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