Reading for Tuesday:
Briggs, pp. 91-116; begin
Machiavelli, The Prince
(we will discuss The Prince
next Thursday)
Begin reading The Prince
- Try to forget everything you’ve ever heard about The Prince
(nowhere does Machiavelli say that “might makes right” or that
“the ends justify the means”)
- What is the historical context of the Prince (e.g. what is the
political situation in Italy? Why is Machiavelli writing?)
- Machiavelli gives advice on how to create a state and hold it
securely, but why establish a secure state in the first place? What’s
the greater point of establishing a secure state (esp. for the people)?
- What type of principality is easiest to rule?
- What type of troops should a prince have?
- Is it better to acquire a state by virtue or Fortune? Why?
- Does Machiavelli recommend acquiring a state through wicked
means?
- What kind of reputation should a prince cultivate, and how
should he treat his nobles and his people?
- How should a prince behave?
The Italian Renaissance:
Ideal and Reality
Francesco Petrarch
(1303-1374)
Cellarius, 17th c.
historia antiqua
historia medii aevi
historia nova
Voltaire coins term Renaissance
Petrarch crowned with a laurel wreath
Antonio Filarete (d. 1469)
Matteo Palmieri (d. 1475)
Carolingian Renaissance
(9th century)
Carolingian miniscule
12th Century Renaissance
Carolingian miniscule
Renaissance Humanism
Cicero (106-43 BC)
-Brutus
Quintilian (c.35 – c.100 AD)
-Institutio Oratoria
-studia humanitatis
Civic Humanism
-Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444)
-Leon Battista Alberti
(1404-1472)
-republics > signorias
The Roman Heroes: Decius, Scipio, and Cicero
Sandro Botticelli, Sala dei Gigli
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
Augustine of Hippo
(354-430)
Lorenzo Valla (d. 1457)
Donation of Constantine
Latin vulgate, Jerome, 4th c.
13th century fresco, Donation of Constantine
Papal Chapel of St. Sylvester,
Church of SS Quattro Coronati, Rome
Conques, Last Judgment, 12th c.
Lincoln, Harrowing of Hell, 12th c.
Rheims Cathedral, 13th century
Rheims Cathedral, Visitation Group, c. 1225
Cimabue, late 13th century
Giotto (c. 1267-1337), upper chapel at Assisi
Giotto, Francis receiving the stigmata
Giotto, Dream of Innocent III
Giotto, Entombment
Masaccio (1401-1428),Trinity
Botticelli (1445-1510), Primavera
Botticelli, Trinity, c. 1491
Michelangelo (1475-1564), Pieta
Michelangelo, Moses
Writing Assignment:
Describe one thing you
learned about medieval
people/society from reading
the Canterbury Tales.
Writing Assignment:
Give one example of a
good/virtuous character from
the Canterbury Tales. Who is
the character and what are
his/her virtues?