Venice in the Renaissance - Summer School Version (HI2H2)

Module Convenor: Luca Mola

This residential module will take place in Venice analyses the cultural, economic, political, social, and religious history of Venice and its empire from the late fourteenth to the late sixteenth century, within the broader context of the Italian Renaissance. Whilst focusing on northern Italy, the option also considers issues with a wider resonance in Renaissance and Early Modern History, including migration, disease, charity, gender, violence and communication. The module makes use of an extensive range of primary sources. Learning on site in Venice will familiarise students with the city and the module is based around a series of site visits in the historic centre.

 

Syllabus

The module will be structured around 5 x 2-hour thematic seminars, each preceded by a 2-hour site visit/on site lecture on the same them:

• Theme 1: Government. Site visit: The Doge’s Palace and Piazza San Marco
• Theme 2: Art and Culture. Site visit: The Accademia Gallery
• Theme 3: Religion. Site visit: The Scuola Grande di San Rocco and the Frari Church
• Theme 4: The Material World. Site visit: Rialto
• Theme 5: Society. Site visit: The Jewish Ghetto

 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Evaluate and critique the cultural, economic, political, social, and religious history of Venice and its empire from the late fourteenth to the late sixteenth century
• Understand how the history of Venice can be accessed through a diverse range of textual, visual, and material sources, including the city of Venice itself and its former territories
• Analyse and compare different types of sources, and enhance their ability to develop a historical argument
• Engage with historiographical debates and think about the history and legacy of different historical concepts
• Encourage independent research, historiographical engagement, and the development of critical analysis

 

Indicative Reading List

Burke, Ersie C., The Greeks of Venice, 1498-1600: Immigration, Settlement and Integration (Turnhout, 2016)

Carboni, Stefano (ed.), Venice and the Islamic World, 828-1797 (New Haven, 2007)

Chambers, David, and Brian Pullan (eds and trans), Venice: A Documentary History 1450-1630 (1992; rept. Toronto, 2001)

Chojnacka, Monica, Working Women of Early Modern Venice (Baltimore, 2001)

Chojnacki, Stanley, Women and Men in Renaissance Venice: Twelve Essays on Patrician Society (Baltimore, 2000)

Contarini, Gasparo, The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, trans. Lewis Lewkenor (London, 1599)

Davis, Robert C., The War of the Fists: Popular Culture and Public Violence in Late Renaissance Venice (New York, 1994)

Dursteler, Eric R. (ed.), A Companion to Venetian History 1400-1797 (Leiden: Brill, 2013)

Howard, Deborah, The Architectural History of Venice (New Haven, 2004)

Huse, Norbert, and Wolfgang Wolters, The Art of Renaissance Venice: Architecture, Sculpture and Painting, 1460-1590, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Chicago, 1993)

King, Margaret L., Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance (Princeton, 1986)

Marinella, Lucrezia, The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men, ed. and trans. Anne Dunhill (Chicago, 1999)

Martin, John Jeffries, Venice’s Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renaissance City (Berkeley, 1993)

Molà, Luca, The Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice (Baltimore, 2000)

Ravid, Benjamin, Studies on the Jews of Venice, 1382-1797 (Aldershot, 2003)

Rosand, David, Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State (Chapel Hill, NC, 2001)

Salzberg, Rosa, Ephemeral City: Cheap Print and Urban Culture in Renaissance Venice (Manchester, 2014)

Sansovino, Francesco, Sansovino's Venice, ed. and trans. Vaughan Hart and Peter Hicks (London, 2017)

Sanudo, Marin, Venice, cità excelentissima: Selections from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo, ed. and trans. Patricia H. Labalme and Laura Sanguineti White (Baltimore, 2008)

Vivo, Filippo de, Information and Communication in Venice: Rethinking Early Modern Politics (Oxford, 2007)

 

Assessment

• Seminar Contribution (10%)

  • Contribution to seminar discussions, evidence of preparation etc.

• Analysis of Primary Source (1000 words) (30%)

  • Commentary on primary source extract

• Reflective Essay (2000 words) (60%)

  • Students will reflect on a question related to the themes of the module, with reference to relevant historiographical debates