93320 - History of the Italian Peninsula from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (1)

Learning outcomes

By the course end students will know the main types of source used in critically reconstructing the history of the Italian region from the 15th-18th century. They will possess the main tools for grasping and keeping up with the historiographic debate and will thus know how to choose the learning tools best suited to their own skills and purposes. They will be able to illustrate the methods of heuristics, source analysis and the historiography of modern Italy, bearing in mind the different ways of analysing historical and cultural processes. Working independently and in an orderly fashion, they will have acquired self-criticism and an ability to learn from mingling with others;

Course contents

“Tutte le guerre che furono da’ barbari fatte in Italia, furono in maggior parte dai pontefici causate, e tutti e barbari che quella inondarono furono il più delle volte da quegli chiamati. Il qual modo di procedere dura ancora in questi nostri tempi; il che ha tenuto e tiene la Italia disunita e inferma”. N. Machiavelli, Istorie, I, 9.

History of the Histories of Italy
Or
How the Italian events of the early modern age contributed to the construction of a new history of the Peninsula (or at least of part of it).
The emergence of new state forms, wars and the questioning of the authority of the Church of Rome radically transformed the political and religious face of the Italian peninsula.(15th-17th century) These changes were recorded by secular and religious intellectuals and recomposed in historical works that reckoned with ancient traditions and elaborated new historiographical models (based on source criticism). Many of these posed the problem of investigating the history of state institutions, the relationship with the empire and the papacy and the origins of their freedoms.
The course aims to reconstruct the link between the events concerning the main Italian states in the early modern age and the composition of new local and national, sacred and profane histories. The main focus will be on four authors: Niccolò Machiavelli, Francesco Guicciardini, Carlo Sigonio and Antonio Ludovico Muratori.

Readings/Bibliography

A student who attends at least 75% of the lectures is considered an attending student.

In addition to the lecture notes, attending students should bring:

E. Bonora, Aspettando l'imperatore. Principi italiani tra il papa e Carlo V, Torino, Einaudi, 2014.

M. Pellegrino, Le guerre d’Italia (1494-1559), Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017.

F. Gilbert, Machiavelli e Guicciardini. Pensiero politico e storiografia a Firenze nel Cinquecento, Torino, Einaudi, 2012.

Alcuni articoli verranno pubblicati su Virtuale durante il corso.

Non-attending students should bring, in addition to the texts listed above:

G. Greco, M. Rosa, Storia degli Antichi Stati Italiani, Bari-Roma, Laterza, 2013.

Teaching methods

For the course, the professor will use texts and images. In particular, passages from the works of Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Sigonio and Muratori will be read. The materials will be made available in the specific section of the University website.

Assessment methods

The oral examination will take place in the exam sessions provided at the end of the course.To evaluate the exam, the teacher will take into account the student's ability to master the contents of the course, to understand the historical concepts, to orientate himself in the bibliography, to know how to read a source, to connect the information acquired, to expose what he has learned in a synthetic way and with an appropriate language. The student who will meet these demands will have an excellent mark. The student who will simply repeat the information acquired in a mnemonic way and with a language not entirely adequate will have a discreet evaluation. The student who will show that he knows the contents superficially and with some gaps, using an inappropriate language, will have a sufficient evaluation. The student unprepared and incapable of orientation in the subject will have a negative evaluation.

Teaching tools

Presentations in Prezi format, sources, essays, online repertoires can be provided by the teacher.

Office hours

See the website of Guido Bartolucci