IT3xx The Lure of Italy

Module Code: IT3xx
Module Name: The Lure of Italy
Module Coordinators: Professors David Lines and Ingrid De Smet
Term 1
Module Credits: 15

Module Description

In the early modern period, the Italian peninsula served as a prime destination for study, trade, pilgrimage, tourism, and cultural exchange for people from across Europe and the Mediterranean. In this module we will study the conditions that favoured (or worked against) this situation, who travelled to Italy and why, and the Map From The Renaissance Era" Wallpaper ...

Map From The Renaissance Era" Wallpaper ...

concomitant flow of books, maps, and ideas, also within Italy. We will also consider people who either moved to Italy for work or were taken there as slaves, as part of the trade in people as well as goods. The module will cover movement towards southern as well as northern Italy and provide salient examples of the sources that allow us to study mobility and migration during the period, from student matriculation lists to travel journals and friendship books. Relevant readings will be available in English translation; SMLC students will be encouraged, where possible and appropriate, to read materials in the original European languages.

Module aims

• to provide a conceptual and historical overview of the the mobility of people, books, and ideas in early modern Europe
• to introduce students to the works and socio-cultural factors that encouraged or witnessed such mobility
• to gain an understanding of individual realities across Europe and how they were similar or different with regard to a specific topic (the Italian peninsula)

Module programme

Context
Week 1: Introduction; the prerequisites for travel (physical/political map; routes of travel and associated facilities including roads, waterways, tolls, inns, brigands; Church councils ...)
Week 2: Languages and multilingualism (Latin, French, ... Sabir; translation and interpreting)

Sources
Week 3: Envisioning Italy (maps, costume books, works on climate and national stereotypes such as John Barclay)
Week 4: Remembering Italy (travel diaries such as Montaigne, Journal de voyage; friendship books)

Places
Week 5: Greek scholars in Venice and throughout Italy
Week 7: The Italian south and Spanish influence

People
Week 8: Pilgrims, merchants, and men of letters (e.g., Erasmus)
Week 9: Students and teachers (the attraction of Bologna and Padua for Germans, Spaniards ...)
Week 10: Workers and slaves (Henry Wotton in Venice vs. household slaves)

Assessment for the module

One essay (65%) and one oral exam (35%).

New module in module approval, syllabus and assessment may therefore have some changes before 26/27.

Disclaimer

_{This information was correct at the date of publication. However, teaching staff (or their availability) and departmental facilities do sometimes vary, or become unavailable, for reasons beyond the University’s control. In exceptional cases, timetable slots may need to change to accommodate clashes. Where this happens, the University will ensure the minimum of disruption and will ensure that the expected standard of education is maintained.}

Module Tutor:

Professor David Lines