MA in Cultural and Intellectual History 1300–1650
Overview
This degree at the Warburg Institute aims to equip students for interdisciplinary research in Medieval and Renaissance studies and in the reception of the classical tradition. Although it is a qualification in its own right, the MA is also designed to provide training for further research at doctoral level.
Students are given the opportunity to examine early printed books and manuscripts. Reading classes in Latin, Italian and French are provided and are intended to help acquire the necessary familiarity with those languages as written in the late middle ages and the Renaissance. Students are also encouraged to attend the Director’s weekly seminar on Work in Progress and any of the other regular seminars held in the Institute that may be of interest to them. These at present include History of Art, Maps and Society and the History of Scholarship from the Renaissance Onwards.
Structure
The core courses deal with:
- Rhetoric and Dialectic: Humanist education and the use of language and its implication for Renaissance culture and discourse.
- Italian History: Aspects of late medieval and/or Renaissance social and political history
- Iconology: Mythological painting, allegorical figures, historical subjects, altarpiece
- Philosophy: The influence of classical philosophy in the Renaissance studied through commentaries, dialogues and letters, as well as popular works
Example of optional subjects:
- Sin and sanctity in the Reformation
- Art and devotion in the Renaissance
- Renaissance material culture
- Islamic Authorities and Arabic Elements in the Renaissance
- Dante and the Medieval Transmission of the Classical Tradition
- Sixteenth-Century European Literature
- Music in the Later Middle Ages and the Renaissance
All students take four core courses and two options and write a dissertation as well as two essays. In addition, there is a regular series of classes throughout the three terms on Techniques of Scholarship. Subjects dealt with include: description of manuscripts; palaeography; printing in the 15th and 16th centuries; editing a text; preparation of dissertations and photographic images. Some of these classes are held outside the Institute in locations such as the British Library or the Wellcome Library.
Reading classes in Latin, Italian and French are provided and are offered to all students.
Assessment
During the first two terms of the course all students will be asked to deliver a number of short presentations relating to their class-work. All students are required to submit two essays of 5,000-6,000 words, one by the first day of the second term, the other by the first day of the third term. A dissertation of 20,000-25,000 words, on a topic agreed by the student and supervisor, has to be submitted by 30 September. The course is examined on these three pieces of written work, and on two written examination papers sat in the third term. One is a translation paper: three passages from two or more languages, one of which must be post-classical Latin, have to be translated into English; the use of dictionaries is permitted. In the other paper, three questions must be answered from a selection dealing with the courses given that year.
Mode of study
12 months full-time only.
Careers
The majority of students studying for the MA in Cultural and Intellectual History aim to progress to study at PhD level and to pursue a career in academia. The MA Programme provides outstanding training in research skills and methodologies and equips students with the intellectual framework and language proficiency to undertake independent research with confidence and success. Former students have progressed to PhD study at the Warburg Institute and elsewhere and many are pursuing successful and well established academic careers in institutions across the globe including at the Universities of Cambridge, Copenhagen, Notre Dame (US), Padua, Royal Holloway, UCL, Birkbeck, La Sapienza (Rome), Warwick and Yeshiva (New York). Former students have also established successful and high profile careers in related fields including academic librarianship, museum curatorship, publishing, art, print and antiquarian book dealership .
What our students say
"I chose the Warburg Institute to study for my Master’s degree because of its interdisciplinary approach to the content of the study of the Renaissance and the focus on the research skills needed to realise this. My background in Biology and Medieval Studies had already led me in the direction of the History of Science, and at the Warburg Institute I was able to study this alongside the intellectual and cultural background of the period. The many language and palaeography classes provided me with the essential skills to study the main topics of the course. The teaching and supervision by the staff was very much geared towards the interests of the students, a great luxury and the enthusiasm of both students and staff made the MA course a very inspiring experience.
The scholarly environment of the Institute, with many conferences and public lectures a year, attracts distinguished scholars from all over the world and offers students an insight into the realities of academia. Apart from the important aspects of personal ineteraction I have to mention the library, photographic collection and archives of the Warburg Institute, which form a very rich environment for studying the topics of the course. The combination of research skills, content and individual supervision provides an excellent basis for pursuing the next steps into academia, and many of my fellow students (including myself) are now working on their PhD’s."
Sietske Fransen (The Netherlands)
