UNIT 1- FINAL ASSIGNMENT



Length: 5-8 pages
Due: In class, Thursday, Sept 27


Write an essay on one of the following topics. Your argument must draw from the readings assigned
in this unit, and may in addition draw upon contemporary art historical and architectural sources.
Be sure to give references to quoted or cited material. 


1. In his classic study The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt makes the 
following argument: "In Italy...an objective treatment and consideration of the State and of 
all the things of this world became possible. The subjective side at the same time asserted itself with 
corresponding emphasis; man became a spiritual individual, and recognized himself as such."


What in your estimation is the validity of this statement?


2. Machiavelli's Prince was translated into the French by Innocent Gentillet in 1576. At that time
Gentillet wrote that Machiavelli invented "totally wicked maxims and built upon them a science not
political but tyrannical." The first English translation did not appear in English until 1640. 
However, already seventy years earlier, the term "Machiavel" had been used as a slur, and the name is 
mentioned in the works of the Elizabethan dramatists Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and 
William Shakespeare, usually to conjure images of cunning and deceit.


What is the role of 'morality' in Machiavelli's work, and how well does his view speak for the age
more generally?


3. To what extent is the ideal Renaissance Man, be he ruler, courtier, bureaucrat, or scholar, 
actually male? What possibilities exist, if any, for a Renaissance woman?