Write an essay of between 2,000 and 4,000 words on one of the following topics. Include a Bibliography and, if necessary, a Web-ography. Essays may be hand-written (if clearly legible) or word-processed. Please use A4-size paper and only write on one side of each page you use. Please remember to keep a copy of your essay as submitted essays cannot be returned. You must submit a completed Entry Form with your essay.

Essays should be sent in an A4 envelope, clearly marked SOCIETY FOR RENAISSANCE STUDIES ESSAY PRIZE to:

Simon Tilbrook
Head of History
RGS Newcastle
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
NE24DX

The deadline is 3rd July 2009.

GOOD LUCK!

ESSAY QUESTIONS 2009

1. 'Literary works from the Renaissance period show little character development: instead, individuals are represented solely as members of groups or organisations.' Discuss this quotation making reference to one or more works of literature in English or another European language from the period 1400 to 1750.

2. 'It was during the sixteenth century that writers began to develop a strong sense of the importance of a national language, with its own rules and literary canon, distinct from yet equal in status to Latin.' Discuss the debates on the vernacular language in either France or Italy during the Renaissance.

3. 'Only Italy had a true Renaissance.' Discuss.

4. 'It is anachronistic to look for originality as a feature of Renaissance literary works: imitation of earlier models is the basis of all writing in the period.' Discuss this comment making reference to one or more works you have read in English or another European language from the period 1400-1750.

5. How do historical circumstances inform any one of Shakespeare's plays?

6. How does Shakespeare's language contribute to the political dynamic of the plays?

7. Discuss the connotations of the terms 'renaissance' and 'early modern' in relation to sixteenth and seventeenth century England.  What pre-suppositions do the terms contain and which is preferable?

8. In what ways did renaissance exploration contribute to the intellectual outlook of the time?

9. “The Renaissance must be taken as a distinct period in the history of science with its own characteristics, closely related to the humanism and scholarship of the age, and differing as much from the middle ages as from the more recent period conventionally, and correctly, called the Scientific Revolution.” (From Swerdlow’s essay “Science and Humanism in the Renaissance.”) Discuss.

10. How important was the ideal of the Renaissance Prince to the way in which princes ruled? Discuss with reference to any one or more rulers in Europe between 1450 and 1650.

11. Assess the significance of Christian Humanism to 16th century Europe.  Discuss with reference to more than one European state.

12. How true is it to assert that the Florentine Renaissance of the fifteenth century marks the true beginning of the artistic Renaissance?

13. Assess the importance of patronage to art in the Renaissance.  Discuss with reference to any one or more artists between 1450 and 1650.

14. Discuss the main differences between Italian and Netherlandish paintings in the fifteenth century.

15. Compare the impact of any two artists upon the wider development of art between 1400 and 1650.

16. Why was Greek so important to the development of Renaissance thought?

17. Assess the impact of any one composer from the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries upon Renaissance music.