HSY2630

Renaissance Florence

Bill Kent

8 points - Two lectures and one tutorial per week - First semester - Clayton

Objectives Students completing this subject will have come to grips with an exciting body of material which has been built up about late medieval and Renaissance Florence in the context of Italian history generally. They ought to be able to grasp the inter-relationships between changing social structures and high culture - art, architecture - humanism, patronage, and the proto-modern political and historiographical realism of Machiavelli and Guicciardini.

Synopsis A study of the political, social and cultural history of Florence from the late thirteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, with particular reference to the Renaissance period. Students who have not passed HSY1010 and HSY1020 should do the preliminary reading with great care.

Assessment Two class papers (2000 words each): 66.5% - Examination (2 hours): 33.5% - Students may submit a 2000-word paper in place of the examination.

Preliminary reading

Brucker G A Renaissance Florence 2nd edn, U California P, 1983

Prescribed texts

Gregory H Selected letters of Allessandra Strozzi U California P paperback, 1997
Guicciardini F Maxims and reflections of a Renaissance statesman Pennsylvania Paperbacks, 1990

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