HIST 304 Renaissance Italy
Sean Cocco
Assistant Professor of History
Trinity College
Trinity Commons 132
297-4091
Sean.Cocco@trincoll.edu
Fall, 2007
Office hours: F 2:30-4:30
Introduction
Description
This course explores the origin, distinctiveness, and importance of the Italian Renaissance. More broadly, it
is about culture, society and identity in the many “Italies” that existed before the modern period. Early
lectures will trace the evolution of the Italian city-states in the Middle Ages, outlining the social and
political conditions that fostered the cultural flourishing of the peninsula in the 1400s and 1500s. We will
then consider Florence in the early Renaissance, and subsequently Rome in the High Renaissance. Topics
will include the papacy’s return to the Eternal City, the art of Michelangelo and Raphael, as well as the
warlike and mercurial pope Julius II. Bearing in mind that Italy was a politically fragmented peninsula
characterized by cultural, linguistic, and regional differences, I also aim to draw your attention to Venice,
Naples, and the lesser city-states. The final week will address the waning of the Renaissance by considering
the catastrophic Sack of Rome (1527) and the shifting sensibilities of the late 1500s. It is my aim to strike a
balance between social, political, and cultural history. This means that art, humanism, and the close
connection between cultural patronage and political power will be the object of study, but so will the lives
of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italians.
Books required for the course
Gene Brucker, Giovanni and Lusanna (U California, 1986)
ISBN: 0520244958
Machiavelli, The Prince (Norton Critical Edition)
ISBN 0-393-96220-2 • paper • 288 pages • 1991
Kenneth Gouwens, The Italian Renaissance: The Essential Sources (Blackwell, 2005)
ISBN 063123165X
Lauro Martines, ed. Renaissance Sextet: Six tales in historical context (Toronto, 2004)
ISBN: 0802086500
Elisabeth and Thomas Cohen, Words and Deeds in Renaissance Rome: Trials before the Papal Magistrates
Gene Brucker, ed., Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence
Additional readings are in the Reading packet available for purchase in class
or in my office ($17)
Teaching Assistant
I am delighted that Mark Durney (’08) has agreed to be a teaching assistant for the course. Mark’s
responsibilities will include leading discussions, exam reviews, and offering assistance on essay drafts.
Mark took this course last year, has traveled in Italy, and knows his stuff!
Class Assignments and Grading
Grade breakdown
1. Participation (20%)
(NOTA BENE: Faithful attendance is required. You are allowed only one unexcused absence)
2. Midterm (20%)
3. Final (20%)
4. Essays
Essay 1 (6 PAGES) 15%
Essay 2 (10 PAGES) 25%
On Plagiarized Papers
Any quoted material should be cited – this means paragraphs, sentences, and phrases taken directly from
another source and placed in quotations. Note, however, that even a gloss or paraphrase of another author’s
work, without attribution and citation, is also considered plagiarism. If you have any doubts, cite. I adhere
to the standards outlined in the “Academic Policies, Procedures and Regulations” outlined in the Student
Manual (especially pp. 50-56). Should you be caught plagiarizing, you will be punished as spelled out
in the manual.
Citing does not diminish the originality of your work. What it does is give credit where it is due, and it
gives your reader the opportunity to evaluate the evidence supporting your claims. At the end of a quote, a
footnote tells the reader the source of your quotation. At the end of a paragraph, or sentence, it points to
where you got the information. Almost all of your paragraphs should have footnotes. Software programs
like Word make footnotes and endnotes easy. Historians prefer footnotes – these appear on the bottom of a
page (like this).1 Once you have cited a given source in a note, you can use the “short title” format.2
Remember to note that citations are formatted differently in the bibliography; please consult Kate L.
Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Term Papers.
1
Here is an example of proper footnoting. For other examples of footnote formats see Kate L. Turabian,
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Chicago: 1973), 78-124 and 132-143.
2
Turabian, Manual, 102.
Course Schedule
Below you will find the sequence of lectures and the readings that correspond to each topic.
