Renaissance Studies
53 Wall, Rm 324, 432.0672
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Chair and Director of Graduate Studies
Keith Wrightson
Executive Committee
Edwin Duval, Carlos Eire, Roberto González Echevarría,
Lawrence Manley, John Matthews, Giuseppe Mazzotta, Annabel
Patterson, John Rogers, Ellen Rosand, Paolo Valesio, Christopher
Wood
Faculty Associated with the Program
Rolena Adorno, Christy Anderson, Leslie Brisman, Judith Colton,
Anne Dunlop, Paul Freedman, Karsten Harries, John Hollander,
Olivia Holmes, Blair Hoxby, K. David Jackson, Maija Jansson,
Lee Patterson, Keith Wrightson
Lecturer
Robert Babcock
Fields of Study
Renaissance Studies offers a combined Ph.D. degree
that integrates concentration in a departmental field with
interdisciplinary study of the broader range of culture in
the Renaissance and early modern periods. The program is designed
to train Renaissance specialists who are firmly based in a
traditional discipline but who can also work across disciplinary
boundaries. Departmental areas of concentration available
are Classics, Comparative Literature, English, History, History
of Art, History of Music, Italian, and Spanish and Portuguese.
Special Admissions Requirements
Only candidates wishing to proceed to a doctorate
should apply. Application should be made to the department
of concentration, with an indication that the candidate seeks
nomination to the combined degree in Renaissance Studies.
Applications should be accompanied by scores from the GREs
and one research or critical paper.
Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
Students are subject to the combined Ph.D. supervision
of the Renaissance Studies program and the relevant participating
department. The student’s program will be decided in
consultation with an adviser, the director of graduate studies
in Renaissance Studies, and the director of graduate studies
in the participating department. Requirements for the combined
degree will vary slightly to accommodate the requirements
of the participating departments, but all candidates for the
combined degree are expected to meet, at a minimum, the following
requirements. Students must demonstrate a reading knowledge
of Latin, Italian, and a third language, which will vary according
to departmental requirements. At the minimum, an examination
in Latin or Italian should normally be passed upon entrance;
a second language should be passed before the third term;
and a third language by the end of the second year. Each student
is required to take sixteen term courses (in History of Art,
fifteen). The normal pattern is to have completed fifteen
courses during the first two years of study, no more than
two of which may be individual reading and research. A two-term
core seminar, designed to present a wide range of topics concerned
with Renaissance and early modern culture, is required of
all combined degree candidates. This course, offered every
other year, is open to students from other departments.
Students concentrating in modern language and literature
departments (including Comparative Literature, English, Italian,
and Spanish and Portuguese) are required to complete three
courses in at least two disciplines outside of literature,
three courses in the Renaissance literature of the primary
department, and two courses in Renaissance literatures outside
of the primary department. The remaining courses will be taken
in other periods and topics as required by the department
of concentration. Students concentrating in History or Music
are required to complete four courses dealing with Renaissance
culture in disciplines outside of the primary department and
four courses in the Renaissance period within the department;
the remaining courses are to be taken in other periods and
topics as required by the department of concentration. Students
concentrating in History of Art are required to take four
courses within the department and three courses outside the
department dealing with the Renaissance period. Students concentrating
in Classics are required to take six courses outside the department
in the Renaissance period. Training in teaching, through teaching
fellowships, is considered an important part of every student’s
program. Most students teach in their third and fourth years.
The scheduling of the oral examination and the dissertation
prospectus follows the practice of the primary department,
but in every case the two requirements must be completed not
later than September of the fourth year. The oral examination,
varying in length from two hours to two hours and fifteen
minutes, will include a standard fifteen-minute question on
the bibliographical resources for Renaissance Studies across
the disciplines and three fifteen-minute questions (in the
case of English two fifteen-minute questions) in Renaissance
topics outside the primary discipline. The remainder of the
examination will be devoted to the primary discipline, including
(except in the case of Classics) some further coverage of
the Renaissance period. Students take additional written examinations
as required by the primary departments.
Upon completion of all predissertation requirements, including
the prospectus, students are admitted to candidacy for the
combined Ph.D. degree. Admission to candidacy must be completed
by the beginning of the fourth year. The dissertation will
be advised and completed according to departmental guidelines,
but one of the readers will normally be a member of the Renaissance
Studies Executive Committee.
Master's Degrees
M.Phil. The combined M.Phil. degree may be
requested after all requirements but the dissertation are
met.
M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.). The M.A. degree is awarded
upon completion of eight term courses, taken in at least three
disciplines, and with at least three grades of Honors. The
examination in Latin or Italian must have been passed.
Program materials are available upon request to the Chair,
Renaissance Studies Program, Yale University, PO Box 208298,
New Haven CT 06520-8298.
Courses
RNST 500a,b, Introduction to Renaissance Studies. David
Quint [F], Lawrence Manley [Sp].
Th 1.30–3.20 [F], W 3.30–5.20 [Sp]
An introduction to major texts, issues, bibliography,
and methods in the interdisciplinary study of the Renaissance. Emphasis
in the first term on Italy and in the second on northern Europe.
Also CPLT 501, ENGL 565a/b.
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