The Renaissance

In what sense can our contemporary multicultural global world be traced back to the Renaissance? Did the Renaissance take place only in Florence, Rome, Venice and a few other Italian city states, or did it extend itself beyond Europe to include Africa and Asia? Intertwining history, literature, art and anthropology, this course will introduce students to the global Renaissance, stretching its traditional boundaries and examining Italy’s multiple exchanges with Northern Europe and the Muslim Mediterranean, as well as with the New World and the Far East. Along with the recovery of classical antiquity, the Renaissance was marked by a deep interest in the relationships between Christianity and the other ‘religions of the book’, Judaism and Islam, which nourished an intense debate on the notions of religious tolerance and cultural variety, eventually contributing to defining the modern notions of freedom and human rights. In order to examine the Renaissance encounters between East and West, the course will take into account not only written texts but also the connections between words and images, which shaped the visual culture of the period. Along with Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Erasmus, Luther, Montaigne and several others, special focus will be devoted to the representations of cultural encounters produced by Renaissance artists, engravers and mapmakers, such as Bellini, Giorgione, Vecellio, Holbein, and Durer. For this reason, lectures will not take place only in class but also in the reading rooms of the Bancroft Library to help the students to familiarize themselves with its rich collections and to explore the fascinating world of Renaissance print and visual culture.

Course Requirements

Active participation, quizzes, oral presentation, final paper.

Course is taught in English