Fall 2017Richard Drake
University Hall 314
Office Hour: MWF 10-11
Tel: 243-2981
HSTR 354 Italian Civilization from Dante to Napoleon
Objectives of the Course
We will survey the main themes of Italian history from Dante to Napoleon, focusing our attention, at the outset, on the reasons for Italy’s role as “the first-born among the sons of modern Europe,” in Jacob Burckhardt’s famous characterization. He thought that Renaissance Italy had been the greatest and most original culture in Western Civilization since Periclean Athens. Then we will turn to an examination of the causes and the process of the country’s decline in the early modern period down to the dawn of the nineteenth century. The reasons why countries decline and fall should possess an intrinsic interest for Americans at this crisis-ridden time in our nation’s history.
Required Reading
Dante, The Inferno (Mentor)
Benvenuto Cellini, Autobiography (Penguin)
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (Mentor)
Galileo Galilei, The Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (Doubleday)
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms (Penguin)
GiambattistaVico, On the Study Methods of Our Time (Cornell)
Carlo Goldoni, The Venetian Twins/Mirandolina(Absolute Classics)
Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments (Bobbs-Merrill)
Examinations and the Paper
Students will write a mid-term examination (Friday, 20 October) and a final examination (Thursday, 14 December). Both examinations will have mainly an essay format, with some short-answer questions. The mid-term examination will be worth 20 percent of the semester grade, the final examination 40 percent. A ten-page term paper, the subject of which will be determined by each student in consultation with the professor, will be due in class on Wednesday, 15 November. The term paper will be worth 30 percent of the semester grade. Graduate students who are taking the course for graduate credit must write a twenty-page paper in place of the ten-page undergraduate paper. In addition, I will give three unannounced quizzes during the semester. The quizzes will be worth 10 percent of the semester grade.
Public Lectures
I strongly encourage students to attend all presentations in the President’s Lecture Series and will make pertinent announcements about the speakers.
Lectures and Reading Assignments
Week 1
Friday1 SeptemberIntroduction
Week 2
Monday4 September Labor Day Holiday
Wednesday6 SeptemberMedieval Italy
Friday8 SeptemberDante
Week 3
Monday11 SeptemberDiscussion of The Inferno
Wednesday13 SeptemberGiotto (Slide Lecture with Music)
Friday15 SeptemberHumanism: Petrarch
Week 4
Monday18 SeptemberHumanism: Boccaccio
Wednesday20 SeptemberThe Renaissance: An Overview
Friday22 SeptemberThe Art of the Renaissance: The Quattrocento (Slide Lecture with Music)
Week 5
Monday25 SeptemberIlCalamità: The Invasions of Italy
Wednesday27 SeptemberNiccolò Machiavelli
Friday29 SeptemberDiscussion of The Prince
Week 6
Monday2 OctoberThe Borgias as a Symbol of the Italioan Renaissance
Wednesday4 OctoberHigh Renaissance Art: The Cinquecento (Slide
Lecture with Music)
Friday6 OctoberRepresentative Men of the Renaissance: Baldassare Castiglione
Week 7
Monday9 OctoberRepresenatative Men of the Renaissance: Benvenuto Cellini: Discussion f the Autobiography
Wednesday11 OctoberRenaissance Literature
Friday13 OctoberMannerism (Slide Lecture with Music)
Week 8
Monday16 OctoberThe Protestant Reformation in Italy
Wednesday18 OctoberThe Catholic Counter-Reformation in Italy
Friday20 OctoberMid-term Examination
Week 9
Monday23 OctoberThe Spanish Domination: To the Thirty Years War
Wednesday25 OctoberThe Cheese and the Worms (Discussion)
Friday27 OctoberItaly in the Thirty Years War
Week 10
Monday30 OctoberBaroque Music in Italy
Wednesday1 NovemberBaroque Art in Italy
Friday3 NovemberGalileo and Italian Science in the 17th Century (Discussion of The Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo)
Week 11
Monday6 NovemberThe Roman Inquisition and the Galileo Heresy Trial
Wednesday8 NovemberItaly from Westphalia to Aquisgrana
Friday10 NovemberVeterans Day Holiday
Week 12
Monday13 November GiambattistaVico(Discussion of On the Study Methods of Our Time)
Wednesday15 NovemberItaly and the Grand Tour
Friday17 NovemberGiovanni Battista Piranesi (Slide Lecture)
Week 13
Monday20 NovemberEighteenth-Century Venetian Art (Slide Lecture with Music)
Wednesday22 NovemberThanksgiving Day Holiday
Friday24 NovemberThanksgiving Day Holiday
Week 14
Monday27 NovemberCarlo Goldoni (Discussion of The Venetian Twins and Mirandolina)
Wednesday29 NovemberItaly and the Enlightenment
Friday1 DecemberCesare Beccaria (Discussion of On Crimes andPunishment)
Week 15
Monday 4 DecemberThe French Revolution
Wednesday 6 DecemberItaly and the French Revolution
Friday8 DecemberNapoleonic Italy
Week 16
Monday11 DecemberCourse Conclusions
Final Examination: 1:10-3:10, Thursday, 14 December