Modern Liberal Arts

Modern Liberal Arts

University of Winchester

Year 1 semester 2: Jan 2015

Fridays 3pm MC 107

Introduction

There are so many aspects of the Renaissance that have shaped the ideas that we employ today, and often we simply take them for granted without really comprehending their origins. You will see over the course of the module that the Renaissance was a remarkable time, not least because it gave freedom and expression to literary and artistic cultures, to music, to political theory, and to science, perhaps not seen in Europe since the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome.

As far as Liberal Arts are concerned, the Renaissance marks something of a watershed. From Antiquity (for example, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle), the liberal arts had gradually become codified into the trivium and quadrivium. Over the 1500 years or so, there had been a tendency to reduce the liberal arts to compendia of knowledge – a bit like having text books replace primary sources – and by the time of the Renaissance there was a growing dissatisfaction with this canon of higher education, and especially with the dialectical wrangling of the Scholastics. Against this, humanism and the fine arts mounted a serious challenge to the dominance of Aristotelianism.

We hope you enjoy learning about one of the most important and influential periods in European history.

Weekly sessions

Week 1Florence (lecture)

(RH)

ReferencesAlberti, L. B. (2004) On Painting, London: Penguin Classics.

Brown, A. (1999) The Renaissance, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

Bruckner, G. A. (1983) Renaissance Florence, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Burckhardt, J. (1944) The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Oxford: The Phaidon Press.

Cassirer, E., Kristeller, P. O. & Randall, J. H. (eds.) (1948) The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dante, (1984) The Divine Comedy vol. 1: Inferno, London: Penguin Classics, trans. Mark Musa.

Dante, (2002) The New Life, New York: New York Review Books.

Holmes, G. (1969) The Florentine Enlightenment 1400-50, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Latham, C.S. (1891) A Translation of Dante’s Eleven Letters, Houghton, Mifflin and Company; available at

Nauert, C. (2006) Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Week 2Beginnings… Humanism needs ‘humanity’

(NT)

ReadingGellius Attic Nights, 13.17

Cicero, Pro Archia, 8-11

Cicero, De oratore, III, xv, 56-8

Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, pp. 57-61

Cicero, On Duties, pp. 21-3

Bauman, Human Rights in Ancient Rome, pp. 25-7

Dante, Monarchy, pp. 3-9, 13, 19-21

Gilson, Dante and Philosophy, pp. 162-167

Pico della Mirandola, On The Dignity of Man, pp. 4-5

Ficino, Meditations on the Soul, p. 26

Week 3More Beginnings… Renaissance history and the Arab Golden Age (NT)

ReadingFlorence V. Baghdad

Mommsen, ‘Petrarch’s Conception of the “Dark Ages”’, pp. 237, 240-1.

Timelines

Masood, Science and Islam, pp. 217-22; 175-181.

Al-Khalili,The House of Wisdom, pp. 15-17; 33-7; 44-8; 68-73; 80-1;124-7; 171; 201-3; 223-6; 217-21; 229-31.

Lyons,The House of Wisdom, pp. 60-1; 62-4; 70-4; 77; 142-5; 156; 197-201.

Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance, pp. 1-3; 16-18; 66-7; 194-9; 231-3; 250-1.

Gutas,Greek Thought, Arabic Culture, pp. 1; 13; 54-60; 89; 97-8; 110-111; 152-5.

Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World, pp. 203-6; 253-260.

Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, (completed in 1377) pp. vii; 371-5; 428-31.

Also, ‘Visions of Islam in Renaissance Europe,’ George Saliba,

‘The Islamic Foundation of the Renaissance,’ Hugh Bibbs

Wider ReadingNicholson, A Literary History of the Arabs

Starr, Lost Enlightenment.

Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century

Rosenthal,The classical heritage in Islam

Turner,Science in medieval Islam: an illustrated introduction.

Bloom, J & Blair, S. Islam: a thousand years of faith and power

Week 4Read yourselfto self-perfection

(NT)

ReadingBruni, The Study of Literature(in Kallendorf, 2008).

Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Europe, pp. 81-7

Proctor, Defining the Humanities, pp. 3-24, 172-5, 212-214

Petrarch, Letters, III. 18; XXII. 2; XVI. 14

Petrarch, On His Own Ignorance and that of Many Others, pp. 102-5 (in Cassirer, Kristeller & Randall Jr, 1948)

Melanchthon, (1999) Orations, pp. 33-4, 44, 66, 81

Melanchthon, (1988) In Praise of the New School, pp. 60-3

Vergerio, The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth, pp. 14-25

Guarino, A Programme of Teaching and Learning, pp. 155-7

(both from Kallendorf, 2008).

