3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Our online shopping habits and political Facebook posts are being monitored by Google's administration as well as by governments across the globe. If we think this is harmless, it is because we assume that the era of the first Apple Watch is different from the era of the first Gutenberg press. But is this really the case? In this course, we will explore this issue by focusing on the emergence of the first institutionalized censorship during a foundational period of modern times – the Renaissance. After addressing the reasons that motivated the creation of the first Index of Prohibited Books (1559), we will closely examine some of the most controversial works by Renaissance authors who were persecuted and banned for their religious, political, or scientific ideas (Erasmus of Rotterdam, Niccolò Machiavelli, Torquato Tasso, Galileo Galilei). The analysis of these texts will allow us to gain an understanding of both the dynamics of censorship and self-censorship in the Renaissance, and the logic behind power's obsession with cultural control – in those times like nowadays.