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Samantha Kelly: High School Teachers Institute

Friday, April 26, 2024, 09:00am - 02:30pm

"The Other Italian Renaissance"

 April 26, 2024

9a – 2:30p

Samantha Kelly, Professor, Department of History, Rutgers University

Renaissance Italy is famous for many things: humanist philosophy, glorious art, and splendid princely courts; political experimentation, intellectual innovation and a vibrant commercial culture. Most of the Renaissance individuals associated with these achievements were Italian Christian men. Yet behind them lay a much more diverse society, one that included enslaved people, non-Christians, non-Europeans, and of course women. They were an integral part of Renaissance society – as the exploited and marginalized who permitted others to prosper, but also individuals who carved out places of opportunity for themselves, and contributed to Renaissance Italy’s economic, intellectual, and political vitality. In this seminar we’ll consider women in relation to the household and the economy, especially in the occupation of prostitution; the enslaved men and women from eastern Europe, central Asia, the Muslim-controlled Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa, and their prospects if and when emancipated; and the place in Renaissance society of free minority groups, including Jews and African Christians.

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