By the end of the semester, you should have gained a heightened awareness of both the Renaissance itself and the ways in which historians have construed it. I will ask you to read a mixture of secondary scholarly pieces and primary historical sources for every meeting. You should expect the historians to disagree with each other, and the primary sources to either illuminate or complicate the paradigms that scholars are trying to promote. Please take notes on the secondary material and, where noted below, bring those materials to class. You must xerox any primary sources on Reserve and bring them to our sessions.
Attendance is mandatory.
Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy. Oxford University Press. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Peter Burke, The Renaissance. Mark Musa, translator.