Interdepartmental 106 - THE RENAISSANCE

The French word renaissance means “rebirth”; when capitalized, it defines both a chronological period (ca. 1300–1600) in European history and an impactful engagement with the legacy of Greco-Roman antiquity. The descriptor was devised, importantly, at the time, not retrospectively. This course describes events, activities and innovations widely understood as a defining and indispensable foundation of the modern world’s global turn. Lectures treat and contextualize various topics: history, language, education, manuscripts and printed books, court culture, trade and colonization, the invention of utopia, the rise of Protestantism, theater in Shakespeare’s London, science and mathematics and the visual arts.