Humanities+Assignments

All of the assignments that we have been working on in class are posted here in order. Please make sure that you continue to scroll down the page to get new assignments as they will be added to the bottom!

Click here to view the notes page for the Italian Renaissance PowerPoint. You must fill in the notes in order to use this on your tests/ quizzes.

Early Renaissance in Italy and Northern Europe Introduction Powerpoint

//__**MEDICI FAMILY: Godfathers of the Renaissance**__//
-Read the Renaissance Overview to get a good background of what was happening in Europe at this time.

[|Renaissance Overview]

1. Get ready to watch the first episode of the Medici series from PBS.

Part 1: The Birth of a Dynasty
[|Birth of a Dynasty Summary]

Connecting Questions- Answer these questions before you watch the first part of the episode: • What do you already know about the Medici family and the Renaissance? • Where is Florence or Firenze, as it is known in Europe? • The Renaissance starts in the quatrocento (14th century); what century is that? What years does that include? • What does the title The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance suggest about the series and the family? • How does a family become rich and powerful?

Focusing Questions: • As you watch, see how the Medici rose from poverty and insignificance. • Also notice this: Why were art and architecture so important to the rise of the Medici? • In what ways are accepted beliefs challenged?

Click on the link here to watch the first part of the video: [|Birth of Dynasty Youtube Episode]

2. Play //**29.48**// minutes of the film. __**Stop**__ at the point where the Albizzi have Cosimo summoned to the palace of government, and he is “at the mercy of his enemies.”

Questions after viewing the first half: • Do you have answers to the focusing questions now? • What do you have questions about? • What do you like about the way the film presents the information? • What is going to happen to Cosimo?

3. Fill out the first page of the viewing guide and turn in the guide to Miss DeWitt.

Link for viewing guide (print and fill out please). [|Viewing Guide]

4. Then play the rest of the video. Complete page 2 of your viewing guides.

5. Answer these closure questions.

Closure Questions: • What was unique about Cosimo, Brunelleschi, and Florence? • How did Cosimo, Brunelleschi, and Florence contribute to the birth of the Renaissance? • What problems do you foresee for the Medici family? Why? • In what ways were the ancients and the great writers from the East and Orient different from the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages? • In what ways does our society discourage or punish people for thinking, believing, and acting differently from the majority?

Part II: The Magnificent Medici
The Magnificent Medici Summary


 * Connecting Questions**- Answer these questions before you watch the episode:**:**
 * Where have you heard the term Renaissance man? What does it mean? (Point out that Lorenzo de Medici was the original Renaissance man.)
 * Who were the Ninja Turtles named after? (Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello) What do these names have to do with the Renaissance? (These artists were proteges of the Medici.)
 * Focusing Questions-** Answer these questions while you watch the episode:
 * * What happens when Mafia families have power disputes? Watch this film for events that sound like something out of The Godfather.
 * How were art and architecture connected to the rise of the Lorenzo?
 * In what ways are accepted beliefs challenged? ||
 * In what ways are accepted beliefs challenged? ||

Click on the link here to view the second segment of the video series: [|The Magnificent Medici]

Closure Questions- Answer these questions after you have viewed the episode.
 * Closure Questions:**
 * * In what ways was Lorenzo like a Mafia don? (For sociological information on the Mafia, see Jane Schneider's article "Educating against the Mafia" (Available: @http://civnet.org/journal/vol3no3/ftjsch.htm).
 * In what ways was he a Renaissance man?
 * What problems do you see with the church?
 * What art or architecture did you recognize?
 * In what ways does our society support and encourage artists, scientists, and thinkers?
 * What could Lorenzo have done differently?
 * Could anything like the "Bonfire of the Vanities" happen in the U.S.? Explain.
 * Did the fact that Florence was a republic have any effect on what happened with Savonarola and his followers? Would what happened be any more or less likely to have happened under a king? ||

After you are finished watching the video and answering the questions, please fill out this true and false summary of the second episode. Keep in your notes to use for future tests and quizzes.



There will be a quiz after this segment that covers both segments 1 & 2 from the Medici series. Print the quiz below, complete the quiz, and turn it in to me when you are finished (you may use your notes, etc.).

