HIST4306SM Topic Studies in World History: New Methods in Renaissance Studies

In late fourteenth century Italy, there arose a craze for all things ancient. This shaped new forms of literature, philosophy, statecraft, art and architecture that would cast a long shadow in Europe and beyond in the following centuries. It also produced scholars and artists, may of whom have become household names, e.g. Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli, Michaelangelo and Thomas More. This course will provide a survey of this exciting period of world history and the latest methods used by historians to study it. The course will introduce some of the main figures, texts and works of art associated with the period, as well as some of the most innovative modern techniques for studying it drawn from data science, especially Natural Language Processing (NLP). No background in Renaissance history or digital history is required.

1. What is the Renaissance?
2. How did the Renaissance begin?
3. Florence as a Renaissance City
4. Distant-reading Renaissance texts
5. Petrarch’s Letters: Renaissance Text as Data
6. NLP-Approaches to Petrarch
7. The Renaissance in England
8. Distant-reading Thomas More
9. NLP Approaches to Thomas More
10. Renaissance Visual Culture
11. Distant-viewing Leonardo da Vinci
12. Distant-viewing Michaelangelo
13. Troubleshooting the final project

30% Participation in Tutorial

Active and enthusiastic participation in the tutorial (7.5% per tutorial). This will receive a letter grade.

15% Attendance and participation in lecture and departmental seminars

Each student is required to attend the weekly lecture and the tutorials, as well as participate in class exercises, etc. (5%).  If students are more than 15 minutes late to class, this will be counted as an absence.

Additionally, students must attend at least 3 seminars from among term 2’s various meetings of the RIH Digital Humanities Talk Series OR History Department World History Seminar via Zoom (send screen shot to TA as proof). You should also ask at least one question during one of the Q&A sessions (also send screen shot of chat box to TA as proof). The schedules will be announced in due course. (10%). 

35% Group Project

Students will produce a final group project. This can be a data project (text or images) or involve analysis. The output will take the form of a report (min. 15 pages, including images, appendices, etc.) plus any code, data files, etc.

Due by email to the Professor on 1 May 2026.  

10% Presentation of Group Project at Conference

On 11 May 2026 each group will present their project as part of a Faculty of Arts digital humanities conference. All students must attend and take part in the presentation.

Scheduled for 11 May 2026.

10% AI-diary

The use of AI, including chatbots, is permitted (and encouraged!) in this class. However, it must be documented and reflected upon.  An important part of the assessment is therefore an AI diary (absolute minimum 13 entries, one for each week). This can be a Word document or other format, in which you record the prompt, the response (screenshots are OK) and a minimum 50-word personal reflection on the value of the response and how you might want to further prompt the AI chatbot or edit the output. It is important to show sustained interactions with chatbots (multiple related prompts). You must document every single use of AI related to the course. You should begin keeping the AI diary from the very beginning of the course. Microsoft Copilot is a good choice, but you can use any chatbot you want.  The only place you are not allowed to use AI is in writing the comments on the AI diary! 

Due by email to the TA: DEADLINE 11/5/2026  

Only the AI diary requires a submission to Veriguide. Please email the Veriguide receipt to the TA along with the assignments: DEADLINE 11/5/2026 

AI Policy

By requiring an AI diary, this course follows Approach 3 in the CUHK Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools in Teaching, Learning and Assessments A Guide for Students:

Use only with explicit acknowledgement

In courses where students are allowed or expected to collaborate with or use AI tools, students may use these tools for in-class learning activities, exercises or assignments as long as they explicitly cite or acknowledge the use of these tools. Details will be spelt out clearly in the course outline and/or the instructions of the assignments. Students shall follow the instruction strictly and are expected to understand the limits and appropriate uses of these tools.

Email Policy

The TA and I are here to help you.  We aim to respond to emails within 48 hours of receiving them (excluding weekends and public holidays). If you do not receive a response within 48 hours, please send a follow-up email. 

Tutorials will provide an opportunity to hone your skills in the digital methods.

Jardine, Lisa. Worldly Goods : A New History of the Renaissance. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998. Print.

Rabil, Jr, and Jr Rabil. Renaissance Humanism, Volume 1 : Foundations, Forms, and Legacy. Ed. by Jr. Rabil. Reprint 2016. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Print.

Text Mining for Historians, https://wissen.hypotheses.org/2783

Thomas More, Eutopia https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2130

Petrarch’s Letters to Classical Authors https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47859

Introduction to Python for Humanists https://python-textbook.pythonhumanities.com/intro.html

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic contents.
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.