Description

This class introduces students to the history, culture, and politics of Venice at the height of its power.  Renaissance Venice was simultaneously the capital of a maritime and terrestrial empire, a glittering international destination for trade and culture, and the site of controversial innovations like Protestant thought, ghettos, and the printing press. It was for much of this era the only European model of a lasting independent republic. Then and now, it has been subject to a compelling but contested effort in mythmaking and propagandaa.

Course Structure

1. Introduction: Venetian History and Myth
2. The Venetian Government
3. The Structures of Venetian Society
4. Water: symbolic, economic, and architectural relations with the sea
5. Land: the Terrafirma and trade reations east and west
6. War: Agnadello, Lepanto, and the fight for independence
7. Venetian Painting and Sculpture
8. Confraternities Large and Small
9. Venice: the centre of printing
10. Jews, Muslims, Germans
11. Heresy and the Inquisition in Venice

60% examination: 3-hour paper
40% coursework: Two essays and one presentation

Learning Outcomes

• demonstrate improved skills in critical and creative thinking through extensive practice in critical inquiry and close analysis.
• identify the importance of key topics in Venetian history
• analyze literary, historical, and artistic documents from the 13th-16th centuries, compare their own analyses with those of modern scholars, and evaluate the work of modern scholars on this topic.

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