PGCert in Cultural, Intellectual and Visual History

The School of Advanced Study at the University of London brings together eight internationally renowned research institutes to form the UK's national centre for the support of researchers and the promotion of research in the humanities.

The Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for studying the interaction of ideas, images and society. It is dedicated to the survival and transmission of culture across time and space, with a special emphasis on the afterlife of antiquity. Its open-stack Library, Photographic Collection and Archive serve as an engine for interdisciplinary research, postgraduate teaching and a prestigious events and publication programme.

This course is ideal for students that have an interest in cultural, intellectual, and visual history, who are looking for an intellectual challenge but do not want to commit to a full MA. The course focuses on the survival and transmission of culture across time and space, with an emphasis on the afterlife of antiquity.

This seven-month programme aims to:

• Give students an understanding of current methodological and theoretical approaches to cultural, intellectual, and visual history of Western Europe
• Cover the key elements of the history of philosophy, science, literature, the arts, and visual culture, rooted in the Renaissance and the early modern period but embracing material from the Middle Ages to the advent of modernity
• Develop advanced research and analytical skills that are highly valued transferrable skills as well as good preparation for further academic study
• Provide a stepping stone for those who wish to progress to further postgraduate study, as students will gain 60 credits towards a master’s degree.

As a student at the Warburg Institute, you will have access to the best resources for the study of Renaissance art and culture in London. Unparalleled staff contact hours are combined with access to the Warburg Library, with its unique cataloguing system specifically designed to aid research, and the National Gallery’s collection and archives.

Through the Institute’s research projects, fellowship programmes and events, and its informal collegiate atmosphere, students have extensive opportunities for networking with an international community of scholars, which significantly enriches the learning experience and can provide ideal connections for the future careers.

Studying in Bloomsbury at the centre of an academic and cultural hub, you’ll also benefit from visits and training sessions at neighbouring institutions including the British Museum, the Government Art Collection, the Wellcome Trust, and the British Library, and further afield the V&A, the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Courtauld Gallery. 

Modules

The availability of a module is subject to change.

Students on this course will study one core module and one optional module. The modules selected are taken from those on offer on the MA programme. The course is examined as follows:

1. Core module: AHM220-01 Reviving the Past – 4,000 word essay

   Reviving the Past” introduces students to foundational knowledge and research skills for the study of the cultural, intellectual, and visual history of Europe, with a focus on the period comprised between the late Middle Ages and early modernity. It will provide students with a firm grasp on key elements of the transmission, renewal, and transformations of the classical tradition while introducing them to theory and method in intellectual and cultural history.

   The module is divided into three main units. The first unit explores the concern with the legacy of antiquity spreading across Western Europe in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. The second unit focuses on the complex cultural and intellectual changes brought about at the turn of the sixteenth century by the great geographical discoveries and by movements of religious reform. The third and final unit investigates engagements with ancient science in the seventeenth century and follows the constitution of a new, globally organized vision of the earth and cosmos into the early nineteenth century.

   Students will become familiar with a range of specific historical cases and dynamics by making use of both primary and secondary texts in the Warburg Library; and they will learn to problematize keywords such as “medieval”, “Renaissance”, “Western”, “nature”, “culture”, “civilization”, “modern”, “transmission” and “translation” and their implications for contemporary understandings of the past. Throughout, students will learn through a combination of lectures and discussions, and through active engagement with authentic primary sources and relevant scholarly work.

2. One optional module – 4,000 word essay

Optional modules

Students will be able to choose from five or more modules on a specific topic. These vary from year to year, but have included such topics as “Renaissance Political Thought”, “Religion and Society in Renaissance Italy”, “Renaissance Sculpture”, “Cosmological Images” and others.”

Additional modules may be offered depending on student numbers (a minimum of three students required per option) and teaching staff availability.

AHM280-01    Religion and Society in Renaissance Italy

The course takes the religious history of Italy as the point of departure for an in-depth investigation of the significant social and political changes that took place between 1300 and 1650. From the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance politics and religion were inextricably bound together. Religion was expressed both in rituals – liturgies, performances, pilgrimages – and in texts and works of art, thus forming a significant dimension of Italian culture and scholarship. The focus of the course is on the primary sources (hagiographical, legal, literary, architectural and cartographical) which provide evidence for the reconstruction of religious customs and habits of mind and for the understanding of political events.    The aim of this module is to identify and explain the significance of religious culture in late medieval, Renaissance and early modern Italy, providing a basic understanding of the interactions between politics, social life, cultural expression, and religion. From the late Middle Ages to the early modern period politics and religion were inextricably bound together, the Church was involved in temporal matters, and religious beliefs and practices were powerful motivating factors in contemporary policy making; religion was expressed both in rituals and in texts and works of art and formed a significant dimension of Italian culture and scholarship. Students are encouraged to develop a sound knowledge and critical understanding of Italian cultural history through the discussion of specific themes: the relation between pagan philosophy and Christian faith, Church and Empire, Church and Papacy, faith and space, sex and sanctity, Islam and Christianity, Jews and Christians, Church Councils and spiritual renewal, secular and religious utopias. Religion and Society in Renaissance Italy aims to critically assess the development of religious thought and practice by looking at texts and works of art, reaching – beyond factual information – a critical and unbiased assessment of the past and its complexities.

