HIS 111 Unit 14

HIS 111
Unit 14: Renaissance, Reformation and Exploration

Raphael Santi's The Holy Family (The Madonna with Beardless Joseph), 1505-06, tempera and oil on canvas. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has one of the finest collections of Renaissance art in the world. That is largely a legacy of the wealth, power and collecting prowess of Catherine the Great in the eighteenth century.

What you must do in this unit

Read chapters 16, 18, 19 and 20 in the textbook (chapters 14 and 16 in the Edgar text).
Read my notes on the Renaissance, Reformation and Voyages of Exploration.
Study the Questions to Consider and the Key Terms for the unit.
Post (or respond) your thoughts/ideas about this unit's reading and assignment in the Blackboard online discussion forum. Do not post your assignment there.

What you can do in this unit

Read De Las Casas A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (if you are going to submit the optional De Las Casas paper).
Submit the Optional De Las Casas paper. If you don't understand why I call this an optional paper, take a look at the Explanation of Assignments and Grading.
You may listen to some further information about the Renaissance, Reformation and the Voyages of Exploration from my HIS 101 course.

Some videos that you can watch for this unit

See the videos dealing with the Renaissance, Reformation and Exploration in the HIS 101 course.
For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant video for this unit of the course. Send the title of the video, the url and a brief explanation of why you find the video interesting and applicable to the material that is being studied in this unit.

Extra Credit Options

Take the short 5-point quizzes for chapters 16, 18, 19 and 20. Log into Blackboard and look under "Chapter Quizzes." You have five minutes to complete each quiz (multiple-choice questions).
For a maximum of 50 points extra credit, read the excerpts from Columbus Journal of his voyages and write a one-page paper (Do these excerpts provide historians with any useful information about the native societies of the islands that Columbus reached?)
In a one-page paper, assess the significance of the Medici family for Renaissance Florence for a maximum of 50 points extra credit.
For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, read the Council of Trent: Rules on Prohibited Books and in a paragraph explain what the Church was attempting to do with these regulations.
For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, after reading The Discovery of North America by Leif Ericsson, c. 1000 (from The Saga of Eric the Red, 1387), write a paragraph in which you assess whether it really matters who "discovered" American first.
For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, read the excerpts from Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), Leonardo da Vinci, and write a long paragraph in which you explain how da Vinci was a perfect expression of the Renaissance ideal.
Read Luther's 95 Theses and answer the Luther study sheet questions for a maximum of 10 points. Please write in formal, complete sentences.
For extra credit of a maximum of 10 points, you can submit the answers to the De Las Casas study questions. Please write in formal, complete sentences.
For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course. Send the title of the site, the url and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.