CULTURAL HISTORY

The discipline belongs to the core educational activities of different Master courses (e.g. History from the Middle Ages to Present; Philology; Archival and Library Science). The course intends to provide students with a methodological knowledge through the treatment of specific case-studies.

Focusing on a single topic, which changes every year, the course will allow students to understand how a culturalist approach might be useful to the historican's work.

Good knowledge of European History, with a particular focus on the early modern period. A profound knowledge of Italian is also required: I therefore recommend to study thoroughly a good grammar textbook; about the Italian punctuation system I recommend: B. Mortara Garavelli, Prontuario di punteggiatura, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007

Starting with the 1980s, a culturalist approach established itself as a valuable method to better understand historical events in their contexts. After a first introduction to the meaning and to the heuristic value of cultural history, the course intends to focus on the biography of one of the most important authors in seventeenth-century Italy: Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623). The course aims to make interact Sarpi's works with the cultural and social contexts of a whole epoch. In particular, three main themes will be treated: atheism, communication, and political culture.

A reference list of books will be made available on moodle.

During the course the students who attend classes will hold an oral presentation about one of Sarpi's work. The students' competence will be verified through a written exam consisting of two questions: the former concerning the topics of the course, the latter about the Sarpi's work that the student have presented in class - a portion of the text will be assigned to sum up and comment.

Students who can't attend the course have to do a written exam based on the texts agreed with the teacher. This exam will also concern source analysis.

Lectures and seminarial activity

Italian

written and oral