MedRen 3217 - Shakespeare's London

Instructor: Chris Highley, T TH 2:20 - 3:40PM, TBD, Class Number: #29995

This course will explore roughly one-and-a-half centuries of the history, politics and culture of London, beginning with the religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation, moving on to a Civil War that saw the king lose his head and culminating with the devastating plague and Great Fire of London in 1666. In our tour of this vibrant metropolis, we will encounter an extraordinary range of figures: alongside the great and the good like Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare, we will also meet prostitutes, vagabonds and gulls (!). You’ll become familiar with the layout and buildings of London, its churches and cathedrals, its palaces and thoroughfares and of course its iconic river Thames. We will linger especially around the theatres, bear gardens, alehouses and brothels that made up London’s burgeoning entertainment industry. 

No required textbooks.

GE (New) Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies course GE (Legacy) Culture and Ideas and Diversity: Global Studies course

MedRen 5631 - Survey of Latin Literature: Medieval and Renaissance

Instructor: Leslie Lockett, WF 9:35-10:55 AM, 1080 Derby Hall, Class Number: 35222 (undergrad) and 35223 (grad)

Medieval Europe has a reputation for extreme feasting and extreme fasting. In this intermediate-level Medieval Latin course, you can hone your Latin skills while also learning about feasting and fasting in the Middle Ages, plus farming, cooking, and nutrition through the eyes (and palates) of medieval experts.

We will translate excerpts from works such as Palladius’s agricultural manual De re rustica, Oribasius’s dietary theory in the Latin version of his Collectiones medicae, recipes fit for the king of the Goths in Anthimus’s De observatione ciborum, and guidelines for a minimalist monastic diet in the Regula of St. Benedict. Along the way we’ll also learn a bit about reading from medieval manuscripts and using specialized research tools.

Students will be graded on their preparation for in-class translations, written translation exercises, and two exams. No textbooks are required for this course, readings will be provided via PDF on Carmen. Prerequisite: Latin 1103 or equivalent, or permission of the instructor. If you have questions or would like permission to take the course, please contact Professor Leslie Lockett at lockett.20@osu.edu.

MedRen 5695 - Italian Renaissance Cities: Literature, Art, Architecture

Instructor: Jonathan Combs-Schilling, M 2:15 - 5PM, 455 Hagerty Hall, Class Number: #29617 (UG), #29618 (G)

From abstract, people-less visions of the Ideal City to the blood-stained floors of urban butcher shops, this course uses literature, art, architecture and historical sources to capture the thrill and investigate the cultural productivity of Italian cities in the period we now call the Renaissance. At the start of the period, the Italian peninsula was home not only to four of the five largest cities in Europe to be found in Italy (with Venice far and away the wealthiest on the continent), but roughly four hundred small but independent city-states as well, each vying to outdo its neighbors on the page, in the marketplace, or on the battlefield. After exploring the evacuation of cities after the fall of the Roman empire and re-flourishing of urban populations beginning around 1000, we will use representations of the city—from humanist treatises to bawdy short stories, comic plays, and paintings—to better understand the social and cultural forces that produced the Renaissance, as well as the lived experiences of individuals on the margins.