Fall 2013 Syllabus
Note: To allow conversations in class, it is important that everyone in conference be reading the same edition of the course texts. The editions listed at the end of this syllabus (and available in the bookstore) have been chosen with an eye to keeping costs low and scholarly standards high.
WEEK I (Sept. 3-6)
NOTE: THE LECTURE THIS WEEK IS ON WEDNESDAY, SINCE LABOR DAY IS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2nd
Dante, Divine Comedy: Inferno.
Rice/Grafton, The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1-109.
Wednesday Lecture: The City and the World (Sacks)
WEEK II (September 9-13)
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 2nd Part of the 2nd Part: Question 8, The Gift of Understanding, and Question 182, The Active Life in Comparison With the Contemplative Life. The Summa is available on the World Wide Web at www.newadvent.org/summa. The required reading is at the following sites: www.newadvent.org/summa/300800.htm, www.newadvent.org/summa/311500.htm, and www.newadvent.org/summa/318200.htm. Note that Question 8 has 8 parts; Question 115 has 2 parts; and Question 182 has 4 parts—be sure to read them all. Copies of this reading will also be on reserve.
Petrarch, "Ascent of Mount Ventoux," Renaissance Philosophy of Man, edited by Cassirer et al., 36-46.
Pico della Mirandola, "Oration on the Dignity of Man," Renaissance Philosophy of Man, 215-254.
Monday Lecture: Dante's World (Knapp)
Weds. Lecture: The Humanist Response to Scholasticism (Garrett)
WEEK III (September 16-20)
Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in 15th-Century Italy, 29-93 [optional: 1-27, 94-108].
Randolph Starn and Loren Partridge, Arts of Power, 83-148 (on desk reserve).
Alberti, "On Painting" Italian Art 1400-1500 (e-reserve).
Lecture: The Arts of Perspective (Katz)
WEEK IV (September 23-27)
Castiglione, Book of the Courtier, Prologue, 31-36; Book I, 39-46, 51-98, 102-104; Book II, 107-133, 199-202; Book III, 207-231, 274-278; Book IV, 281-282, 288-304, 315-345.
Lecture: Impersonating a Courtier (Steinman)
WEEK V (Sept. 30 - Oct. 4)
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (entire; in Selected Political Writings).
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Discourses, Book I: Preface, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 55; Book II: Chapter 2; Book III: Chapter 41 (in Selected Political Writings).
Rice/Grafton, Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 110-45.
Lecture: Civic Virtue and Princely Power (Breen)
WEEK VI (October 7-11)
Desiderius Erasmus, Praise of Folly (and the "Letter to Dorp").
John Bossy, Christianity in the West, 1400-1700. Part I.
Lecture: Foolish Rhetoric (Steinman)
WEEK VII (October 14-18)
Thomas More, Utopia.
"Letter from Columbus to Luis de Santangel," American Journeys Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society Digital Library and Archives, pp. 261 - 272. This reading is available online: www.americanjourneys.org (Document No. AJ-063). Please press "Print or Download" for a pdf of the reading.
Lecture: Of The Best State of a Commonwealth (Sacks)
—FALL BREAK— [October 19-27]
WEEK VIII (Oct. 28-Nov. 1)
Bartolomé de Las Casas, "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies," (pp. 3-30, 42-56, on e-reserve).
Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of New Spain, 85-99, 107-118, 166-188, 189-204, 216-219, 232-235, 245-257, 278-304, 353-413.
Hernan Cortes, "Letters from Mexico," First Letter (pp. 3-46, on e-reserve).
James Lockhart, ed., We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico (pp. 1-21, 27-37, 48, 70-88, 138-156, 214-220, 246-254 on e-reserve).
Monday Lecture: Locating the Unknown (Garrett)
Wednesday Lecture: Representing the Spaces of Conquest (Katz)
WEEK IX (November 4-8)
M. Luther, "The Freedom of a Christian" in Luther, Three Treatises, (pp. 277-316, on e-reserve).
Luther and Erasmus, Free Will and Salvation, 35-49, 68-69, 85-97, 101-144, 169-173, 246-249, 332-334.
