Renaissance Europe
Constant Mews
6 points * 2 lectures and 1 tutorial per week * Second semester * Clayton
The subject will cover the social and cultural history of Western Europe from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Particular emphasis will be given to the Italian Renaissance and to the spread of its influence in northern Europe in the sixteenth century. Themes to be treated will include the economic and cultural effects of the black death, war, popular rebellion, and political and religious changes in the later Middle Ages, the emergence of Renaissance humanism, the courtly and civic culture of fifteenth century Italy, the age of discoveries and inventions, the emergence of the early modern European state system and the dissemination of the civilisation of the Renaissance in Western Europe. Documentary texts will be used extensively in tutorials.
Assessment
Written (3000 words): 50% * Examination (2 hours): 40% * Class participation/attendance: 10%
Prescribed texts
Holmes G Europe: Hierarchy and revolt 1320-1450 Fontana, 1975
Martines L Power and imagination Penguin, 1988
Ross J B and McLaughlin M M The portable medieval reader Viking or Penguin, 1977
Ross J B and McLaughlin M M The portable Renaissance reader Viking or Penguin, 1978