The Republic of Venice: Myth and Reality c. 1400-1650 (10 credit points)

Content of Course

1. General impressions: the city’s foundation and early growth. Venice’s Byzantine heritage. Maritime trade and the Myth of Venice; Bellini and the East. The city’s role at the forefront of economic and cultural trends: commerce and printing.

2. The Republican structure of Venetian government: the Doge and the Councils. A closed society; the Procurators of St Mark’s and the other Magistracies. Contemporary political theorists. The Patriciate and Cittadini. Case studies of early Doges: Francesco Foscari and Giovanni Mocenigo.

3. The Scuole and confraternities; commercial models and maritime trade. The Popolani and the Arsenale: an early example of labour regulation and factory production. Society and work in Renaissance Venice. Women’s lives in early Renaissance Venice: dowries and convents.

4. Stato da Mare: the fifteenth-century maritime empire and Venetian overseas dominions: Rhodes, Cyprus and other colonies. Stato da Terra. : key cities in the Veneto and beyond. Waterways, agriculture and land reclamation. Trade and administration: Venetian patrician families and the cursus ad honorem. The humiliation of Agnadello (1509): background and consequences.

5. Venice: the Renovatio or renewal of Venice. Architectural projects in the early to mid sixteenth century: Jacopo Sansovino. Printing in Venice. Other Venetian industries: silk, glass and clothing.

6. Religion: Venice and Rome; the poor in Venetian society. Confraternities, social welfare and hospitals; quarantine and lepers; Carnevale and the Battle of the Fists; Venetian law, crime and punishment.

7. The later sixteenth century and the culmination of the Myth of Venice. The Battle of Lepanto (1571). Venice and its greatest artistic decades: Palladio, Titian, Veronese, Giorgione, Tintoretto and others. Art patronage and building in Venice and its Terraferma: monasteries, palazzi, churches and villas.

8. The dark side of the Myth of Venice: secrecy and corruption. Heresy, the Inquisition and Venice. The Jews in Venice: the original Ghetto. Legislation and morality in the city. Venice and the Plague (1576).

9. Foreign diplomatic (English) and merchant communities; intellectual life in the mid and later sixteenth century; the changing roles of women in Venetian society in the later sixteenth and seventeenth century: case studies of women writers.

10. Venice and the split with Rome: Paolo Sarpi and the 1606 Interdict. The Jesuits and Venice. Seventeenth-century Venice: key trends and events. Was the decline of Venice inevitable?

Teaching method(s)

Lecture and discussion.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Understand the singularity of Venice’s position in the politics and economy of Renaissance Italy, as well as the Republic’s relationship with its maritime empire and the threats and challenges it faced from other Italian states and, in particular, the Ottomans;

• Demonstrate a knowledge of key events in the history of the Venetian Republic during the period and, in particular, the structure of its government and society and the city’s thorny relations with Rome and the Catholic church;

• Have an awareness of the importance of Venice as an entrepôt for trade and culture, including the development of printing in the city, and certain aspects of its multifaceted and cosmopolitan society, including women’s roles and the Jewish community;

• Identify certain works of art and architecture in Venice during the Renaissance and Baroque;

• Demonstrate the acquired knowledge and skills in their credit essay.

Sources

Core Readings

Essential:

• Fortini Brown, Patricia (1997) Art and Life in Renaissance Venice, Princeton: Prentice Hall.

• Howard, Deborah (2002, revised edition) The Architectural History of Venice, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

• Pullan, Brian (1971) Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice: the Social Institutions of a Catholic State, to 1620, Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press.

Recommended:

• Chambers, D.S. (1975) The Imperial Age of Venice, 1380-1580, London 1970

• Chojnacka, Monica (2001) Working Women in Early Modern Venice, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

• Cooper, Tracy E. (2004) Palladio's Venice: architecture and society in a Renaissance Republic, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

• Goy, Richard J. (2006) Building Renaissance Venice: patrons, architects, and builders, c. 1430-1500, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

• Fenlon, Iain (2007) The ceremonial city: history, memory and myth in Renaissance Venice, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

• Hibbert, Christopher (1988) Venice: the Biography of a City, New York: Grafton.

• Howard, Deborah (2000) Venice and the East: The Impact of the Islamic World on Venetian Architecture, 1100-1500, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

• Humphrey, Peter (2007) Venice and the Veneto, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Mackenney, Brian (1987) Tradesmen and Traders. The World of the Guilds in Venice and Europe, c.1250-c.1650, Lond: Croom Helm.

• Romano, Dennis (2000) Venice Reconsidered: the History and Civilization of an Italian city-state, 1297-1797, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Class Handouts

A weekly handout will be provided.

Assessments

10 credit courses have one assessment. Normally, the assessment is a 2000 word essay, worth 100% of the total mark, submitted by week 12. To pass, students must achieve a minimum of 40%. There are a small number of exceptions to this model which are identified in the Studying for Credit Guide.

Studying for Credit

If you choose to study for credit you will need to allocate significant time outwith classes for coursework and assessment preparation. Credit points gained from this course can count towards the Certificate of Higher Education.

Queries

If you have questions regarding the course or enrolment, please contact COL Reception at Paterson's Land by email COL@ed.ac.uk or by phone 0131 650 4400.

Student support

If you have a disability, learning difficulty or health condition which may affect your studies, please let us know by ticking the 'specific support needs' box on your course application form. This will allow us to make appropriate adjustments in advance and in accordance with your rights under the Equality Act 2010. For more information please visit the Student Support section of our website.