S. Lotzer, "Twelve Articles of the Peasantry" (e-reserve; from The German Peasant War of 1525).
Luther, "Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants" (e-reserve; from Luther's Works, vol 46).
Jean Calvin, "Of Eternal Election," (e-reserve) "On Resistance and Magistracy" (e-reserve; from Institutes of the Christian Religion).
Suggested reading: John Sleiden, The General History of the Reformation (1555, selections on e-reserve).
Monday Lecture: Popular Religion and the Reformation From Below (Breen)
Wednesday Lecture: Human Freedom, Divine Necessity, and the Self: Erasmus vs. Luther (Bedau)
WEEK X (November 11-15)
Marguerite de Navarre, The Heptameron, Prologue, First Day: all; Second Day: Prologue, stories 12 & 15-20; Third Day: Prologue, stories 22-23, 26, 30; Fourth Day: Prologue, stories 31, 33, 36, 37, 40; Fifth Day: Prologue, stories 42-44; 48; 50; Sixth Day: Prologue, stories 51, 55, 59, 60; Seventh Day: Prologue, story 61.
Lecture: Worldly Wit and Divine Wisdom (Breen)
WEEK XI (November 18-22)
Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel: 1) Pantagruel, Prologue and chapters 1-9, 16, 23-34 and 2) Gargantua, Prologue and chapters 1, 3-8, 14-17, 21-32, 34-36, 48-58 [note: Gargantua is a "prequel" to Pantagruel].
If you are using the 2006 edition edited by M. A. Screech, the pages to read are Pantagruel pp. 11-62; 86-91; 118-164 and Gargantua, pp. 203-211; 215-233; 250-260; 268-307; 313-319; 356-379.
Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, (pp. 59-101, on e-reserve).
Lecture: Rabelais (Knapp)
WEEK XII (November 25-27) [Thanksgiving vacation Nov. 28-Dec. 1]
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms.
Natalie Zemon Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France, "Reasons of Misrule" and "Women on Top" 97-151.
Lecture: Mennochio and the Lost Peoples of Europe (Breen)
WEEK XIII (December 2-6)
Michel de Montaigne, Essays: "On the Power of Imagination," "On Cannibals," "On the Custom of Wearing Clothes," "On Experience."
Natalie Davis, Society and Culture, "The Rites of Violence," 152-187.
Lecture: The Complexity of Montaigne's Skepticism (Bedau)
BOOKS FOR PURCHASE
John Bossy, Christianity in the West, 1400-1700 (Oxford)
Dante, The Divine Comedy of Dante Aligheri: Inferno, trans. J. Hollander (Doubleday)
E. Cassirer, Renaissance Philosophy of Man (UCP)
†
Rice and A. Grafton, Foundations of Early Modern Europe (Norton)
M. Baxandall, Painting & Experience in 15th-Century Italy (Oxford)
Castiglione, Book of the Courtier (Penguin)
Machiavelli, Selected Political Writings, Ed. Wootton (Hackett)
Erasmus, Praise of Folly, Ed. Radice, revised edition (Penguin, 1994)†
Thomas More, Utopia, Ed. Logan (Cambridge)
Bernal Diaz, Conquest of New Spain (Penguin)
Rabelais, Gargantua & Pantagruel, trans. J. M. Cohen (Penguin)†
Luther and Erasmus, Free Will and Salvation, Ed. Rupp (Westminster John Knox Press)
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese & the Worms (Johns Hopkins)
Natalie Davis, Society & Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford)
M. de Montaigne, Essays, trans. Cohen (Penguin, 1993)†
Marguerite de Navarre, The Heptameron, trans. Paul Chilton (Penguin, 2004)
†Editions so marked differ in pagination from others with this title by the same publisher; if you buy a different edition, be sure to consult one of the editions on reserve in order to arrive at the correct pagination for your edition.
All readings not required for purchase will be placed on reserve in the Library. For your convenience all other reserve books will be on two-hour desk reserve. Lectures will be on Mondays unless announced otherwise here or in class. Note that there are four weeks (Week I, when Labor Day precludes a Monday lecture; Week II; Week VIII, right after fall break; and Week IX) where Wednesday lectures are scheduled.