85115 - INTRODUCTION TO ITALIAN CULTURE (1) (LM)

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

At the end of the seminar students will have acquired awareness of peculiar dimensions of Italian culture. Students will be able to understand the relevance of research problems in a wide series of topic concerning italian culture such as italian Renaissance and the modern world, the birth of italian Nation, landscapes studies,. Students will demonstrate a sound theoretical framework within which specific research interests could be developed in a interdisciplinary perspective.

Contenuti

The course focuses on two major examples of the Italian Renaissance city: Florence and Ferrara, and it aims to introduce students to the concept of a 'decentered Renaissance'. Florence was marked by prominent political discourse thanks to Machiavelli and Guicciardini. The Medici’s patronage encompassed the culutral life of the entire city, from popular art to erudite neoplatonism. Ferrara revolved around the court of the Este. The court didn’t generate a political discourse, as it happened in Florence, but it developed the production of chivalric literature, Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, which aimed to transform the city in a new ideal State.

Testi/Bibliografia

Part I – Machiavelli, Guicciardini and Florence

Dr Simone Testa (20 hours)

More precise instructions on the set readings will be given during the course

General background on the history and culture of Florence:

John Najemy, A History of Florence, 1200-1575 (Oxford: 2006)

Cambridge Companion to Humanism, ed. by Jill Kraye (Cambridge: CUP, 1996)

Eric Cochrane, Historians and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance (Chicago 1981)

Primary texts

1. Machiavelli, The Prince, any edition
2. Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, any edition
3. Francesco Guicciardini, The history of Italy, translated, edited, with notes and an introduction by Sidney Alexander (Princeton, 1984, ©1969);
4. Francesco Guicciardini, Maxims and reflections, translated by Mario Domandi, introduction by Nicolai Rubinstein (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972)

Critical bibliography on Machiavelli

The critical bibliography on Machiavelli is enormous. Here are listed some of the main critical approaches to the Florentine secretary. More precise instructions will follow.

1. Machiavelli and republicanism, ed. by Gisela Bock, Q. Skinner, and M. Viroli (Cambridge 1990)
2. Sydney Anglo, Machiavelli, the first century: studies in enthusiasm, hostility, and irrelevance (Oxford: OUP, 2005)

   Critical bibliography on Francesco Guicciardini

3. Roberto Ridolfi, [http://copac.jisc.ac.uk/search?keyword=francesco%20guicciardini%20english&sort-order=-date&rn=47], translated from the Italian by Cecil Grayson (New York, 1968)
4. Peter Bondanella, Francesco Guicciardini (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1976)
5. Mark Phillips, Francesco Guicciardini. The Historian’s Craft (Manchester: MUP, 1977)

Part I – Ariosto and Ferrara

Dr Lara Michelacci (10 hours)

Primary texts

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando furioso (The Frenzy of Orlando): a new verse translation; translated by David R. Slavitt, Cambridge, Mass.; London: Belknap, 2009 (canti I, XXIII-XXIV, XXXIV).

Bibliography

Ferrara: Images of a Renaissance State, in Phaeton’s Children: The Este Court and its Culture in Eraly Modern Ferrara, a cura di D. Looney and D. Shemek, temple, Medieval and Reniassance Texts and Studies, 2005.

T. Tuhoy, Herculean Ferrara. Ercole d’Este, 1471-1505 and the Invention of a Ducal Capital, Cambridge, University Press, 1996.

Romance and History. Imagining Time from Medieval to the Early Modern Period, edited by J. Whitman, Cambridge, University Press, 2015 (the following chapter by Riccardo Bruscagli, pp, 151-167; by Marco Praloran, pp. 168-183; by Daniel Javitch, pp. 187-199).

Please take note: A one-day trip to Florence and one-day trip to Ferrara will be scheduled during the term.

Metodi didattici

• Lectures and seminars
• Field trips to Ferrara and Florence

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Coursework essay (approx. 5,000 words)

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

• PowerPoint presentations
• AMS Campus

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Angelo Maria Mangini