Week 1
Humanism needs ‘humanity’
Reading
Gellius Attic Nights, 13.17
Cicero, Pro Archia, 8-11
Cicero, De oratore, III, xv, 56-8
Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, pp. 57-61
Cicero, On Duties, pp. 21-3
Bauman, Human Rights in Ancient Rome, pp. 25-7
Dante, Monarchy, pp. 3-9, 13, 19-21
Gilson, Dante and Philosophy, pp. 162-167
Pico della Mirandola, On The Dignity of Man, pp. 4-5
Ficino, Meditations on the Soul, p. 26
Week 2
to self-perfection
Reading
Bruni, The Study of Literature (in Kallendorf, 2008).
Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Europe, pp. 81-7
Proctor, Defining the Humanities, pp. 3-24, 172-5, 212-214
Week 3
alienation and the turn inward
Reading
Proctor, Defining the Humanities, pp. 25-42
Howard, ‘Renaissance world-alienation’ (in Kinsman, 1974).
Petrarch, Letters, I. 1; IV. 12; V. 5; VII. 12; VIII. 7, and p. 182 (IV.2)
Petrarch, Secretum, book 1.
Auerbach, Dante, Poet of the Secular World, p. 176.
Week 4
why read?
Reading
Petrarch, Letters, III. 18; XXII. 2; XVI. 14
Petrarch, On His Own Ignorance and that of Many Others, pp. 102-5 (in Cassirer, Kristeller & Randall Jr, 1948)
Melanchthon, (1999) Orations, pp. 33-4, 44, 66, 81
Melanchthon, (1988) In Praise of the New School, pp. 60-3
Vergerio, The Character and Studies Befitting a Free-Born Youth, pp. 14-25
Guarino, A Programme of Teaching and Learning, pp. 155-7
(both from Kallendorf, 2008).
(Kaufmann, The Future of the Humanities, chapter 2)
(Adorno, Kant’s critique of Pure Reason, pp. 78-80)
Week 5
Reading Petrarch
Reading
Petrarch, A Self-Portrait
Petrarch, The Ascent of Mount Ventoux
Petrarch, Secretum, pp. 87-9.
Petrarch, On His Own Ignorance and that of Many Others pp. 52-5, 62-7
(all from Cassirer, Kristeller & Randall Jr, 1948)
Mommsen, ‘Petrarch’s Conception of the “Dark Ages”’
Hankins, in Bruni, History of the Florentine People, vol. 1, pp. xvii-xviii
Petrarch, in Robinson, Petrarch, (1970) pp. 25-6, 213.
Vasari, Preface to Part 2, The Lives of the Artists, pp. 47-58.
Week 6
Florence (lecture)
References
Alberti, L. B. (2004) On Painting, London: Penguin Classics.
Brown, A. (1999) The Renaissance, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
Bruckner, G. A. (1983) Renaissance Florence, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Burckhardt, J. (1944) The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Oxford: The Phaidon Press.
Cassirer, E., Kristeller, P. O. & Randall, J. H. (eds.) (1948) The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dante, (1984) The Divine Comedy vol. 1: Inferno, London: Penguin Classics, trans. Mark Musa.
Dante, (2002) The New Life, New York: New York Review Books.
Holmes, G. (1969) The Florentine Enlightenment 1400-50, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Latham, C.S. (1891) A Translation of Dante’s Eleven Letters, Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Nauert, C. (2006) Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Week 7
Art: Getting Perspective
Reading
Burckhardt, J.(1960) The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, New York: The New American Library, Inc. pp. 121-7; 321.
Vasari, G. (2008) The Lives of the Artists, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 3-6; 47-58; 277-283.
Brown, A. (1999) The Renaissance, Harlow, Pearson, pp. 53-61.
da Vinci, L. (2008) Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 105.
