In this course we will be examining current debates in the history of medieval and early modern Europe. Two topics will be discussed each semester, as follows:
Semester II
(weeks 1-3) The Impact of Printing
(Prof. dr. J. Pollmann; Dr. H. Wijsman)
Deelnemers dienen zich als volgt voor te bereiden. Lees voor College 1 de volgende teksten:
Elisabeth Eisenstein, The printing revolution in early modern Europe (Cambridge, 1983)
Een fotokopie is beschikbaar in de werkgroepenkast van de studiezaal geschiedenis in de UB.
The American Historical Review, 107 (2002): Forum: How Revolutionary Was the Print Revolution?, including: the introduction by Anthony Grafton, Elisabeth Eisenstein, ‘An Unacknowledged Revolution Revisited’, pp. 87-105; Adrian Johns, ‘How to Acknowledge a Revolution’, pp. 106-125; Elisabeth Eisenstein, ‘Reply’, pp. 126-128. Dit tijdschrift is electronisch beschikbaar via the Digital Library.
Opdracht: bedenk drie stellingen naar aanleiding van deze teksten en neem die (in zeven kopie? mee naar college.
Ever since the sixteenth century historians have made far reaching claims for the impact of the invention of printing, and the revolutionary power of the printed word. Yet in recent decades this grand narrative has been challenged from a number of directions. First of all, recent scholarship has shown that script was a much less static medium than used to be believed. Printing did not appear out of nowhere. The printing press was an important technical innovation, but also a logical step in a process of the growing importance of writing and literacy that started in the high middle ages and in which for example the use of written language for administrative purposes, the introduction of paper, and a development towards a more individual perception of religious life played a major role. Secondly, recent scholarship has challenged the notion that the coming of the printed word meant the automatic demise of script. In this short course, we will chart this debate, and explore how print continued to interact with other, more traditional media, with script, speech and image.
Reading:
The American Historical Review, 107 (2002): Forum: How Revolutionary Was the Print Revolution?, including: Elisabeth Eisenstein, ‘An Unacknowledged Revolution Revisited’, p. 87-105; Adrian Johns, ‘How to Acknowledge a Revolution’, p. 106-125; Elisabeth Eisenstein, ‘Reply’, p. 126-128.
David McKitterick, Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order 1450-1830, (Cambridge 2003)
Additional reading to be announced later.
Week (5-7) Individualism in Renaissance Europe. Myths, theory and reality
Dr. Erika Kuijpers: H.M.E.P.Kuijpers@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Dr. Robert Stein: R.Stein@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Description
In his famous essay on The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), Jacob Burkhardt depicted Renaissance Italy in sharp contrast to the Middle Ages. People in the Middle Ages would only be aware of themselves as members of families, clans, communities and corporations. In the Renaissance, on the other hand, modern self-awareness rose. People started to write their autobiographies, have themselves portrayed and sign their works. The rise of individualism in Renaissance Europe became a myth that can still be found in popular literature on art and history.
There are a number of reasons why even Burkhardt himself doubted the validity of his statements on Renaissance individualism. In the past decennia debates have focussed on the sociological side of the problem: who actually shared the self consciousness of Dante or Da Vinci? And didn’t early modern people still derive their identity from collective ideas and group membership? On the chronology: what about the traits of individualism found in the works of medieval authors as early as the twelfth century? And first and for all on definitions: What do we actually mean by individualism? In this seminar we will consider and discuss the definitions and development of individualism in relation to community and state, culture, religion and education.
Meetings
Tuesdays 9.00-11.00 AM March 3, March 10 and March 17.
Extra
In week 5 movie: DOCTOR FAUSTUS (United Kingdom / Italy 1967) Director: NEVILL COGHILL with RICHARD BURTON and ELIZABETH TAYLOR.
Room and hour will be announced.
Reading
John Jeffries Martin, Myths of Renaissance individualism. 2004, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. x, 187pp
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860),Christopher Marlow, Doctor Faustus (c.1589, or, c.1593) in a modern edition of your choice. Early prints of this play can be found on: Early English Books Online (EEBO) edited texts on the website of the Perseus project: www.perseus.tufts.edu – The complete works of Christopher Marlowe
Ian Watt, Myths of Modern Individualism. Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe, (Cambridge 1996)
See program. Copies of articles and books will be in the University Library: werkgroepenkast
Program
I March 3.
Read:
J. J. Martin, Myths of Renaissance individualism. 2004, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. x, 187
Jacob Burckhardt The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien) (1860) text online: http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html
Each student submits three concrete but concise arguments why Burckhardts vision on the rise of individualism in Renaissance Italy is either superseded or still valuable. Arguments in English should be sent to the instructors before Monday March 2. at 9.00.
II March 10
Read:
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (c.1589, or, c.1593) in a modern edition of your choice. Early prints of this play can be found on: Early English Books Online (EEBO) edited texts on the website of the Perseus project: www.perseus.tufts.edu – The complete works of Christopher Marlowe
Ian Watt, Myths of Modern Individualism. Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe, (Cambridge 1996).
