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Module Content and Indicative Topics

This module explores perceptions of identity in Renaissance Italy, bringing recent perspectives to the compelling thesis of Renaissance man’s individuality in Burkhardt’s foundational The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). The aim is to understand especially how identity could be construed, or socially, politically, and culturally constructed, by individuals or groups, through literature, theatre and in the rich culture of the princely courts and in urban centres.

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You will study some of the most outstanding examples of the literary and theatre culture of Renaissance Italy, which shape our ideas of civilization to the present day. In the first part of the module, you will be introduced to the brilliant culture of the northern Italian courts at a time of significant political upheavals, by examining °ä²¹²õ³Ù¾±²µ±ô¾±´Ç²Ô±ð’s influential dialogue, Il cortegiano (1528). This provides a subtle portrait of the court of Urbino and of the multifarious roles played by the ideal courtier. In the second part you will study three important early Italian comedies by Bibbiena, Ariosto and the Intronati Academy of Siena. These works and the contexts of their production provide a basis for exploring the complex dynamics involved in ‘self-fashioning’, from dress and leisure pursuits to more challenging issues of imitation and dissimulation.

All the texts will be studied in the original Italian, for which English translations are available.

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The module will cover the following topics, which may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class:

• °ä²¹²õ³Ù¾±²µ±ô¾±´Ç²Ô±ð’s Il cortegiano (1528) and the ‘court arts’
• the aesthetics and ethics of performance

• gender performance and play
• the status of women; the Renaissance debate on women
• political identity and class
• sources of Renaissance comedy: Roman comedy and Boccaccio’s Decameron
• Renaissance theatre and stage conventions

• the functions of comedy and attitudes towards humour

Teaching Delivery

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You will be taught in smaller seminar classes for this module. Teaching will normally involve a balance of informal lectures and seminars which include class discussions and small-group work to encourage active learning. There will be opportunities in class to practice commentary exercises on the set texts, to discuss critical readings, as well as to engage with issues of performance in relation to the theatrical texts. For classes you will be expected to prepare set discussion questions and short passages, besides reading the set texts and some assigned secondary critical sources. You may be asked to prepare short extracts from plays in small groups to read aloud or informally perform in class as a basis for class discussion.

A theatre visit (non-compulsory) may be programmed depending on availability.

By the end of the module, you should be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge and critical evaluation of some key works of the Italian Renaissance and the specific contexts in which they were produced, with special focus on the princely courts

• analyse theatrical practices in the Italian Renaissance and associated ideas on performance
• evaluate key aspects of Italian culture and society during the Renaissance based on current scholarship
• show evidence of independent research which applies and extends critical ideas on identity, individuality and self-fashioning relevant to the module
• communicate effectively complex ideas and arguments in writing and in class discussions, drawing on evidence from primary sources and from secondary literature

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Recommended Reading

In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts. These can be found in the Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Library, and all texts are available in Italian online.

Set texts

• Baldassarre Castiglione, Il cortegiano (1528) (any edition); available online at
• Bibbiena (Bernardo Dovizi), La Calandria (performed 1513; pub. 1521) (any edition), available at: . Transl. by Leonard G. Sbrocchi and J. Douglas Campbell as The Calandria, in Donald Beecher, ed., Renaissance Comedy: The Italian Masters, vol. 2 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 2011) [available also online]
• Ludovico Ariosto, La Lena (performed 1528; pub. 1535) (any edition); see . Translation: Five Italian Renaissance comedies, ed. by Bruce Penman (London: Penguin, 1978); on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/fiveitalianrenai0000unse (log in to borrow for 1hour; with unlimited borrowings)
• Accademia degli Intronati, ³Ò±ô’I²Ô²µ²¹²Ô²Ô²¹³Ù¾± (1532/37); any critical edition e.g. by Marzia Pieri (Titivillus, 2009), downloadable from ; The Deceived - A New English Translation of ³Ò±ô’I²Ô²µ²¹²Ô²Ô²¹³Ù¾± in a Dual-Language Edition, ed. Donald Beecher and Massimo Ciavolella (New York: Italica Press, 2018)
• Plautus, The Brothers Menaechmus (any translation, e.g. by Erich Segal in Plautus: Four Comedies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008/10), available online)

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NB: Critical editions of comedies will often appear in collections, rather than individually. There are

several excellent collections of Italian Renaissance comedies (e.g. by G. Davico Bonino in

the Teatro italiano series, and N. Borsellini), which have excellent notes.

Preparatory background reading

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• Cox, Virginia, A Short History of The Italian Renaissance (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016), . 4 ‘Identity and the Self’, ch. 5 ‘Renaissance Man’
• Martin, John Jeffries, Myths of Renaissance Individualism (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004)
• Woodhouse, J. R., Baldesar Castiglione. A Reassessment of the Courtier (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978)
• Anglo, Sydney, ‘The Courtier: The Renaissance and Changing Ideals’, in The Courts of Europe: Politics, Patronage and Royalty, 1400-1800, ed. A. G. Dickens (London, 1977), pp. 33-53
• Andrews, Richard, Scripts and Scenarios: the performance of comedy in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993)
• Farrell, Joseph, and Paolo Puppa, eds, A History of Italian Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), Part II ‘The Renaissance’