Cultural and Intellectual History 1300–1650 – (M.A.)

All students take four core courses and two options and write a dissertation as well as two essays. Core courses deal with: Humanism; Italian History; Iconography; Philosophy. Optional courses vary from year to year. Recently offered topics include: Art and devotion in the Renaissance perceptions of Islam, c.1450-c.1650; The creation of Vasari´s Lives; The imagination and its intellectual contexts in the 16th and 17th centuries; Music and the arts and sciences in Renaissance; Renaissance material culture; Sin and sanctity in the Reformation; The transmission of the classical tradition in Dante.

In addition, there is a regular series of classes throughout the three terms on Techniques of Scholarship. Subjects dealt with include description of manuscripts; palaeography; printing in the 15th and 16th centuries; editing a text; preparation of dissertations and photographic images. Some of these classes are held outside the Institute in locations such as the British Library or the Wellcome Library. Students are given the opportunity to examine early printed books and manuscripts. Reading classes in Latin, Italian and French are provided and are intended to help acquire the necessary familiarity with those languages as written in the late middle ages and the Renaissance. Students are also encouraged to attend the Director´s weekly seminar on Work in Progress and any of the other regular seminars held in the Institute that may be of interest to them. These at present include Maps and Society and the History of Scholarship from the Renaissance Onwards.