Euro Unit 1 Literature Summaries

12 pieces of literature

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

• offers a first-hand description of the devastation of the Black Death on the city of Florence

• tells the story of ten young friends trying to hide from the plague

• written in vernacular Italian

Autobiography by Benvenuto Cellini

• boastful work by a leading artist

• captured the Renaissance celebration of individualism

• “Man can do all things” which sums up a new confidence in man’s potential

Oration on the Dignity of Man by Pico della Mirandola

• written by a Florentine philosopher

• compared every known religious and philosophical tradition looking for universal truths embraced by all humanity

• seen as an attack on the primacy of Christian thought

The Courtier by Baldassare Castilgione

• about etiquette and manners

• believed that the Renaissance was a unique age in need of new etiquette

• argued that modern man, a “Renaissance Man” must combine traditional male virtues with education and artistic talents

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

• worked for the Medici governemnt in Florence

• masterpiece of political science

• described the qualities of the ideal ruler

• argued that they cannot be limited by Christian morality and the “ends justify the means” and “it is better to be feared than loved”

In Praise of Human Folly by Erasmus

• a Christian Humanist work

• used satire and humor to mock certain practices of medieval Catholicism (such as veneration of saint’s relics, in hopes of provoking reform within the Church)

Education of a Christian Prince by Erasmus

• some view as a response to Machiavelli’s The Prince

• argued that the very goal of any ruler should be to imitate the example of Christ to love your neighbor

Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan

• written in French

• female author (first pieces of feminist literature)

• argued that women are every bit as capable as men if only given education and an opportunity

Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women by John Knox

• written by a powerful Scottish religious and political figure

• attacked the notion of women ruling over nations (claiming that it went against God’s law)

• attacked powerful female rulers (Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I of England, and Catherine de Medici of France)

Marco Polo’s Journey by Marco Polo

• published after his return from his epic excursion to China

• detailed the life he lived in medieval China

• inspired others to explore the globe

Essays by Michel de Montaigne

• philosophical work

• each culture possessed its own unique norms and that while different than European culture they were not inferior, just different

• foundation of cultural relativism

Othello by William Shakespeare

• one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies

• lead character is a dark skinned man who is complex and fully developed

• one of the first sympathetic depictions of a black person in European literature