Explore our Culture of the European Renaissance, taught Master's degree.

P-V1PF

MA

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time

3 October 2022

Centre for the Study of the Renaissance

University of Warwick and Venice

Gain an insight into the culture of the European Renaissance on this MA. Warwick's Centre for the Study of the Renaissance offers an interdisciplinary research environment.

The term in Venice will add an international dimension to your profile, and all modules will help you develop and present nuanced arguments, while giving you deeper knowledge of the Renaissance period from a range of disciplinary perspectives.

This is the only Renaissance MA in the UK to offer students the opportunity to spend a full term in Venice. Instruction is in English, and you will be able to take Italian language classes.

This MA covers the period c.1300-c.1650 across Europe. It provides a foundation in the art, history, literature, philosophy, religion and science of the period, exploring their interconnections with the social and political context.

Strongly interdisciplinary, it is taught by academics drawn from the Departments of Classics, English, History, History of Art, and from the School of Modern Languages and Cultures.

Skills from this degree

• Advanced interdisciplinary understanding of Renaissance culture
• Advanced synthetic and analytical skills
• Linguistic, palaeographical, and bibliographical skills
• Research and Information managements skills
• Advanced written and oral communication skills

You will spend one term in Venice, studying the city’s art, history and culture and being taught by Warwick staff. The programme includes site visits, study sessions in Venetian workshops and behind-the-scenes visits to the warehouses of Venice’s museums.

During the other main teaching term, you will be at Warwick. There, you will explore the dissemination of Renaissance culture in Europe and further afield by completing an interdisciplinary Core Module, attending weekly skills training sessions, and completing an additional module in Renaissance or early modern studies of your choice. This can be selected from the Centre’s offerings or from the relevant offerings of any of the associated departments in the Humanities.

You will be encouraged to follow the training offered in Palaeography and/or Latin for Research. We may, subject to the government’s Brexit agreement, be able to continue exchange opportunities with Paris and Venice during the summer term.

There are around 6 to 10 students per class for this course.

For Terms One and Two, students will have an average of 8 contact hours during each week.

During Term Three, no formal teaching takes place: students concentrate on their dissertations and have regular contact with their supervisors.

Our aim is to develop your research and writing skills to the point where you are able to present cogent, complex and original arguments based on your research of images, buildings, artefacts, documents and other primary sources.

Each individual module is assessed through essays. Normally you will write an extended essay (5,000 words) for each of your modules, in addition to a dissertation (15,000 words). The dissertation is prepared over the late spring and summer and submitted in September. You will be requested to submit a literature review at the start of term three.

You will receive close one-to-one tuition from members of staff to guide you through your programme of research and writing. Your dissertation is equal to one third of the mark with the four module essays making up the remaining weighting towards your final mark.

Additional course costs

Travel to Venice for term there; possible extra living allowances as the cost of living can be more expensive than in the UK.

Reading lists

Most departments have reading lists available through Warwick Library. If you would like to view reading lists for the current cohort of students you can visit our Warwick Library web page.

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you and you will be able to choose your optional modules when you join us.

2:i undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a related subject.

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

There are no additional entry requirements for this course.

Order and Disorder: Religion, Society and Culture in Early Modern Venice (taught in Venice)

This module gives you a unique opportunity to study the history of a great Mediterranean city while living in it. Lectures are combined with site visits to offer a full sense of the development of Renaissance and early modern Venice. The Venice Programme has an international reputation and this module draws on the expertise of staff working in this area.

Renaissance Culture and Society (taught at Warwick)

The core module provides an overview of selected methodological and topical issues important for studying the Renaissance and the early modern periods. This ensures you are familiar with a number of different disciplinary approaches to the period (e.g., literature, history, history of art). This module gives you the opportunity to sample the broad expertise of members active in the Centre; prepares you, if you wish, to go on to further study; and encourages you to become effective at sharing and communicating knowledge.

Research in Medieval and/or Early Modern Art/Architectural History (taught in Venice)

This module, taught in Venice, is focused on developing research and writing skills through the study of a specific area of Medieval and/or Early Modern art and/or architecture. You will learn about significant scholarly debates among historians of art and/or architecture, analyse and evaluate their contributions, and view many of the art works first-hand, through visits to churches and museums.

Dissertation

This module forms a core part of the taught MA in the Culture of the European Renaissance, offered by the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance. As the capstone of such a course, it invites you to develop and display your research and writing skills within the context of an original study of materials related to the Renaissance. The dissertation is developed in consultation with an academic supervisor; normally its scope is established and the research takes place between the end of Term Two and over the summer term.

• Italian Renaissance Humanism
• Critical Foundations of Renaissance Studies
• Books, Subversion and the Republic of Letters
• Leonardo: Art and Science
• The Development of English Drama, 1558-1659
• Themes and Approaches to the Historical Study of Religious Cultures

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