OVERVIEW

The teaching will analyze the major themes and processes in the history of Europe and the wider world  between the 15th and the 19th centuries, highlighting themes of political, cultural, religious and social history. An introduction will discuss historiographic categories, and will analyze different kind of historical sources. A significant part of the course will be focused on the theme "Sovereignty, political legitimacy and the modern State",  in a diachronic and comparative perspective. 

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will have a solid knowledge of the major themes and processes in the history of Europe between the 15th and the 19th centuries. Students will also learn a method to critically analyze historiographic literature and sources of early modern history. The aim of the teaching is to provide students with conceptual tools and interpretative categories to reconstruct the history of the past, to critically read a text or a document, to establish connections between processes and events, and to communicate with a scientific language the results of a reading or research. At the end of the teaching the students must be able to present and critically discuss the proposed and / or recommended texts for the individual study activity.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The field of studies "Early Modern History" was founded in the nineteenth century and academically covers a chronology from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. The teaching aims to provide students with the tools to reconstruct and critically interpret this concept in light of the historical processes that have characterized European society. A comparative perspective will be adopted, also with reference to the interpretative categories and to different historiographic perspectives.

TEACHING METHODS

The form of teaching used is  distance learning on Microsoft Teams (Storia moderna 65213, 2020-21, O. Raggio - access code: se20op1), with a Forum for discussion on AulaWeb. 

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The teaching proposes the reconstruction and analysis of the great themes and processes of early modern European history (XV-XIX centuries): population, economies and society; Humanism and Renaissance; commercial expansion and colonial empires; Protestant Reformation, Catholic Reformation and religious Conflicts; invention of printing and new science; composite monarchies, empires and transformations of political configurations; Enlightenment, reforms and French Revolution; Industrial Revolution; persistence of the old regime in the nineteenth century. The introduction includes the discussion of the interpretive categories, and the analysis of the different types of sources used by historians.  A central part of the teaching will be devoted to the theme "Sovereignty, political legitimacy and the modern State",  in a diachronic and comparative perspective. Themes: the cultural forms of political legitimation; the supernatural characteristics of the royal power between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age; the royal power between cosmology, theology and politics; the depictions of power; the images and symbols of European monarchies in the 16th century; the political myth of the state from antiquity to the contemporary age, from archaic states to the rise of totalitarian states in the twentieth century.  The differences in the program are related to the number of cfu (6, 9, 12), and are evident from the texts proposed to take the exam.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

The reading list for this course together with lecturer's instructions are available in the italian version of the web page and in the AulaWeb.

Programme for students taking the course for 6 cfu (training credits).

R. Bizzocchi, Guida allo studio della storia moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007.

a text chosen from among:

Marc Bloch, I re taumaturghi, Torino, Einaudi, 2016.

Frances A. Yates, Astrea. L'idea di impero nel Cinquecento, Torino, Einaudi, 2001.

Programme for students taking the course for 9 cfu (training credits).

R. Bizzocchi, Guida allo studio della storia moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007.

a text chosen from among: 
Marc Bloch, I re taumaturghi, Torino, Einaudi, 2016.

Frances A. Yates, Astrea. L'idea di impero nel Cinquecento, Torino, Einaudi, 2001.

a text chosen from among: 

Ernst H. Kantorowicz, I due corpi del re, Torino, Einaudi, 2012.

Ernst H. Kantorowicz, La sovranità dell'artista. Mito e immagine tra Medioevo e Rinascimento, Venezia, Saggi Marsilio, 1995.

James C. Scott, Against the Grain. A Deep History of the Earliest States, New Haven-London, Yale University Press, 2017; trad. it., Le origini della civiltà. Una controstoria, Torino, Einaudi, 2018.

E. Cassirer, Il mito dello Stato, Milano, SE, 2010.
 
D. Graeber e M. Sahlins, Il potere dei re. Tra cosmologia e politica, Milano, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2019.

J. Le Goff, Il rituale simbolico del vassallaggio, in J. Le Goff, I riti, il tempo, il riso, Roma-Bari, Laterza 2001 (pdf AulaWeb)
 

Programme for students taking the course for 12 cfu (training credits).

R. Bizzocchi, Guida allo studio della storia moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007.

Marc Bloch, I re taumaturghi, Torino, Einaudi, 2016.

Frances A. Yates, Astrea. L'idea di impero nel Cinquecento, Torino, Einaudi, 2001.

a text chosen from among:

Ernst H. Kantorowicz, I due corpi del re, Torino, Einaudi, 2012.

Ernst H. Kantorowicz, La sovranità dell'artista. Mito e immagine tra Medioevo e Rinascimento, Venezia, Saggi Marsilio, 1995.

James C. Scott, Against the Grain. A Deep History of the Earliest States, New Haven-London, Yale University Press, 2017; trad. it., Le origini della civiltà. Una controstoria, Torino, Einaudi, 2018.

E. Cassirer, Il mito dello Stato, Milano, SE, 2010.
 
D. Graeber e M. Sahlins, Il potere dei re. Tra cosmologia e politica, Milano, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2019.

J. Le Goff, Il rituale simbolico del vassallaggio, in J. Le Goff, I riti, il tempo, il riso, Roma-Bari, Laterza 2001 (pdf AulaWeb)
 

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

OSVALDO RAGGIO (President)

PAOLO CALCAGNO

LUCA LO BASSO (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

September 21, 2020

Class schedule

MODERN HISTORY

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Written tests during the semester; final oral exam. The exam is oral. The written tests in progress will be the subject of discussion and will contribute to the final evaluation. Written tests are not mandatory and are valid for the academic year of the course.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

By the end of this session, students will be able to evaluate  the arguments they have read and put forward their own view. The oral exam and the discussion of the written tests in progress will verify the achievement of the learning outcomes. The main evaluation parameters are the quality of the exposition and vocabulary used, both in oral communication and in written tests, and the capacity for critical and comparative reasoning.

FURTHER INFORMATION

On the basis of the indicated bibliography and of other texts that will be proposed during the lessons, and of materials that will be inserted in the pages of the AulaWeb, students will have the opportunity to build individual study paths.