History 207: The Age of Humanism and Reform:

European Intellectual History, 1300-1650

Prof. Cotts cottsjd@whitman.edu

Office: Maxey 211, 526-4789

Office Hours: MW 1:30-3:00, Th 4:00-5:00

Required Texts for Purchase

• Machiavelli, The Prince , trans. Wootton (Hackett, 1995) ISBN: 0-87220-316-6 e
• Three Early Modern Utopias , ed. Susan Bruce ( Oxford , 1999) ISBN 0192838857
• Luther, Christian Liberty , trans Lambert (Fortress, 1957) ISBN 0-8006-0182-3
• Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms (Johns Hopkins, 1980) ISBN 0801843871
• Shakespeare, The Tempest (Penguin, 1999) ISBN 0-14-071485-5
• René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy , 3 rd ed. (Hackett, 1993) ISBN 0-87220-192-9

Course Requirements

1. Attendance and class participation. You are expected to attend all class meetings and to participate vigorously, insightfully, and respectfully in class discussions. Discussion will be the primary teaching format for the course. Note that non-attendance is grounds for failing the course. In addition, short reaction papers will be assigned from time to time, and will count towards class participation.
2. Four short papers . These papers (varying in length from three to five pages), based on questions provided by the instructor, will give you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the course material. All papers must be formatted according to the guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style , 15 th edition. Additional information about each assignment will be provided during the semester.
3. A midterm examination (in class)

4. A take-home final examination

Evaluation

Your course grade will be determined according to the following criteria:

• Attendance and participation: 25%
• Four papers: 40% in aggregate (10% each)
• Midterm examination: 15%
• Final examination: 20%

Schedule of Meetings, Readings , and Assignments

January 14 Introduction, nuts and bolts session

15 The scholastic background

• William Chester Jordan, Europe in the High Middle Ages , 213-25 (e-reserve)
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae , Question 1 at:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas1.html

• Boniface VIII, Unam sanctam at:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/b8-unam.html

17 Dante's synthesis

• Dante Alighieri, Inferno , Cantos 1, 4; Paradiso , Cantos 1, 33 (e-reserve)
• Marcia Colish, The Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition , 214-17 (e-reserve)

21 no class

22 The fraying of the synthesis

• Selections from John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham in A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham , ed. Eugene R. Fairweather, 428-42 (e-reserve)
• David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought , 2 nd ed., 274-97 (e-reserve)

24 Chaucer and the medieval vernacular

• Geoffrey Chaucer, The General Prologue and the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, from The Canterbury Tales (e-reserve)
• Chaucer's General Prologue in Middle English (handout)

28 The problem of humanism

• Paul Oskar Kristeller, “The Humanist Movement,” in Renaissance Thought: The Classic, Scholastic and Humanist Strains , 3-23 (e-reserve)

29 Petrarch and the admiration of antiquity

• Petrarch, “The Ascent of Mt. Ventoux”; two letters to Cicero ; selected poems, in The Italian Renaissance: The Essential Sources , ed. Kenneth Gowens, 24-42 (e-reserve)
• Lorenzo Valla, “On the Donation of Constantine,” in The Italian Renaissance: The Essential Sources , 176-86 (e-reserve)

31 Christine de Pisan: Humanism and the “woman question”

• Christine de Pisan, The Book of the City of Ladies , trans. Rosalind Brown-Grant, 5-38 (e-reserve)

February 4 Introduction to Italy and the Quattrocento

• Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water , 48-70 (e-reserve)

5 Art and culture in Renaissance Italy

• Leonardo da Vinci, selections from the notebooks
• Michelangelo, selected poems, both authors in The Italian Renaissance Reader , ed. Julia Conaway Bondanella and Mark Musa, 185-96, 375-81 (e-reserve)

7 Women writers and the paradoxes of humanism

• Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi and Laura Cereta, selected letters in The Italian Renaissance: The Essential Sources , 108-25, 197-205 (e-reserve)

Friday, February 8: First Paper Due

11 Pico and the problem of man

• Pico della Mirandola, “Oration on the Dignity of Man,” in The Italian Renaissance Reader , 178-184

12 Machiavelli and the problem of the state

• Machiavelli, The Prince , 1-38

14 Machiavelli's Prince

• The Prince , 38-80

18 No class

19 The New World and the expansion of the European world view

• Christopher Columbus, selections from the diaries (e-reserve)

21 The reception of the New World

• Stephen Greenblatt, “From the Dome of the Rock to the Rim of the World,” in Marvelous Possessions , 26-51 (e-reserve)

25 Art in northern Europe

• Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe , 153-58

Second Paper Due in Class

26 Thomas More and the Northern humanists

• More, Utopia , Book I

28 More's Utopia

• More, Utopia , Book II

March 3 Luther and “Christian Liberty”

• Luther, Christian Liberty

4 Calvin and Predestination

• John Calvin, selections in The Portable Renaissance Reader , ed. James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin, 704-711, 738-42 (e-reserve)

6 Midterm examination (passage identification)

24 The Catholic Reformations

• Sessions 22 and 23 of the Council of Trent at: http://history.hanover.edu/early/trent.htm

25 Ignatius Loyola and the “Counter-Reformation”

• Selections from “Spiritual Exercises” at:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/loyola-spirex.html

27 Art and Culture in the Age of the Religious Wars

• T. K. Rabb, The Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe , 35-48 (e-reserve)

31 Did Peasants Have a Reformation?

• Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms , xi-xxvi, 1-51

April 1 Menocchio and his sources

• The Cheese and the Worms , 51-81

3 The Cheese and the Worms

• The Cheese and the Worms , 81-129

7 Montaigne and the problem of certainty

• Montaigne, “On books”; “All things have their season”; “On repentance” (e-reserve)

8 Montaigne and the Other

• Montaigne, “On the custom of wearing clothes”; “On cannibals”

10 Print Culture

• Natalie Zemon Davis, “Printing and the People,” in Society and Culture in Early Modern France , 189-226 (e-reserve)

Friday, April 11: Third Paper Due

14 Shakespeare and the English language

• Shakespeare, The Tempest , Acts I and II

15 No class

17 Shakespeare and the threat of otherness

• Shakespeare, The Tempest , Acts III-V

21Galileo and scientific astronomy

• Galileo, “Letter to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany ,” at:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/galileo-tuscany.html

22 Descartes and rationalism

• Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy , vii-ix, 1-24

24 Descartes and God

• Descartes, Meditations , 24-59

28 Francis Bacon and the promise of science

• Francis Bacon, New Atlantis , in Three Early Modern Utopias , 149-86

29 Hobbes and Natural Reason

• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan , introduction and chapters 1-2, 4-5 (e-reserve)

May 1 Hobbes and the Modern State

• Leviathan , chapters 13-15, 17-18 (e-reserve)

May 5 Are we modern yet?

• Stephen Toulmin, Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity , 1-44 (e-reserve)

May 6 summary and review

Fourth Paper Due in Class

Take-home finals due on Tuesday, May 13