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 from the perspective of the history of material culture.
For background knowledge on the period, a recommended (though not compulsory nor specifically object of exam) is:
- Alison Brown, The Renaissance, 3rd edn, Routledge, 2020 (forthcoming).
The exam material proper comprises:
James Shaw and Evelyn Welch, Making and Marketing Medicine in Renaissance Florence, Leiden, Brill, 2011 (350 pp.) – online access via ProQuest;
*Evelyn Welch, Art on the edge: hair and hands in Renaissance Italy, «Renaissance Studies» 23 (2009) 241-268;
*Ulinka Rublack, Matter in the material Renaissance, «Past & Present» 219 (2013) 41-85;
*Michelle O’Malley, A pair of little gilded shoes , «Renaissance Quarterly» 63 (2010) 45-83.
*= available online on the univr library system and to be posted on the e-learning platform
Suggestions for further (optional) reading will be given during the course.
All welcome (whatever your level of familiarity with the subjects involved.)
| Author | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN | Note |
| Peter Burke | Cultura e società nell'Italia del Rinascimento | ||||
| Peter Burke | Il Rinascimento | il Mulino | |||
| James Shaw and Evelyn Welch | Making and Marketing Medicine in Renaissance Florence | Brill | 2011 | ||
| Alison Brown | The Renaissance (Edizione 3) | Routledge | 2020 | (recommended) | |
| Manuel Bertolini | Un ambiguo sodalizio. Percorsi di musica e storia religiosa nella prima età moderna | Unicopli | 2019 |
Written questionnaire on the set texts, followed by an oral interview.
NB: In the current Covid-19 emergency this is temporarily entirely substituted by the interview, to be held via distanced videocall. Please follow publicly posted uptades. Interviews via distanced videocall will be anyway available, on request, for the whole duration of the current academic year.
