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Academic Year 2005/2006

Baroque Rome: Creativity and Coercion
HIST 118 FA
Crosslistings:
COL 104

This history seminar (with an interdisciplinary aspect) focuses on a famous city at an especially conflicted moment in its history, one of intense religious rigor and brilliant creative expression. This is the Rome of Giordano Bruno, Beatrice Cenci, Artemisia Gentileschi, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Galileo Galilei among others. Their Rome between 1550 and 1650 was the setting for major cultural advances in the arts and in science. It was the scene of inventive new schemes in social and spiritual compassion. Yet the papal capital in these same decades also pioneered new methods of repression and ferociously suppressed non conformity. We will explore these contradictions and their impact on cultural innovation in Baroque Rome by looking both at this distinctive urban community and some of its most celebrated individuals.

MAJOR READINGS

E. Cohen & T. Cohen, WORDS AND DEEDS IN RENAISSANCE ROME
M. Finocchiara, ed., THE GALILEO AFFAIR: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY
F. Hammond, MUSIC AND THE SPECTACLE IN BAROQUE ROME
F. Haskell, PATRONS AND PATRONAGE: ART AND SOCIETY IN BAROQUE ROME
I. Magnuson, ROME IN THE AGE OF BERNINI
C. Ricci, BEATRICE CENCI
K. Stow, THEATER OF ACCULTURATION: THE ROMAN GHETTO IN THE 16TH CENTURY
Relevant articles by historians and art historians.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Short bi-weekly papers on assigned reading; one 8-10 page research paper and oral report.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Attendance and participation in class discussion required.

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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