LFU:online

Competence in writing a scientific study (sources and bibliography; footnotes, etc.); analysis and interpretation of sources; critical-methodological reflection

The class discusses humanism and its study since the 19th century. Humanism is commonly understood as a mind-set that characterizes the historical and cultural epoch of the Renaissance (14th to 16th century). Referring to ideas from antiquity humanism aimed for the ideal individual that could freely develop its personality on the basis of theoretical and moral education. Modern research on humanism and the Renaissance begins with Georg Voigt’s and Jacbos Burckhard’s (both 1859) highly influential studies. They followed their humanist authors in seeing the Renaissance as the beginning of a modern age. Since Voigt and Burckhardt research has very much taken to this opinion and emphazised the radical modernity of humanism and its discontinuity to the medieval past.

Based on the topic of the seminar we will work out the topics for the bachelor thesis and regularly discuss it in the seminar. The analysis of late medieval sources and modern classics on humanism will enable students to deepen their methodological understanding of medieval history, train their analytical skills and thus contribute to the individual work on the bachelor thesis. The focus is on educational and cultural-historical aspects.

Introduction into the topic; reading and analysis of primary sources; reading and analysis of chosen essays; group work; workshops; discussions; presentations; written paper with presentation

Participation, presentation, written thesis

Jacob Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Ein Versuch 1859; Georg Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums oder das erste Jahrhundert des Humanismus, Berlin 1859; Johannes Helmrath (Hrsg.), Wege des Humanismus. Gesammelte Aufsätze zum Europäischen Humanismus, Tübingen 2012.

Online registration necessary