, Leo X, Clement VII
Roman society in the 16th century: various topics using the Cohen anthology

*Take home final essay: selected topics to be announced


READINGS
Books to be ordered on line: One copy of each book will be on reserve at UWRC, so please order books. If you don’t want to purchase all of these arrange to share with another student.

Chiara Frugoni, A Day in a Medieval City, PB new $16 some used $12

Boccaccio, The Decameron, any edition is OK, but if ordering get Signet Classics translated
by Mark Musa & Peter Bondanella # 0451528662 new $7.95 lots of used

Lauro Martines, April Blood: Florence and the Plot against the Medici, PB 2004
$13.59 new lots of used copies

Leon Battista Alberti, The Family in Renaissance Florence, Book III

Machiavelli: Either
1) Machiavelli, The Prince, Crofts Classics 0882950533AHM Publishing $6.95 new lots used
this is a small lightweight book; other editions of Prince are OK too if you already have one
2) If you have read the Prince, or if you want more of Machiavelli, Discourses, letters etc: get
The Portable Machiavelli: new $12.24, lots used

Thomas and Elizabeth Cohen, Words and Deeds: Trials before the Renaissance Magistrates.
$ 27 new Amazon 7 below $20

Luigi Guicciardini, The Sack of Rome, 0934977321 new $12 some used


Further reading for history majors: optional, not required:

Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints

Daniel Waley, The Italian City Republics, any edition don’t buy this new = $62.
Amazon has 15 copies under $25 and Alibris has 6 copies under $25

Lauro Martines, Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence, $12.21 new, some used

Peter Partner, Renaissance Rome, 1500-1559: A Portrait of a Society (Paperback)
University of California Press; (1980) ISBN-10: 0520039459 $23 new , lots used

Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners, $13 new 300115970 3rd edition Yale (2cd edition OK)

Links:
site collecting historical maps of Rome:
http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/italy/rome/rome.html

interactive map showing the monuments of classical Rome:
http://www.roman-empire.net/maps/map-rome.html

Rome in the Nolli/Piranesi map of 1748:
http://nolli.uoregon.edu/preface.html

a modern tourist map from the online Michelin site:
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/direct/map/Rome-map

general information on Italian sites and history: a quirky but generally reliable site:
http://www.paradoxplace.com/index.htm
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Chronologies/Overview.htm

ART HISTORY SYLLABUS

Instructor: Lisa Schultz

COURSE DESCRIPTION
In this course students will study the interaction of art, politics and religion in Rome through outstanding representative monuments that show both continuity and change over the major epochs of the city’s history. Specifically, we will examine how art and architecture functioned as a tool of propaganda to advance the goals of the state, the church, and the individual in Rome. By studying the works of art and architecture in their original settings we will gain a deeper understanding of their place in art history and the history of civilization in Italy.

The students will take an active role in presenting key monuments to the class based on advance preparation and research begun in Seattle.


REQUIREMENTS:
1. Each participant in the seminar will present one topic/monument/site to the group. This will be a fairly specific research topic that you will define and begin working on long before you arrive in Rome. It can be something chosen from/related to the list I will provide, or something else within the theme of the course that interests you: a specific painting, sculpture, building, object, or site. You will work with me to refine your particular angle, sources, research questions, etc, before presenting your results to the group on site.

2. Students will create a written version of their presentation. This paper will follow a specific outline and may include images, photographs, maps, drawings, diagrams, etc. This must be completed within 4 days of the student’s on-site presentation.

3. Renaissance Florence was the center of a true flowering of art and culture and produced some of the world’s greatest artists; Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo, to name but a few. The city becomes our classroom as we explore the paintings and sculptures, churches and palaces, streets and piazzas. In lieu of on-site presentations students will participate in (and be graded on) “The Quest”. The Quest is a creative writing assignment covering matters of history, culture, art, literature, local color and obscure facts, which is handed out daily, and is to be turned in on the last day in Florence. It requires students to pay close attention when they're on their walks with the group, and to be engaged as they explore Florence on their own.

4. Participation in discussion and on-site group exercises.

APPROXIMATE GRADING PERCENTAGES

Main Presentation 40
Written paper 20
The Quest 10
Participation 30


READINGS (subject to change):
Required:
*A course reading packet will be available at Ram’s Copy Shop on the Ave. approximately one month before the program begins.
*Artwise Rome; city map

In addition, these texts are highly recommended for advance reading.
* Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King