Week 5Petrarch, death, alienation and the turn inward

(NT)

ReadingProctor,Defining the Humanities, pp. 25-42

Howard, ‘Renaissance world-alienation’ (in Kinsman, 1974).

Petrarch, Letters, I. 1; IV. 12; V. 5; VII. 12; VIII. 7, and p. 182 (IV.2)

Petrarch, Secretum, book 1.

Auerbach, Dante, Poet of the Secular World, p. 176.

Week 6Art: Getting Perspective

(RH)

ReadingBurckhardt, J.(1960) The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, New York: The New American Library, Inc. pp. 121-7; 321.

Vasari, G. (2008) The Lives of the Artists, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 3-6; 47-58; 277-283.

Brown, A. (1999) The Renaissance, Harlow, Pearson, pp. 53-61.

da Vinci, L. (2008) Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 105.

Wider readingda Vinci, L. (2008) Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Gombrich, E.H. (1989) The Story of Art, Oxford: Phaidon Press Limited

Hegel, G.W.F. (1974) Hegel’s Aesthetics, Oxford, Oxford Clarendon Press pp872 – 882

Nahm, M. (1975) Readings in philosophy of Art and Aesthetics, London: Englewood Cliffs pp3-5

Kemp, M. (1990) The Science of Art, Yale University Press

Edgerton, S. (2009)The Mirror, the Window, and the Telescope: How Renaissance Linear Perspective Changed Our Vision of the UniverseUSA: Cornell University Press

Gombrich, E.H. (2000) Art and Illusion: v. 6: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation, New Jersey: Princeton University Press

Kemp, M. (2006) Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Kemp, M. (2004) Leonardo: revised edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Lester, T. (2011) Da Vinci's Ghost: The untold story of Vitruvian Man, London: Profile Books Ltd

Mcewen, I.K. (2003) Vitruvius: Writing the Body of Architecture, USA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Vitruvius (2009) On Architecture, London: Penguin Group

Vasari, G. (2008) The Lives of the Artists, Oxford, Oxford University Press

Week 7Music

(RH)

ReadingBoethius (1989) Fundamentals of Music, New Haven & London: Yale University Press p. 2

Dunwell, W. (1962) Music and the European Mind, London, Herbert Jenkins, pp. 101-111.

Ferguson, K. (2008) Pythagoras, New York: Walker Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 64-5.

Ficino, M. (1997) Meditations on the Soul, Rochester, Inner Traditions International, p. 59.

James, J. (1993) The Music of the Spheres, New York: Copernicus pp 3- 4

Mellers, W. (1980) Bach and the Dance of God, London, Faber and Faber pp 3- 9.

Mellers, W. (2002) Celestial Music, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press pp 26 and 28

Week 8Sir Francis Bacon: Ensuring the future security of the State:

(DB)knowledge is power.

Readingselections from Novum Organum and the essays

Wider readingBacon, F. (2013) Physical and Metaphysical Works: including the Advancement of Learning and Novum Organum London: ULAN Press

Bird, A. Philosophy of Science London UCL Press

Couvalis, G. (1997) The Philosophy of Science London: SAGE

Eliar-Feldon, M. (1982) Realistic Utopias: the Ideal Imaginary Societies of the Renaissance Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Murphy, P. (2003) Evidence, Proof, and Facts: a book of sources Oxford: Oxford University Press

Peltonen, M. (1996) The Cambridge Companion to Bacon Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Price, B. (ed.) (2002) Francis Bacon's 'The New Atlantis': New Interdisciplinary Essays Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Urbach, P. (1986) Francis Bacon’s Philosophy of Science: an account and a reappraisal La Salle: Open Court

Vickers, B. (1968) Francis Bacon and Renaissance Prose London: Thames & Hudson

Week 9Michel de Montaigne

(DB)

Reading‘On Cannibals’

A short overview is available here

Wider readingCorrigan, T. (2011) The Essay Film: from Montaigne, after Marker Oxford: Oxford University Press

De Certeau, M. (1997) Heterologies: discourse on the other Minnesota: University of Minneapolis Press; see ‘Montaigne’s ‘Of Cannibals’: The Savage ‘I’’

Frame, D. (1958) The Complete Works of Montaigne: essays, travel journal, letters London: Hamish Hamilton

