Great Books Ladder · High school · Grade 7–12

Renaissance and Reformation

Volumes 15 and 20 to 27: Erasmus, Machiavelli, Rabelais, Montaigne, Calvin, Copernicus, Shakespeare and Cervantes, from 1511 to 1616.

0 of 18 topics passed

Start this course Skill map

1 of 18 topics are ready. The rest are being written; they're marked with a pencil and practice skips them for now.

18 topics in 5 units. Builds on The Middle Ages. Leads to The Age of Reason. Not sure this is the right course? Find your rung.

  • Passed
  • Review due
  • Learning
  • Ready to learn
  • Needs an earlier topic
  • Being written

Unit 1 Humanists

4 topics

Erasmus, Machiavelli, Rabelais and Montaigne: new looks at people, power and the self.

  1. Erasmus: The Praise of Folly (being written)
  2. Machiavelli: The Prince (being written)
  3. Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel (being written)
  4. Montaigne: Essays (being written)

Unit 2 Reformation

1 topics

John Calvin's Institutes.

  1. Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion (being written)

Unit 3 A New Sky

1 topics

Copernicus puts the sun at the center.

  1. Copernicus: On the Revolutions

Unit 4 Shakespeare

10 topics

The comedies, histories, tragedies, romances and sonnets.

  1. Shakespeare: The Comedies (being written)
  2. Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (being written)
  3. Shakespeare: The History Plays (being written)
  4. Shakespeare: Julius Caesar and the Roman Plays (being written)
  5. Shakespeare: Hamlet (being written)
  6. Shakespeare: Othello (being written)
  7. Shakespeare: King Lear (being written)
  8. Shakespeare: Macbeth (being written)
  9. Shakespeare: The Tempest and the Late Plays (being written)
  10. Shakespeare: The Sonnets (being written)

Unit 5 Cervantes

2 topics

Don Quixote, the knight who read too many books.

  1. Cervantes: Don Quixote, Part One (being written)
  2. Cervantes: Don Quixote, Part Two (being written)
@teddyrookbook GitHub Sources and credits