Florence in the Age of the Renaissance:
From Dante to Machiavelli
Spring Semester 2004

Dee Goertz
goertz@hanover.edu
Frank Luttmer
historians@hanover.edu


Course Description and Objectives

This course is an introduction to the literature, history, art, philosophy, and theology of the Florentine Renaissance. By analyzing and interpreting primary texts and by experiencing the sights and sounds of Florence and nearby cities, the course seeks to reconstruct the world of Dante, Petrarch, Bocaccio, Donatello, Botticelli, Machiavelli, and Michelangelo.


Readings

Gene Brucker, Renaissance Florence
Dante, Inferno, trans. Robert Pinsky
Rosa Maria Letts, The Renaissance
Niccolo Machiavelli, Mandragola, trans. Mera J. Flaumenhaft
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. Leo Paul S. de Alvarez
Francesco Petrarca, Selections from the Canzoniere and other Works, trans. Mark Musa
Course Pack (Aquinas, Dante, Boccaccio, Vergerius, Pico, Machiavelli)


Grades

Final grades will be based on an evaluation of papers and class participation.


Schedule

May 4: Arrive in Florence

May 5: Brucker, Chs. 1-3; Aquinas (course pack); Dante, canto 1

May 6: Brucker, Chs. 4-5; Dante, 2-6

May 7: Brucker, Chs. 6-7; Petrarch, 1-19; Vergerius (course pack); Pico (course pack); Dante, 9, 10

May 8: Weekend, No Class

May 9: Weekend, No Class

May 10: Letts, Interpreter, Chs. 1-3; Dante, 11, 13, 15, 18, 19

May 11: Day Trip to Siena

May 12: Letts, Chs. 4-6; Dante, 21, 26, 27, 31, 32

May 13: Letts, Chs. 7-8; Dante, 33, 34; Dante (course pack)

May 14: Weekend, No Class

May 15: Weekend, No Class

May 16: Weekend, No Class

May 17: Boccaccio (course pack)

May 18: Boccaccio (course pack); Petrarch

May 19: Travel to Rome

May 20: Petrarch

May 21: Machiavelli, Prince

May 22: Weekend, No Class

May 23: Weekend, No Class

May 24: Machiavelli, Prince; Machiavelli, Discourses (course pack)

May 25: Machiavelli, Mandragola

May 26: Grading

May 27: Return to Cincinnati



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