Wider reading
da Vinci, L. (2008) Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Gombrich, E.H. (1989) The Story of Art, Oxford: Phaidon Press Limited
Hegel, G.W.F. (1974) Hegel’s Aesthetics, Oxford, Oxford Clarendon Press pp872 – 882
Nahm, M. (1975) Readings in philosophy of Art and Aesthetics, London: Englewood Cliffs pp3-5
Kemp, M. (1990) The Science of Art, Yale University Press
Edgerton, S. (2009) The Mirror, the Window, and the Telescope: How Renaissance Linear Perspective Changed Our Vision of the Universe USA: Cornell University Press
Gombrich, E.H. (2000) Art and Illusion: v. 6: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Kemp, M. (2006) Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Kemp, M. (2004) Leonardo: revised edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Lester, T. (2011) Da Vinci’s Ghost: The untold story of Vitruvian Man, London: Profile Books Ltd
Mcewen, I.K. (2003) Vitruvius: Writing the Body of Architecture, USA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Vitruvius (2009) On Architecture, London: Penguin Group
Vasari, G. (2008) The Lives of the Artists, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Week 8
Music
Reading
Boethius (1989) Fundamentals of Music, New Haven & London: Yale University Press p. 2
Dunwell, W. (1962) Music and the European Mind, London, Herbert Jenkins, pp. 101-111.
Ferguson, K. (2008) Pythagoras, New York: Walker Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 64-5.
Ficino, M. (1997) Meditations on the Soul, Rochester, Inner Traditions International, p. 59.
James, J. (1993) The Music of the Spheres, New York: Copernicus pp 3- 4
Mellers, W. (1980) Bach and the Dance of God, London, Faber and Faber pp 3- 9.
Mellers, W. (2002) Celestial Music, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press pp 26 and 28
Week 9
ships
Reading
Columbus, C. (1969) The Four Voyages, London: Penguin. Pages 27-31 & 217-223.
Wider reading
Abulafia, D. (2008) The Discovery of Mankind, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
Berggren, J. & Jones, A (2000) Ptolemy’s “Geography”: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
de las Casas, B. (2004) A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, London: Penguin
Ficino, M. (2001) Platonic theology. Vol.1: Books 1-4 Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press
Landström, B. (1967) Columbus, London: Allen & Unwin
Mandeville, J. (2005) The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, London: Penguin
Pastor, X. (2005) The Ships of Christopher Columbus: “Santa Maria”, “Nina” and “Pinta”, London: Conway Maritime Press Ltd
Pliny the Elder (2004) Natural History, London: Penguin Classics
Sale, K. (1991) The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy, New York: Plume
Week 10
Renaissance Women
Reading
Kelly Gadol, J. (1987) ‘Did Women Have a Renaissance?’ in Bridenthal, Koonz and Stuard Becoming Visible: Women in European History, Boston: Houghton Mifflin: pp, 175-78; 184-189; 195-197
De Pizan, C. (1983) The Book of the City of Ladies, London: Pan Books, pp.3- 11, 21-24, 62-67,99-101,111-113,217-222.
Wiesner-Hanks, M. (2008) ‘Do Women Need the Renaissance?’ Gender and History 20 (3) pp. 539-557. We will focus on pp.539-541, 543-545,551-552.
Wider reading
Aimar-Wolheim and Dennis, F. (eds) (2010) , At Home in Renaissance Italy (London: V & A publishing)
Brown, J. & Davues, R. (eds) (1998) Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy (London: Longman)
Ferguson , M. Quilligan, M., & Vickers, N. (1986) Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe (Women in Culture and Society) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
Groag Bell, S. (2004) The Lost Tapestries of the “City of Ladies”: Christine de Pizan’s Renaissance Legacy (University of California Press)
King, C. (1998) Renaissance Women Patrons: Wives and Widows in Italy, c.1300-c.1550 (Manchester: Manchester University Press)
King, M. (1992) Women in the Renaissance (Women in Culture & Society) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
Servadiol, G. (2005) Renaissance Woman (London: I.B. Tauris)
Week 11
Michelangelo’s David
Reading
Kemp, M. (1990) The Science of Art New Haven: Yale University Press; pp. 9 – 14.
Wider reading
Anamorphism was used as a way of understanding subjectivity by the French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan. You might also find it interesting to find out about the Ames Room – a contemporary application of anamorphism.
Clements, R. ed. (1968) Michelangelo: A Self-Portrait New York: New York University Press.
Holm, L. (2010) Brunelleschi, Lacan, Le Corbusier London: Routledge.
Kemp, M. (1990) The Science of Art: optical themes in western art from Brunelleschi to Seurat New Haven: Yale University Press.