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.