Week 1
W 9/5 Princes Unto Themselves: The Italian Communes
Reading brought to class: “I first began writing this life of mine…” (Cellini)
F 9/7 Florence in the lifetime of Dante and Giotto
Read: Dante Inferno Canto I (Gouwens, 1-23); Boccaccio (Gouwens, 96-107); and Excerpts from
Dino Compagni’s, Chronicle (READER 1)
Week 2
W 9/12 Social and Political Unrest
Read: Buonaccorso Pitti’s memoir in Gene Brucker, Memoirs
F 9/14 Goods in Profusion
Read: Gregorio Dati’s memoir in Gene Brucker, Memoirs; and Giovanni Ruccellai, A
Merchant’s Praise of Florence (READER 2)
Week 3
W 9/19 Petrarch Climbs a Mountain
Read: Petrarch, How a Ruler Ought to Govern His State (READER 3), Petrarch’s Letters and the
Ascent of Mount Ventoux (Gouwens, 24-47)
F 9/21 Civic Humanism
Read: Coluccio Salutati, Letter to Zambeccari; Leonardo Bruni, Panegyric (READER 4), and
Laura Cereta (Gouwens 43-47, 197-205)
Week 4
W 9/26 The quattrocento Medici regime
Read: Francesco Guicciardini, History of Florence (READER 5); Alessandra Strozzi’s Letters
(Gouwens, 108-125)
F 9/28 Civic values, competition, and social place in Renaissance Florence
Read: Martines, Renaissance Sextet (up to 167)
Week 5
W 10/3 Giovanni and Lusanna
Read: Brucker, Giovanni and Lusanna
F 10/5 Brunelleschi goes to Rome (and designs a Dome).
ESSAY 1 IS DUE (RESPONSE ESSAY ON SOURCES)
Week 6
W 10/10 Masaccio, Ficino, and Pico
Read: Marsilio Ficino (Gouwens, 187-196); Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of
Man(http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/pico/); the Fat Woodcarver (Martines,
Sextet)
F 10/12 Savonarola’s Florence
Read: Savonarola’s downfall (contemporary accounts), and Francesco Guicciardini, History of
Florence (READER 6)
Week 7
W 10/17 **MIDTERM EXAM
F 10/19 CLASS CANCELED
Week 8
W 10/24 The “Most Serene Republic”: Venice
Read: Crouzet-Pavan, Venice Triumphant, 1-96 (READER 7)
F 10/26 Of Mercenaries and Artists: Urbino and Mantua
Read: Isabella d’Este (Gouwens, 224-243); Machiavelli The Prince, 73-118 and 139-149 (Norton
Critical Edition)
Week 9
W 10/31 Machiavelli’s Prince
Read: Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince, vii-72 (Norton Critical Edition)
F 11/2 Restoration and Renovation: The Renaissance comes to Rome
Read: Pius II, Commentaries (READER 8)
Week 10
W 11/7 The Sovereign Pontiff: The Pope as Prince
Read: Pius II, Commentaries (READER), and Lorenzo Valla’s refutation of the Donation of
Constantine (Gouwens, 176-186)
F 11/9 Michelangelo
Read: Giorgio Vasari Lives of the Artists (on Blackboard site)
Week 11
W 11/14 Renaissance “Genius”
Read: Benvenuto Cellini (Gouwens, 244-256); and Cellini (READER 9)
F 11/16 The Sack of Rome
Read: Luigi Guicciardini, The Sack of Rome (READER 10)
Week 12
W 11/21 No Class (Thanksgiving)
F 11/23 No Class (Thanksgiving)
Week 13
W 11/28 Snorting like a Mad Bull: Vendetta, the Duel, and Renaissance Manners
Read: Castiglione, Book of the Courtier (Gouwens, 260-277); Lorenzino de’ Medici, Apology for
a Murder (READER)
F 11/30 The Renaissance after 1527
Read: Cohen, Words and Deeds (for Wednesday discussion)
Week 14
W 12/5 Criminals, Spell-Casters, and Adulterers in Sixteenth-Century Rome
Read: Words and Deeds
F 12/7 Conclusion and Review
ESSAY 2 DUE (LONG TERM PAPER)
FINAL EXAM: 12/19 3 PM (DOUBLECHECK TO CONFIRM THAT THIS IS
ACCURATE)