AHM230-01    Cosmological Images: Representing the Universe

This course will study cosmograms: concrete objects which represent the universe as a whole. It will explore connections between art and science, including the intellectual function of images and the aesthetics of representing the cosmos and knowledge about it, in science, religion, and folk traditions. Students will be provided methods for studying such objects in action, as part of ritual practices, projects of knowledge, and political programs.

One aim of the course will be to trace the changing form and content of cosmograms from the medieval through modern period, especially with regard to scientific images. The course will trace the gradual emergence of a cosmology said to be mechanical, materialist, and objective, and its interactions and oppositions with other views of the cosmos. By exploring these conflicts and controversies through a focus on cosmograms, we will ground these longstanding issues of intellectual history in concrete contexts and the making of objects and images.

AHM290-01    Renaissance Political Thought from Erasmus to Campanella

This module will explore a range of canonical and non-canonical political texts from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, contextualizing them historically and situating them in a longer tradition of moral and political philosophy that stretches back to Classical Antiquity and forward to modern times. We will also discuss methodological questions regarding their interpretation and engage critically with seminal scholarship in this area. Specific topics will include: what counts as a ""political"" text?; the reception and transformation of classical theories in new historical contexts (e.g. movements of religious reform; the rise of nation-states; the ""discovery"" of America and the beginnings of the colonial race); main trends (e.g. the rise of political ""realism"" vs. ""utopianism"") and debates (e.g., around the best form of government, resistance rights, religious toleration, just war, and the role of women in society).

AHM380-01    Renaissance Sculpture in the Expanded Field

With a title that borrows from Rosalind Krauss’s seminal 1979 article ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Field’, this module examines Renaissance sculpture according to broad parameters to think about how images and other media (such as drawing, print, architecture, paint) were fundamental to the creation and reception of sculptural objects. Together we will explore drawing and modelling in the artist workshop; the adaption and migration of sculpture into painting; the role of sculpture in the rituals of religious life – from mobile, polychromed crucifixes to immersive pilgrimage sites such as the Sacro Monte at Varallo; as well as sculpture within the framework of society and culture: large scale public work, portrait busts, installations within the villa garden and, finally, ephemeral sculptures made for festivities and banquets.

In doing so, we will encounter the famous, at times monumental, artworks by sculptors such as Donatello, Michelangelo and Giambologna, but we will also consider more unfamiliar objects and materials: life-size holy dolls, votive wax figures, sculptures made from food and the colossal monsters of the Sacro Bosco at Bomarzo. We will examine how sculpture was discussed in a range of primary sources, from artistic treatise to the fictional Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, alongside recent scholarship that engages with materiality and Renaissance making practices. It will become apparent that sculpture was a varied, experimental artform, which played a key role in the embodied practices of Renaissance life.

AHM100-01    The World of the Book in the European Renaissance

The aim of the module is to provide an understanding of the culture of the book in Renaissance Europe—a time and place that saw the invention of printing, the growth of both private and public libraries, the development of bibliographical protocols, the advent of the humanist printer, and new techniques for active reading. It also saw the beginnings of colonialism and conquest, cultural revolutions, religious reformations, and profound social upheavals. What role did the book play in these changes—or did it? How can it help us to understand the changing world of the European Renaissance? Through seminars, collection visits, and practical training at a historically appropriate printing press, this module will offer an overview of the history and the historiography of the book, with a special focus on the material aspects of production, dissemination, and use. 

The normal minimum entry requirement is an upper second-class honours degree from a British university, or an equivalent qualification from a non-UK institution, in any discipline in the humanities related to the course.

All students whose first language is not English must provide recent evidence that their written and spoken English is adequate for postgraduate study.

Find out more about our entry requirements. 

For more information on how to apply, including deadlines and the documentation you will need to provide on the application form, visit our How to Apply page.

Fees are set annually and cover registration, tuition, and (in the case of research students) supervision.

Fees are quoted per annum -- that is, you will need to pay at least the fee quoted below for each year of your studies. Please note that tuition fees are subject to annual uplift. The University of London reserves the right to alter or withdraw courses and amend other details without prior notice.

See the Tuition Fees for 2024-25 - listed by Institute.

Our students fund their studies in a variety of ways including scholarships, bursaries and fellowships, as well as government loans and postgraduate loans. 

We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries that you don't need to pay back and are awarded based on personal circumstances or academic achievement. Funding at postgraduate level is competitive so it’s a good idea to plan financially before starting your course. 

For information about fees and funding from the School of Advanced Study, please visit the SAS Fees and Funding page.

The SAS Careers Service works with students and graduates of all ages and at all stages of career development across all the institutes. Our mission is to provide high-quality information about careers and skills, and professional advice and guidance. We help students with their career development, either within their current field of work or in something completely new. 

SAS students can access 1-2-1 guidance appointments throughout their studies and for up to 2 years after graduating, to help them plan their next steps, whatever they might be. We also offer CV, cover letter, and application advice as well as mock interviews with the SAS Careers Consultant who will empower you to feel more confident in your interview performance.