FINAL STUDY QUESTIONS
When a problem involves humanist writers whose excerpted works were required reading for the course, be sure to use your knowledge of those excerpts in writing your essay.
1) Show how a Renaissance individual (or two or three of them), represent(s) humanism in general, or in one of its phases; e.g., transition to, at the height of, or late humanism.*
2) Explain the development of humanism in the arts and letters as a result of economic trends; i.e., the rise of long-distance trade and accumulation of wealth connected with the bi-polar world-economy.
3) Compare and contrast the interests, activities, and methodologies of the medieval scholastics with those of the Renaissance humanists.
4) Compare and contrast the interests and activities of the mystics and lay pious (e.g., Brethren of the Common Life) with those of the humanists.
5) Define and characterize Renaissance humanism. Explicate your characterization with examples, using the readings wherever possible.
6) After clearly defining and characterizing the humanist concepts of civic patriotism and the philosophy of the civil society, explain how state development (princely and urban) related to, and accounted for it.
7) What was accomplished in the way of state building during the Renaissance period and what did humanism have to do with it, if anything?
8) Offer an economic and/or political explanation of the origins and achievements of late humanism (post-1450), including the work of the Platonic Academy, the late Renaissance littérateurs, Platonic painting and High Renaissance painting.**
9) To what extent did late Renaissance scholarship represent a return to the subject matter and methodology of scholasticism? Compare and contrast the work of St. Thomas and William of Occam with that of Marsiglio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola.
10) The epitome of Renaissance humanism is often found in the works of Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, and Lorenzo Valla. Explain how these particular scholars and littérateurs represent the height of Italian humanism.
11) Show how the work of Matteo Maria Boiardo, Lodovico Ariosto, Torquatto Tasso, Luca Signorelli and Andrea del Sarto represent a return to the origins of humanist literature and painting (i.e., before the appearance of the sweet new style at Bologna).
12) Compare and contrast the work and lives of Coluccio Salutati and Poggio Bracciolini with those of Marsiglio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola.
13) Compare and contrast the Renaissance characteristics of the major paintings provided with the major works of literature studied, juxtaposing literary style and content with that of artistic works (that may be considered historically equivalent).**
14) Compare and contrast the interests of the Byzantine and Italo-Byzantine painters with those of the late medieval and early Renaissance painters.**
15) Identify and account for the development of Renaissance humanism in art using the specific paintings provided as examples.**
16) Using the art documents provided, write an essay in which you define Renaissance humanism and show how humanist painting emerged and changed in Italy between about 1250 and 1535.**
17) Pretending you are Leonardo Bruni or Coluccio Salutati, account for the decline of communal government and its replacement by dictatorship in territorial states. ***
18) Depict and account for the philosophy of the civil society promoted by Salutati (Letter to Zambeccari), Bruni (Panagyric) and Bracciolini (On Avarice). Is this socio-political philosophy synonomous with Classical Liberalism, whose father is usually said to be Adam Smith?*
19) What is Bracciolini's view of avarice and why does the Humanist hold this view? Discuss and indicate the significance of the following issues: whether avarice is natural, whether avarice or lust is a worse sin, and the belabored issue of miserliness. (How are these issues related to Classical Liberalism?)***
20) Show how Valla used humanist interanal and external criticism to deny the authenticity of the "Donation of Constantine." Provide at least two specific exampoes of each kind of criticism used in the text.***
21) Valla's "on the Donation" is often cited as an example of humanist secularism and
anti-clericalism. To the contrary, argue that this document is a call for the reform of the Church and, as such, represents Renaissance humanism at its height (i.e., it displays all the characteristics of the movement well).
22) How is the "Dialogue on Free Will" a humanist document? (i.e., how do the subject, purpose, and method of the document fit the characteristics of humanism).
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* = The instructor will designate which individual or individuals.
** = An essay which must utilize the reproductions of artistic works provided. In these essays, the student is expected to identify the artist subject matter, approximate date, and period-style of each work provided.
*** = The student is required to use (demonstrate reading) of the assigned writings by these humanists.