Renaissance Research Project Framing the Research Project Jonathan Davies Powerpoint is on the website

Trials Benvenuto Cellini, Life Claudio Monteverdi, L’Orfeo Giovanni Boccaccio, On Famous Women Leon Battista Alberti, Philodoxeos fabula Pietro Bembo, History of Venice SOURCES 2015

Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects Francesco Filelfo, Odes Bernardo Dovizi, Il calandro/La calandra Accademia degli Intronati, The Deceived Alessandra Strozzi, Letters

Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron Leonardo da Vinci, Paintings on religious subjects Giovanni Battista Moroni, Portraits Lucrezia Marinella, The Nobility and Excellence of Women, and the Defects and Vices of Men ​ Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting

The aim of the Research Project is to shift your attention to primary sources and allow you to seriously engage with them, in preparation for more extensive research as in your final year dissertation.

NB The key question you are trying to answer with the project: How can we use this source (or these sources) to illuminate Renaissance History?

The source should drive the content of the project. (In this sense, this is different from what you are asked to do in a normal research essay) E. H. Carr, What is History? How can we buy fish?

Having chosen the source, read or examine it carefully, BEFORE you do too much secondary reading. Go back and read/examine it again after you have read more about its context.

Your close examination of the source should help you determine which issues you think are most important to focus on in the project; which aspects of Italian Renaissance life it tells us most about.

The Project should include discussion of: what kind of source is it? Its form, author, purpose, language, audience, context.

Title What is the correct and full title of the source?

Author Who produced the source? Who were they?

Patron Was there a patron? If so, who were they? NB Remember the contemporary view of the patron as the creator.

Date When was the source produced? Is the date significant? Why?

Form What form does the source take? E.g. letter, legal document, treatise, dialogue, play, poem, (auto)biography, history, chronicle, diary, painting, sculpture, building, etc. Why was that form chosen? How does the form affect the way the views are expressed by the author/artist?

Language If you are analysing a text, in which language was it written originally? Why was that language chosen?

Audience To whom is the source addressed? How do we know the audience? Who were the audience? Why does the author/artist/patron address that audience? Is the way the source is produced influenced by whom it is addressed to? How? Why?

Reference to event or situation Does the source refer or react to a particular event or situation? If so, discuss the context and nature of the event or situation in detail. What is the attitude of the author/artist/patron to the event or situation? Why does the author/artist/patron take that attitude?

Reference to people Does the source refer to a particular person or group of people? If so, discuss that person or group of people in detail. What is the attitude of the author/artist/patron to that person or group of people? Why does the author/artist/patron take that attitude?

Reference to text Does the source refer to a particular text? If so, discuss that text in detail. What is the attitude of the author/artist/patron to that text? Why does the author/artist/patron take that attitude?

Reference to existing belief, idea or practice Does the source refer or react to an existing belief, idea or practice? If so, discuss the context and nature of the belief, idea or practice in detail. What is the attitude of the author/artist/patron to the belief, idea or practice? Does the author/artist/patron support it or challenge it? How? Why?

Expression of new belief or idea Does the source express a new belief or idea? If so, discuss the belief or idea in detail. How is the belief or idea new? How did the author arrive at the new belief or idea? Why does the author express it now?

Diction If you are analyzing a text, how does the choice of words reflect the author’s attitude?

If you are analysing a visual source, check the questions about design, setting, symbols, and colour in the Visual Sources powerpoint.

Issues and Values What does the source tell us about social/religious/political issues and values such as gender, marriage, sexuality, morality, social status, justice, honour, family? What does the source tell us about cultural issues and values such as the revival of antiquity, humanism, the use of the vernacular? NB If you are using several sources, do they reveal changes over time or do some things continue? What are the reasons for this? What is the significance?

NB If you are analysing several sources, don’t write about each source in turn. Instead, you should identify themes and base your analysis on these themes.

In week 9 or 10 of this term you will give a short presentation (5 minutes) on your project and receive feedback from your tutor and seminar peers. The presentation workshops will be held from to 1.00 on the Fridays of Weeks 9 and 10 in C1.11/15 in Social Studies. The deadline for the 4,500-word essay is 12 noon on the Thursday of Week 3 of the Summer Term. For details of submission, see saysubmission saysubmission