Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Renaissance Europe II (Syllabus & Reading List) 2024-25-Term 2

RS201 & RS301 ~ Renaissance Europe II. 'Renaissance Ecologies'

This interdisciplinary module, (formerly Movement, Revolution, and Conflict), will introduce students to the complex ways in which Renaissance Europeans understood and interacted with the physical world around them. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of textual, visual, and archival sources, spanning broad geographical contexts (Spain, France, Italy, England, Germany, and the Americas), and disciplinary approaches (History, History of Art, Intellectual History, History of Science, Ecohistory and environmental studies, literature, and religion).

The Renaissance (1400-1700) registered profound transformations in people’s attitudes towards knowledge, artisanship, and nature. Innovative technologies in navigation and printing allowed people and information to travel faster and further than ever before. Humans became increasingly aware of their place in nature and their impact on the physical environment (seen both on a global scale and in the relationship between city and countryside). A utilitarian approach towards nature and its resources coexisted with broader cultural notions that saw humans and societies as microcosms, profoundly shaped by their environments. This was a period of religious reforms, of artistic developments, of interaction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ environments and frameworks of thought, of land interventions and unpredictable climatic shifts.

The course will expose students to a multitude of intertwined topics, including religious and magic views of nature; tensions between indigenous knowledge and dominant authorities; response to changes posed by specific climatic conditions and foreign ecologies; environmental configurations of the early modern society; food and exploitation of natural resources (hunting, fishing, and farming); gemstones and natural philosophy. By looking at the interconnection of Renaissance culture with its diverse ecologies, this course hopes to ultimately inform new ways of thinking about our present relationship with the natural world. Module convenor, Dr Delia Moldovan.

Classes are on Mondays, 16:00-18:00, in room FAB 1.09, unless otherwise stated below and in tabula

Module codes are: RS201-15 (intermediate year students) and RS301-15 (final year students)i

Assessment method is 100% essay. Yr 2 students-1 x 3500-word essay chosen from a list of given titles; Yr 3 students-1 x 4000–4500 word essay, on a freely chosen topic determined in consultation with the module convenors and/or tutors.

To register your interest in either (or both) modules, please complete the short form HERE.

Week 1: Introduction to Module – Anca-Delia Moldovan, Teresa Grant 

Week 2: Renaissance Mysticism and the Natural World: The Case of Saint John of the Cross (in translation) – Maria Czepiel 

Week 3 Witchcraft and Soil Sterility: The Investigations of a French Magistrate in the Pyrenees Matteo Leta

Week 4 Ecological and Indigenous Knowledge in Early Modern Venice – Bryan Brazeau– 27 Jan 

Week 5 The Challenges of Travel: The Art Historical Evidence – Louise Bourdua 

Week 6: Reading Week - No Class 

Week 7 Inns as Microcosms in Renaissance Society – Beat Kümin 

Week 8 Debates on Ecology and Renaissance Hunting – Ingrid De Smet 

Week 9 Ecology and Agriculture in the Renaissance – Anca-Delia Moldovan 

Week 10 The Nature of Gems in the Renaissance – Michael Bycroft

Link to full reading list via Warwick library HERE (forthcoming)

CSR essay writing guide

20 point marking scale/criteria

Essay questions (TBC)

Essay deadline: Tuesday 22nd April 2025 (noon)


Word limits:

RS201 (second year students) 3,500

RS301 (final year students) 4000-4,500