Renaissance Literature CHANGE IN STYLE AND MAJOR PLAYERS

Opening Activity (3-5 Minutes) - Many writers embodied “humanism” in their work(s). - What do you think they did to embody “humanism?” (HINT: How do you think they portrayed or described their characters?)

Essential Question and Learning Goals

Essential Question: What role did Italy play in the Renaissance? Learning Goals: 1. Students will be able to identify major literary works of the Italian Renaissance

2. Students will be able to identify major writers of the Italian Renaissance

3. Students will be able to analyze a primary source (document)

Renaissance Literature Quick Facts - Wrote in the Vernacular

◦“The everyday language of people in a region or country” (native language)

- Writing for self-expression - Writing portrayed individuality of characters

Major Writers - Francesco Petrarch - Niccolo Machiavelli - Giovanni Boccacio

Francesco Petrarch - Early Humanist - “Father of the Renaissance Humanism” - Wrote in Italian and Latin - Wrote sonnets (14-line poems)

Niccolo Machiavelli - Best known work: The Prince

◦A “political guidebook” ◦ Imperfections of individuals ◦People are “selfish, fickle, and corrupt”◦A prince must be “strong as a lion and shrewd as fox”◦Being politically effective does not require morality◦Lie to opponents and mislead individuals (on occasion)◦“It is much safer to be feared than loved”

Formative Assessment (10 Minutes) Take a Stand - In Machiavelli’s famous work, The Prince, he says that it is “much safer [for a leader] to be feared than loved.” 1. What do you think he means in this quotation? 2. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? 3. Do you think that most political leaders in our modern era follow this perspective?

Giovanni Boccacio - Italian writer - Realistic stories - Best known work: Decameron - Use of humor and tragedy

Selection from Decameron “I say, then, that the years of the beatific incarnation of the Son of God had reached the tale of one thousand three hundred and forty eight, when in the illustrious city of Florence, the fairest of all the cities of Italy, there made its appearance that deadly pestilence, which, whether disseminated by the influence of the celestial bodies, or sent upon us mortals by God in His just wrath by way of retribution for our iniquities, had had its origin some years before in the East, whence, after destroying an innumerable multitude of living beings, it had propagated itself without respite from place to place, and so calamitously, had spread into the West.

In Florence, despite all that human wisdom and forethought could devise to avert it, as the cleansing of the city from many impurities by officials appointed for the purpose, the refusal of entrance to all sick folk, and the adoption of many precautions for the preservation of health; despite also humble supplications addressed to God, and often repeated both in public procession and otherwise by the devout; towards the beginning of the spring of the said year the doleful effects of the pestilence began to be horribly apparent by symptoms that shewed as if miraculous.”

http://jcsites.juniata.edu/faculty/tuten/plague.html

Summative Assessment (25 Minutes)

Primary Source Analysis– Selection from The Prince (Machiavelli)

1. (Individually) Read the selection from Machiavelli, annotating (highlighting, underlining, putting in brackets) key points and ideas [15 minutes]

2. (Pair) Break up into grounds of 2-3 to share what you believe is the main idea of the selection [5 minutes]

3. (Large Group Discussion) Students groups will be selected by the teacher to share some of their quotes or main ideas [5 minutes]

Selection from The Prince (Primary Source Analysis)

But to get a clearer understanding of this part of our subject, we must

look whether these innovators can stand alone, or whether they depend

for aid upon others; in other words, whether to carry out their ends they

must resort to entreaty, or can prevail by force. In the former case they

always fare badly and bring nothing to a successful issue; but when they

depend upon their own resources and can employ force, they seldom fail.

Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed

Prophets have been destroyed.

For, besides what has been said, it should be borne in mind that the

temper of the multitude is fickle, and that while it is easy to persuade them

of a thing, it is hard to fix them in that persuasion. Wherefore, matters should be so ordered that when men no longer believe of their own accord,

they may be compelled to believe by force. Moses, Cyrus, Theseus,

and Romulus could never have made their ordinances be observed for any

length of time had they been unarmed, as was the case, in our own days,

with the Friar Girolamo Savonarola, whose new institutions came to nothing so soon as the multitude began to waver in their faith; since he had not

the means to keep those who had been believers steadfast in their belief, or

to make unbelievers believe.

http://faculty.cua.edu/hoffmann/courses/102_1151/Machiavelli_1-Prince_selections.pdf