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Academic Year 2003/2004


Archeology of the Future in the Renaissance Cities
FIST 243 FA

Crosslistings:
ITAL 235

Renaissance Italian humanists were hunting for ruins of buildings as much as for fragments of texts. They invented archeology and philology, two new disciplines to integrate the system of liberal arts. They were architects of an encyclopedia of learning that looked at the past as the source of a globally humanized future. In this course we will focus on works by Petrarch, who reshaped Latin prose and created Italian poetry; pope Pius II, a.k.a. the humanist Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini whose autobiography revolutionized the classical and Christian idea of the self; Lorenzo Valla, who demonstrated on a strictly linguistic basis that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery; Leon Battista Alberti, the prototype of the Renaissance Man, whose reflections on monuments and letters, perspective and craft opened the way to Leonardo and Michelangelo; and finally by Machiavelli, who rethought the radical meaning of political plots.

We will also be looking at different Italian cities (Siena, Rome, Florence, Naples and Milan) and their architectural development.

MAJOR READINGS

Petrarch, ITALIAN POEMS AND LATIN LETTERS;
Pius II, MEMOIRS;
Valla, THE FALSELY-BELIEVED AND FORGED DONATION OF CONSTANTINE;
Alberti, excerpts from various works;
Machiavelli, THE PRINCE.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Two in-class presentations, one midterm (take-home) exam, one final project (10 pages).

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA FIST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Simonetta, Marcello    
Times: .M.W... 01:10PM-02:30PM;     Location: RLAN106
Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 25)
SR. major: 3   Jr. major: 2
SR. non-major: 7   Jr. non-major: 7   SO: 4   FR: 2

Special Attributes:
Curricular Renewal:    Speaking, Writing
Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004


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