Frame, D. (1965) Montaigne: a biography London: Hamish Hamilton

Grady, H. (2002) Shakespeare, Machiavelli, and Montaigne: power and subjectivity from Richard II to Hamlet Oxford: Oxford University Press

Kenny, A. (1993) Renaissance Thinkers Oxford: Oxford University Press

Korhonen, K. (2006) Textual Friendship: the essay as impossible encounter, from Plato and Montaigne to Levinas and Derrida Anherst, N.Y.: Humanity Books

Langer, U. (2005) The Cambridge Companion to Montaigne Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Rawson, C. J. (2001) God, Gulliver, and Genocide: barbarism and the European imagination, 1492-1945 Oxford: Oxford University Press

Rendall, S. (1992) Distinguo: reading Montaigne differently Oxford: Clarendon Press

Week 10Machiavelli’s The Prince

(TN)

ReadingMachiavelli. 1961. The Prince. Penguin Books.

Wider ReadingBenner, Erica. 2013. Machiavelli's Prince: A New Reading. Oxford University Press.

Berlin, Isaiah. 1979. Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas. Hogarth Press. [Ch on 'The Originality of Machiavelli']

Coyle, Martin. (Ed.) 1995. Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince": New Interdisciplinary Essays. Manchester University Press.

DeAlvarez, Leo Paul S. 1999. The Machiavellian Enterprise: A Commentary on The Prince. Nothern Illinois University Press.

Skinner, Quentin. 2000. Machiavelli: A Very Short introduction. Oxford University Press.

Week 11Machiavelli’s The Prince

(TN)

ReadingMachiavelli. 1961. The Prince. Penguin Books.

Wider ReadingBenner, Erica. 2013. Machiavelli's Prince: A New Reading. Oxford University Press.

Berlin, Isaiah. 1979. Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas. Hogarth Press. [Ch on 'The Originality of Machiavelli']

Coyle, Martin. (Ed.) 1995. Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince": New Interdisciplinary Essays. Manchester University Press.

DeAlvarez, Leo Paul S. 1999. The Machiavellian Enterprise: A Commentary on The Prince. Nothern Illinois University Press.

Skinner, Quentin. 2000. Machiavelli: A Very Short introduction. Oxford University Press.

Assessments

Essay 1 deadline: Friday week 7, 27th Feb, by 3.30 to Catherine in the office

Title: Using evidence from texts, describe some of the characteristics of Renaissance humanism (max. 1750 words)

Essay 2 deadline: Wednesday week 13, 6th May, 3.30 to Catherine in the office

Title: you will choose from the list of essays that develops between weeks 6-11, or you can contact a tutor if you have an idea for a title of your own (max. 1750 words).

References & wider reading for weeks 1-5

Adorno, TW, (2001) Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Al-Khalili, J. (2011) The House of Wisdom, New York: Penguin.

Alberti, L. B. (2004) On Painting, London: Penguin Classics.

Auerbach, E. (2007) Dante, Poet of the Secular World, New York: New York Review of Books.

Bantock, G.H. (1980) Studies in the History of Educational Theory vol. 1, London: George Allen & Unwin.

Bauman, R.A. (2012) Human Rights in Ancient Rome, London & New York: Routledge.

Bloom, J & Blair, S. (2002)Islam: a thousand years of faith and power, Yale, Nota Bene.

Brown, A. (1999) The Renaissance, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

Bruckner, G. A. (1983) Renaissance Florence, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Bruni, L. (2001) History of the Florentine People volume 1, Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, ed. J Hankins.

Burckhardt, J. (1944) The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Oxford: The Phaidon Press.

Burke, P. (1999) The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Campana, A. (1946) ‘The Origin of the Word “Humanist”’, Journal of the Warburg and Courthold Institutes, vol. 9, pp. 60-73.

Cassirer, E., Kristeller, P. O. & Randall, J. H. (eds.) (1948) The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Cassirer, E., Kristeller, P. O. & Randall, J. H. (eds.) (1948) The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Cicero, (1923) ‘Pro Archia’, in Orations, Loeb Classical Library: Harvard University Press.

Cicero, (1991) On Duties, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cicero, (1998) The Nature of the Gods, Oxford: Oxford World Classics.

Cicero, De Oratore, Book III

Copenhaver, B.P. & Schmitt, C.B. (1992)Renaissance Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dante, (1984) The Divine Comedy vol. 1: Inferno, London: Penguin Classics, trans. Mark Musa.

