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Department of History  

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SCOPE AND MODALITIES OF THE COURSE.

   Welcome to "The Machiavellian Moment"!  We will study the writings of the Florentine political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) in the contexts of Florentine political history and the crisis of the late Italian Renaissance.  And we will seek to locate Machiavelli's originality against the backdrop of earlier scholastic and humanistic political theory, and his contribution to the broad course of Western political thought.  In addition to Machiavelli's major writings (Bondanella), we will read a biography of Machiavelli (Viroli), a history of Florence (Hale), and a selection of articles assessing Machiavelli's political thought (course packet).

   The FINAL GRADE will depend 25% on CLASS PARTICIPATION.  You should have completed each reading assignment by the date on the schedule below, and be prepared to discuss it.  The other 75% of the grade will be based on THREE 4-5 PAGE EXPOSITORY ESSAYS, due on May 7, May 18, and June 1.  You should establish a closely defined topic in one of the Machiavelli readings we will have discussed in the preceding third of the course.  Feel free to discuss it with me in advance.  You should do NO OUTSIDE RESEARCH:  the essays should be based on your own ideas and reading of the texts, not secondary sources or scholarly commentaries.  You are, however, allowed and encouraged to go over your paper with a tutor in the University Writing Center in Payne Hall 2B.  Simply indicate that you have done so in your PLEDGE. 

The following REQUIRED BOOKS are available at the Campus Bookstore:

   Bondanella, Peter, and Mark Musa, eds. The Portable Machiavelli.  Harmondsworth, England:  Penguin, 1979.

   Viroli, Maurizio. Niccolò's Smile. A Biography. Trans. Anthony Shugaar. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

You should also purchase from Karen Lyle, the Religion Secretary, a REQUIRED COURSE PACK that includes the following readings:

   Hale, John R. Florence and the Medici. The Pattern of Control. London:  Thames and Hudson, 1977, pp. 5-143.

   Berlin,  Isaiah.  "The Originality of Machiavelli."  In Against the Current.  Essays in the History of Ideas. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979, pp. 25-79.

   Baron, Hans.  "Machiavelli the Republican Citizen and Author of The Prince."  In In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism. Essays on the Transition from Medieval to Modern Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988, vol. II, pp. 101-151.

   Najemy, John M.  "Machiavelli and the Medici:  The Lessons of Florentine History." Renaissance Quarterly 35 (1982) 551-576.

   Pocock, J. G. A.  "Machiavelli and Guicciardini:  Ancients and Moderns." Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory 2 (1978) 93-109.

   Spackman, Barbara.  "Politics on the Warpath:  Machiavelli's Art of War."  In Albert Russell Ascoli and Victoria Kahn, eds. Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993, pp. 179-193.

   Skinner, Quentin.  "The Republican Ideal of Political Liberty."  In Gisela Boch, Quentin Skinner, Maurizio Viroli, eds. Machiavelli and Republicanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 293-309.

SCHEDULE OF DISCUSSIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS.

April 24:  Introduction to the course.

April 26:  Bondanella, pp. 53-61 (Letters 1, 2), pp. 419-429 (Belfagor); Viroli, pp. 3-56; Berlin (CP), pp. 25-39.

May 1:  Bondanella, pp. 61-72 (Letters 3-6), pp. 77-126 (Prince, chs. 1-14); Viroli, pp. 57-106.

May 3:  Bondanella, pp. 72-76 (Letter 7), 126-166 (Prince, chs. 15-26); Viroli, pp. 107-169; Berlin (CP), pp. 39-79.

May 7, 12:00 noon:  FIRST EXPOSITORY ESSAY DUE (at my office or mailbox).

May 8:  Bondanella, pp. 167-228 (Discourse I, chs. 1-18); Viroli, pp. 171-197; Hale, pp. 9-42.

May 10:  Bondanella, pp. 228-287 (Discourse I, chs. 19-60);  Viroli, pp. 199-232; Hale, pp. 43-87; Baron (CP), pp. 101-151.

May 14, 7:00 PM, Science Center, Rm. 214:  GUEST LECTURE, Professor Dale Kent, University of California at Riverside, "Cosimo de' Medici:  Florentine Patron."  Attendance counts as part of the discussion grade.

May 15:  Bondanella, pp. 548-574 (History of Florence); Najemy, (CP), pp. 551-576, pp. Viroli, pp. 233-259; Hale, pp. 87-118.

May 17:  Bondanella, pp. 287-350 (Discourse II); Hale, pp. 118-143.

May 18, 12:00 noon:  SECOND EXPOSITORY ESSAY DUE.

May 22:  Bondanella, pp. 351-418 (Discourse III); Pocock (CP), pp.  93-109.

May 24:  Bondanella, pp. 430-479 (Mandrake Root)

May 29:  Bondanella, pp. 480-517 (Art of War); Spackman (CP), pp. 179-193.

May 31:  Bondanella, pp. 518-547 (Castruccio Castracani); Skinner (CP), pp. 293-309.

June 1, 12:00 noon:  THIRD EXPOSITORY ESSAY DUE.