Mr. B (Renaissance Unit Lecture 3)

1. Renaissance Literature
CHANGE IN STYLE AND MAJOR PLAYERS

2. 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?)

3. 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)

4. 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

5. Major Writers
- Francesco Petrarch
- Niccolo Machiavelli
- Giovanni Boccacio

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

7. 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”

8. 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?

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

10. 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

11. 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]

12. 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