Dante, (1996) Monarchy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dante, (2002) The New Life, New York: New York Review Books.

Dawson, C. (2010) The Crisis of Western Education, Washington: The Catholic University of America Press.

De Ridder-Symoens, H. (ed) (1996) A History of the University in Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Erasmus, D. (1983) The Essential Erasmus, New York: Meridian.

Ficino, M. (1997) Meditations on the Soul, Rochester: Inner Traditions.

Gellius, Attic Nights

Gilson, E. (1963) Dante and Philosophy, New York: Harper Torchbooks.

Grafton, A. & Jardine, L. (1986) From Humanism to the Humanities, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Gutas, D. (1998) Greek Thought, Arabic Culture, London, Routledge.

Hainsworth, P. (2010) The Essential Petrarch, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.

Haskins, C.H. (1927) The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, London, Harvard University Press.

Holmes, G. (1969) The Florentine Enlightenment 1400-50, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Ibn Khaldun, (2005) The Muqaddimah, Princeton, Princeton University Press.

Kallendorf, C.W. (2008) Humanist Educational Treatises, Harvard University Press.

Kaufmann, W. (1995) The Future of the Humanities, New Brunswick & London: Transaction Publishers.

Kennedy, H. (2004) When Baghdad Rules the Muslim Empire, Cambridge, DaCapo Press.

Kinsman, R.S. (1974) The Darker Vision of the Renaissance, Los Angeles, University of California.

Kraemer, J.L. (1993) Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam, Leiden, Brill.

Kristeller, P. O. (1961) Renaissance Thought: The Classic, Scholastic, and Humanist Strains, New York: Harper Torchbooks.

Kristeller, P.O. (1990) Renaissance Thought and the Arts, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Kristeller, P.O. (1992) Medieval Aspects of Renaissance Learning, New York: Columbia Press.

Latham, C.S. (1891) A Translation of Dante’s Eleven Letters, Houghton, Mifflin and Company; available at

Laurie, S.S. (1969) Studies in the History of Educational Opinion from the Renaissance, New York: Augustus M Kelley Publishers.

Levy, B.S. (ed) (1972) Developments in the Early Renaissance, Albany: SUNY Press.

Lyons, J. (2009) The House of Wisdom, London, Bloomsbury.

Masood, E. (2009) Science and Islam, London, Icon Books.

Melanchthon, P. (1988) A Melanchthon Reader, New York: Peter Lang.

Melanchthon, P. (1999) Orations on Philosophy and Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mirandola, P. (1998) On The Dignity of Man, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co.

Mommsen, T. E. (1942) ‘Petrarch’s Conception of the Dark Ages’, Speculum, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 226-242.

Nauert, C. (2006) Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nicholson, R.A. (1907/2008) A literary History of the Arabs, New Delhi, Kitab Bhavan.

Pater, W. (2010) Studies in the History of the Renaissance, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Petrarch, F. (2005) Letters on Familiar Matters 3 volumes, New York: Italica Press.

Petrarch, F. (2010) Secretum, Richmond: One World Classics.

Proctor, R.E. (1998) Defining the Humanities, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Robinson, J. H. (1970) Petrarch; The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters, New York: Haskell House Publishers Ltd.

Rosenthal, F. (1992) The classical heritage in Islam, London, Routledge.

Saliba, G. (2011) Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance, Massachusetts, MIT Press.

Starr, S.F. (2013) Lost Enlightenment, Princeton, Princeton University Press.

Turner, HR, (1997) Science in medieval Islam: an illustrated introduction, Austin, University of Texas Press.

Vasari, G. (2008) The Lives of the Artists, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Woodward, W.H. (1906) Studies in Education during the Age of the Renaissance, 1400-1600, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Websites

PETRARCH

Petrarch – by JH Robinson

also

This site has a wealth of resources of Petrarch’s writings

Websites for Florence

Dome structure

Brancacci Chapel

Brunelleschi on perspective

Ghiberti’s Doors

Ideal City attributed to Alberti

Dante – Vita nuova

Dante – Convivio

Dante – De vulgari eloquentia (to buy, in english)

Dante – De monarchia

all Dante texts

Dante’s Letters

Latham -

Toynbee -

(note: the slightly later version – Toynbee – does not include the letter to Guido da Polenta as actually written by Dante, though it was included in the Latham version, [and it only summarizes the letters].)

Library Scene in Se7en

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