LOCATION: H 125

FINAL EXAM: In class on Wednesday, July 2

You must plan to be in class the days of the Midterm, June 11 and the Final, July 2. There will be no make up exams!

The period from 1330 to 1500 marked a period of transition and turmoil in European history. The cultural synthesis of the high middle ages was crumbling, and from the fragments a new culture was forged, that of the Renaissance. Italian scholars in search of a fresh model for society, one based less on medieval Christianity and more on the classical world challenged the crystalline intellectual structure of scholasticism . A new structure of education, the studia humanitatis, shaped the intellectual atmosphere of the Renaissance. Poets, architects, statesmen and artists gave it expression in Italian cities. The Renaissance was essentially an urban, cosmopolitan movement, in Italy as well as in Northern Europe, and it touched most deeply the urban elite which had the means to acquire the new, humanist education that shaped Renaissance thought.

Gradually the culture of the Italian Renaissance spread north, where it collided with the more deeply entrenched medieval society and world view beyond the Alps. The result of the encounter was a compromise. The more worldly, even jaded, Italian humanism gave way in the north to a Christian humanism expounded by scholars such as Erasmus, that attempted to incorporate the best of the classical world with the best of the medieval Christian church. Yet Italian and Northern humanism shared a new faith in humanity's ability to solve its problems on Earth and both celebrated humanity with an enthusiasm not seen since the Greco-Roman world which provided their model for the best that human society can achieve.

The transition from medieval to Renaissance Europe required changes not only in education and the arts, but also in every other sphere of human activity. The Hundred Years War, waged between England and France for much of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as well as the Wars of the Roses in England, were watersheds in the methods and technology of warfare. The European population slowly recovered from the devastating plagues of the early fourteenth century. Population growth, and the commercial expansion of the fifteenth century laid the foundations for the restructuring and renewal of the European economy. The fifteenth century is rightly called the "Cinderella Century", as it witnessed the creation of a new Europe from the struggles of the fourteenth. Thus this course, while discussing in depth humanism and changes in A high culture@ during the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, will also cover the topics of gender, economic development, and social history in general.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Leon Battista Alberti, The Family in Renaissance Florence, (Waveland Press; 2004), ISBN: 0-88133-821-4

Jerry Brotton, The Renaissance Bazaar, (Oxford, 2002), ISBN: 0192802658

Anthony Grafton, Cardano’s Cosmos, (Harvard UP, 2001), ISBN: 10: 0674006704

Margaret L. King, Women of the Renaissance, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), ISBN: 0-226-43618-7

Machiavelli, The Prince, (Bedford, 2004), ISBN: 0312149786

Charles Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, (Cambridge: 2006), ISBN: 0521547814

Gene Brucker, ed., Two memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti and Gregario Dati, (Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, 1991), ISBN: 0-88133-622-X

Various short readings will be posted to the Blackboard site for the class.

LEARNING GOALS:

1. To develop a broad, comprehensive understanding of the history of Europe during what we call the Renaissance. Content will not be restricted to the major intellectual and cultural changes of that period, but will also cover social, economic, political and gender history from the late Middle Ages to the year 1500.

2. To focus on the most significant historiographical problems and debates of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

3. To practice analysis of primary sources.

4. To improve reading (content analysis) and writing skills (style and grammar). Students who are not proficient English language writers are strongly advised to obtain a copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style (available at the Titan Bookstore).

ASSESSMENT:

Student learning will be assessed primarily on the basis of command of concepts and information presented in the readings, lecture and class discussion. Students will also be expected to demonstrate improvement in communication skills, especially in writing.

"A" level work = In exams, students will be able to articulate clearly and coherently, and in essay format, the answer to the questions asked. By essay format, I mean that their answers will be in the form of an argument, with an introduction, a body of evidence, and a conclusion. They will answer each question completely, and their answers will show evidence of understanding, rather than merely reciting facts or paraphrasing the readings or lectures. In sum, they will be able to demonstrate that they have digested the material rather than merely memorized it. By the same token, in their book reviews, students will discuss the thesis or interpretation of the book, as well as the evidence upon which the thesis is presented, and make a critical judgment about the value of the book. Papers will be well written and well edited for grammar and style. In class discussion students will make thoughtful comments and/or ask thoughtful questions.

"B" level work = In exams students will demonstrate that they have digested the readings and class discussions, similar to that of "A" level work, although their understanding and/or articulation of this will be less complete than that of "A" level work. Their exams are likely to be more "factual" and less thoughtful. Book reviews will demonstrate at least a partial grasp of the thesis of the work, but less understanding of the interpretation than that of "A" level work. Papers will be well edited for grammar but may contain some stylistic errors. Class participation may be less frequent or less thoughtful than that of "A" level work.

"C" level work = Students will demonstrate retention of the gist of readings, lectures and class discussion, but without a grasp of an ability to make connections among the concepts contain in that material. Writing will be edited for grammar but still contain some grammatical and/or stylistic errors. Book reviews will read more like book reports, focusing on the factual information in the book and having little or nothing to say regarding interpretation. Class participation will be infrequent.

"D" level work = Students will complete all of the assignments, but with evidence of minimal effort only. Written work will contain errors in understanding and articulation, including little evidence of editing for grammar and style. Exams will not demonstrate comprehension of concepts, although they may contain fragments of information from readings and class lectures and discussions.

"F" level work = Students will not complete all of the assignments, and their work will be rife with errors of comprehension and articulation, including no evidence of editing for grammar and style. Exams will demonstrate neither comprehension of concepts nor evidence of diligence in completing reading assignments and attending class.

Students will be required to take a midterm and a final exam. The midterm and final both will be worth thirty percent of the final grade. Both will be in class. I will supply paper – no blue books needed.

Students will also be required to write five response to the readings papers, each 4-5 pages in length. In these papers students will address the reading due for that night’s class week, and discuss the thesis of the reading and/or its main points, and its relevance to the class. All papers will be due in class the night the readings are discussed. No late papers or emailed papers will be accepted! Since part of the reason for the papers is to help students prepare for class discussion, students must be in class for their papers to be accepted.

97-100 = A+ 93-96 = A 90-92 = A-

87-89 = B+ 83-86 = B 80-82 = B-

77-79 = C+ 73-76 = C 70-72 = C-

67-69 = D+ 63-66 = D 60-62 = D- 59 or below = F