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The Medici: History of a Dynasty
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This Course is Available through these Programs:
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Italian Language & Culture
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Modern Italian Perspectives
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Academic Institution: CEA GlobalCampus: Florence
Location: Florence, ItalyPrimary Subject Area: History
Level(s): 300
UNH Course Code: HIS340
Instruction in: English
Recommended Semester Credits: 3
Contact Hours: 45
Additional Fee Description: This course requires payment of an additional fee to cover active learning components that are above and beyond typical course costs, such as site visits, entrance fees and other expenses. Spring 2009 fee = $50; Fall 2009 fee = $50; Spring 2010 fee = $70; Fall 2010 fee = $70
Description
The famous Medici family enjoyed a meteoric rise from fifteenth-century bank owners to Grand Dukes of all Tuscany, governing the city of Florence for over 300 years until 1737. This course offers arguably the best opportunity for a contemporary English-language student to experience Renaissance history in the extraordinarily well-preserved settings still to be found in Florence, Rome, and in Italy in general. This is your chance not simply to learn about the Medici but to explore the sites where their history and that of the Florentine Renaissance unfolded: the palaces, churches, villas and their art collections, forming together a uniquely complete surviving legacy of their achievements.
Illustrated class discussions and site visits to selected museums and galleries will also help you to unravel the cultural interests of the family's most important figures and their relationship with landmark artists such as Donatello, Botticelli and Michelangelo.
Particular care will be taken to engage you actively in learning the history of this family and of its times. You will take turns leading the class in visits to particular sites and you will write up reports for the whole class to use in learning more about the Medici. Your writing will also allow you to address important issues and pivotal events creatively, for instance by writing mock newspaper articles, interviews, or letters, or theatrical monologues or dialogues, or by preparing collages (in comic-book fashion, say) or writing the diary of someone who lived through eighty years or so of Florentine and Medici history.
These lively teamwork assignments will help you digest and reflect critically on all of this material, as you attempt to unravel the historic and contemporary significance of the Medici in the contexts of Italian history, family life, politics, religion, 'global' banking, commerce, arts investment/patronage and museology.
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