The course - which is taught in English - aims to enable the student to understand the origins and the most significant developments of the concept of Renaissance, recognize important areas of historical experience that the research methods adopted for the study of that reality have allowed to highlight, and apply them to a particular theme. At the end of the course the student will be able to master the above described concepts and problems, by taking into account both the English and the Italian cultural and linguistic spheres.
This year's course will introduce the Italian Renaissance by considering the variety of its manifestations as they have been outlined by recent scholarship, with a focus on the classic of nineteeenth-century historiography that can mostly claim to have established the very notion of Renaissance. While still a peasant and fruitful read, Jacob Burckhardt's book is now 150 years old, so some of our discussions will aim at describing what can be reasonably regarded as still valid in his analysis, what instead has not aged as well and should be replaced by other sets of judgment and categories of interpretation. All welcome (whatever your level of familiarity with related subjects.)
| Author | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN | Note |
| John Najemy (ed.) | Italy in the Age of the Renaissance: 1300-1550 (The Short Oxford History of Italy) (Edizione 1) | Oxford University Press | 2010 | 9780198700401 | |
| Jacob Burckhardt | The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy | (any edition) | 1860 |
Written questionnaire on the set texts, followed by an oral interview.
