Paper instructions:
A Renaissance scholar named Poggio Bracciolini is the central figure in Stephen Greenblatt’s book. Poggio made an important cultural discovery that influenced
history by affecting the way people began to look at and understand the world, leading to a perspective that came to be described as “modern”. Greenblatt seeks to
bring Poggio to life in order to explain the connection between his personal attributes and his skills and dedication as a scholar. Write an essay analyzing those
personal attributes that helped to make Poggio Bracciolini a successful humanist and scholar during the Renaissance era. How were those personal attributes valuable
for the kind of scholarship that humanists like Poggio pursued? How did Poggio see his scholarship as a response to the circumstances of the 15th-century world in
which he lived?
Fourth Paper: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt
Directions—Read Stephen Greenblatt’s book The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. Everyone must write this paper.
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS:
? The essay must be approximately 3+ pages in length (minimum of ca.1000 words), 12-point font, double-spaced.
? In this case, since you’ll only be referring to a single book, cite by simply identifying the page number after the sentence or section where you quote from or
use specific information from the book.
? Include your name, the course information, and the date submitted at the top of the first page. Also provide a title that indicates something about the main
point that you make in the paper.
? Review the specific requirements for the topic and make sure you’ve attempted to address them. If you have any questions, ask me to clarify. The best way to do
this is to schedule a time to meet with me to have a conversation – e-mails that essentially ask “What do you want?” don’t lead to effective communication.
? Among the most important things that I look for when evaluating a report like this are: (1) evidence that you’ve read through the whole book and (2) that
you’ve understood its key points and can respond to them meaningfully. In general, you should be able to convey to me that you read, understood, and considered the
author’s points and perhaps even integrated it with other points raised in the course so far.
A Renaissance scholar named Poggio Bracciolini is the central figure in Stephen Greenblatt’s book. Poggio made an important cultural discovery that influenced history
by affecting the way people began to look at and understand the world, leading to a perspective that came to be described as “modern”. Greenblatt seeks to bring Poggio
to life in order to explain the connection between his personal attributes and his skills and dedication as a scholar. Write an essay analyzing those personal
attributes that helped to make Poggio Bracciolini a successful humanist and scholar during the Renaissance era. How were those personal attributes valuable for the
kind of scholarship that humanists like Poggio pursued? How did Poggio see his scholarship as a response to the circumstances of the 15th-century world in which he
lived?