Part III: The Medici Popes
1. Why do people today become religious leaders? 2. Why would Lorenzo de Medici want his son and nephew to become high officials in the church? 3. What would you do if your parents decided that you were to become a religious leader, regardless or your interests or ability? 4. What religious leaders in the U.S. have abused their positions? 5. What would it be like to live in a U.S. in which Congress or president could tell you what religion you had to practice and what you must believe?
 * Connecting Questions- Answer these questions before you watch the third episode:**

1. In what ways did the Medici popes continue the family's talent for art patronage? What was different? What effect did art patronage have on the effectiveness of the papacy? 2. What mistakes did Popes Leo X and Clemens VII make? What effects did their mistakes have on Florence? The church? Europe? 3. How were political decisions made in Italy during the Renaissance? By whom?
 * Focusing Questions- Answer these questions while you watch the third episode:**

Now, get ready to watch Episode 3, The Magnificent Medici: The Medici Popes [|The Medici Popes]

1. Would you answer the focusing questions now? 2. What questions do you have? 3. How was Niccolo Machiavelli's political handbook, "The Prince", influenced by what was going on in Italy and in his own life? 4. What is the connection between Machiavelli and the Medici? 5. What have you learned about papal elections during this period?
 * Closure Questions- Answer after you have viewed the third segment.**

After you are finished watching the video and answering the questions, please fill out this video guide of the third episode. Keep in your notes to use for future tests and quizzes.

=Machiavelli Webquest= - We took at break from the Medici Family series to explore Machiavelli's work, //The Prince//. Please click on the links below to access the questions/ directions for the assignment and the readings that go along with the assignment.





Part IV: Power vs. Truth
1. What conflicts have you seen between power and the truth in Florence and in Italy in the Medici series? What further problems do you anticipate? 2. What power will the Medici family have after the death of the Medici popes? 3. What do you know about Galileo? 4. What conflicts do you expect to see between the ideals of the Renaissance, especially in science, and the Catholic Church? Why?
 * Connecting Questions- Answer these before you view the last segment of the film:**

1. In what ways is this 16th century Cosimo de Medici like the 15th century Cosimo de Medici who was Lorenzo's father? 2. What penalties does Cosimo pay for his power? 3. What is significant about Cosimo's choice of a wife? 4. How does Giorgio Vasari contribute to restoring Medici prestige and power? 5. In what ways is Galileo's fate a denial of everything that the Medici and the Renaissance have stood for?
 * Focusing Questions- Answer these while you are viewing the last segment of the film:**

Now, get ready to watch Episode 4, The Magnificent Medici: Power vs. Truth [|Power vs. Truth]

1. Would you answer the focusing questions now? 2. What questions do you have? 3. Discuss the meaning of this comment made by Bertolt Brecht in the late 1940s: "Galileo's crime can be regarded as the original sin of modern physical science". 4. What was the role of the Medici family in bringing about the Protestant Reformation and in supporting the Catholic Church's Counter Reformation? 5. In what ways was the Counter Reformation, including the Inquisition, like Afghanistan under the Taliban? 6. What other groups want to establish or have established fundamentalist regimes or theocracies in the modern world? 7. In what ways do people in the U. S. try to impose their religions on others? 8. What are the primary themes of //The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance// programs? (Check the [|interview excerpts] on the PBS Web site.) 9. On the PBS Empire Series home page is this description: "Within the long history of civilization are great eras of struggle, triumph, and loss. These periods are reflective of the best and word of humanity: explosive creativity, ultimate depravity, the use and abuse of power, and war." How well does this describe the Medici series? What specific parts of the Medici series fit specific parts of this comment?
 * Closure Questions:**

After you are finished watching the video and answering the questions, please fill out this video guide of the fourth episode. Keep in your notes to use for future tests and quizzes.

Now, an opportunity for some //extra credit/ personal field trip//: Read the parallel reading: "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, a novel set in the near future in a theocracy and compare it to what you have learned after viewing this video series.

In class, we will be taking this quiz to see which Medici we most closely resemble. Please take this quiz at home too! [|Who Are You? quiz] Be ready to share your answer and discuss whether or not you agree with the outcome!