1 Write a short biography (ca. a half page) of Christopher Marlowe on the basis of information found on internet. Pay attention to his career and his (political) ideas.
2 Each student writes a review of Watt, Myths of Modern Individualism. Do you agree with Ian Watt’s interpretation of Dr Faustus’ individuality? This question should be answered with concrete arguments or examples.
Reviews of 1,000 words maximum, have to be sent to all participants (staff and students) by e-mail before Monday the 9th of March. 9.00. Everybody prints and reads the reviews of the other participants before class. These reviews can be written in either Dutch or English. Students can find a short manual on the writing of reviews, e.g., http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/review.html
III March 17.
Write a short essay of approximately 1,000 words, in English or Dutch. This essay should develop a definition of pre-modern individualism in relation to one of the three themes listed below, making use of the proposed literature. If you wish to choose other themes or read something else, please contact the supervisors.
Essays should be emailed to all students and staff by Monday 16, by 9.00. Print and read each others essays and prepare feedback. In class you will have 10 minutes to explain the main arguments of your essay.
Revised essays can be submitted until Friday March 20.
A Individuality, community and state
J. Coleman, ‘The individual and the medieval state’, in: J. Coleman (ed.), The origins of the modern state in Europe : 13th to 18th centuries. The individual in political theory and practice (Oxford, New York 1996) 1-34
W. Weber, ‘Rulers and subjects: The absolutist making of the individual’, in: . Coleman (ed.), The origins of the modern state in Europe : 13th to 18th centuries. The individual in political theory and practice (Oxford, New York 1996) 191-214.
Black, A., ‘Individuals, Groups and States: A Comparative Overview’, in: J. Coleman (ed.), The origins of the modern state in Europe : 13th to 18th centuries. The individual in political theory and practice (Oxford, New York 1996) 329-340.
Walker Bynum, C., ‘Did the twelfth century discover the individual?’ Journal of Ecclesiastical History (1980) 31(1), 1-17.
Nierop, H. van, ‘A tale of two brothers. Corporate identity and the revolt in the towns of Holland’, in: Ch. H. Parker and J.H. Bentley, Between the Middle Ages and Modernity. Individual and community in the Early Modern world (Plymouth 2007) 53-70
Antony Black, ‘The individual and society’, in: J.H. Burns (ed.), The Cambridge history of medieval political thought (Cambridge 1988), 588-606.
B Intellectual individualism and religion
Baldwin, G., ‘Individual and Self in the Late Renaissance’, The Historical Journal (2001) 44(2), 341-364.
Verger, J., ‘The contribution of Medieval universities to the birth of individualism and individual thought’, in: J. Coleman (ed.), The origins of the modern state in Europe : 13th to 18th centuries. The individual in political theory and practice (Oxford, New York 1996) 59-77
Balibar, E., ‘What is ‘Man’ in seventeenth-century philosophy? Subject, Individual, citizen’, in: . Coleman (ed.), The origins of the modern state in Europe : 13th to 18th centuries. The individual in political theory and practice (Oxford, New York 1996) 215-241.
Sabean, D.W., ‘Production of the Self during the Age of Confessionalism’, Central European History (1996) 29(1), 1-18.
Janet Coleman, ‘St. Thomas Aquinas’, in id., A history of political thought from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance (Oxford 2000), 81-117.
Francis Oakley, The western church in the later Middle Ages (Ithaka 1979), 100-113.
C The individual in art and autobiographical writing
Burke, P., ‘ Representations of the self from Petrarch to Descartes’, in: R. Porter (ed.), Rewriting the self : histories from the Renaissance to the present. (London 1997) 17-28.
Bagge, S., The autobiography of Abelard and medieval individualism. Journal of medieval history, 1993: p. 327-350. Also available as online-source.
Natalie Zemon, D., Fame and Secrecy: Leon Modena’s Life as an Early Modern Autobiography. History and Theory, 1988. 27(4): p. 103-118.
Burke, P., ‘ The renaissance, individualism and the portrait’, History of European Ideas Vol. 21:3 (1995) 393-400.
Sawday, J. ‘Self and selfhood in the seventeenth century’, in: R. Porter (ed.), Rewriting the self : histories from the Renaissance to the present. (London 1997) 29-48.
Matthew, L.C., ‘The painter’s presence: Signatures in Venetian Renaissance pictures’, The Art Bulletin, 80:4 (1998) 616-648.
Rooster
Semester I and II, see timetables.
Onderwijsvorm
Literature Seminar; attendance is compulsory ( see the rules and regulations of the Department of History, art. 2).
Literatuur
See under course description
Toetsing
Participation in the course; one short review/essay on each topic studied
Informatie
With coordinator: j.pollmann@let.leidenuniv.nl.