Step 1
You will sign up to do a research paper on one of the following people who lived before 1500 (or during the Italian Renaissance). Choose several names you are interested in doing ahead of time, because although you will research only one, only one student may sign up for each person, and your favorite may already be taken by the time the sign-up sheet gets to you (one way to get your favorite is to sit in the front of the room, where the sheet starts). After class, the sheet will be posted on the door of Mr. Brians' office (Avery 339) for further sign-ups. To find out a little about these people, try looking them up in the index of your textbook or in a general encyclopedia. Also check Reading About the World. There you will find much that you need to know about most of the writers and philosophers listed here.
If you cannot find your person under the first name given, try alternatives given in parentheses. Note that early European names are often alphabetized under given name; so, for instance, you will find Leonardo da Vinci under "Leonardo," not "da Vinci."
|
Abbas I, Safavid shah |
Catherine of Aragon (Queen) |
Leo X (pope) |
|
Abelard, Peter (theologian and lover) |
Cato the Elder |
Li Bo (Li Po) |
|
Abu Bakr, caliph |
Chandragupta Maurya (I) (c. 321-c.298) |
Machaut, Guillaume de (composer) |
|
Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius(statesman, |
Charlemagne |
Mahavira |
|
builder) |
Charles V, Emperor |
Mansa Musa, king of Mali |
|
Agrippina II |
Charles Martel (warrior) |
Marcus Aurelius (as writer) |
|
Akhnaton(Amenhotep IV, pharoah) |
Chaucer, Geoffrey |
Marguerite de Navarre (queen, writer) |
|
Alaric, Visigothic king |
Chrétien de Troyes (writer) |
Marie de France (writer) |
|
Alberti, Leon Battista (Leone) |
Cicero, Marcus Tullius |
Medici, Cosimo de' |
|
Alcibiades (statesman) |
Cid, El (Cid) (Spanish warrior; study |
Medici, Lorenzo de' |
|
Alcuin of York (writer, scholar) |
legend vs. reality) |
Michelangelo Buonaroti |
|
Alexander the Great of Macedon |
Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt |
Minamoto, Yoritomo |
|
Alexius I Comnenus (Emperor) |
Columbus, Christopher |
Mithridates VI, the Great (vs. Rome) |
|
Ali, Sunni (Sonni, African king) |
Confucius |
Mo-tzu (Mozi, philosopher) |
|
Alfonso X, "the Wise" (King of Castile, |
Constantine, Roman emperor (the Great) |
Montezuma (Moctezuma Xocoyotzin) |
|
scholar, music) |
Cortés, Hernan |
More, Thomas, Sir (Saint, writer) |
|
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan |
Cyrus, Persian King (the Great) |
Murasaki Shikibu, Lady |
|
Dante Alighieri |
Nero |
|
|
Anthony of Egypt, Saint |
Darius I |
Pericles |
|
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (vs. Maccabees) |
Des Prez, Josquin (composer) |
Philip IV (the Fair) French king |
|
Aquinas, Saint Thomas |
Du Fu (Tu Fu) |
Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni |
|
Archimedes of Syracuse |
Eleanor of Aquitaine (queen) |
Plato |
|
Aristophanes |
Francis of Assisi, Saint |
Polo, Marco |
|
Aristotle |
Frederick I "Barbarossa," (emperor) |
Ptolemy of Alexandria, Claudius |
|
Asoka (Ashoka) |
Galileo Galilei |
(scientist, geographer) |
|
Attila the Hun, warrior |
Genghis Khan |
Ramses II, pharaoh |
|
Augustine of Hippo, Saint |
Gregory I (pope) |
Richard I ("The Lionhearted") of England |
|
Augustus (Octavian) |
Gutenberg, Johannes |
Richard III (England) (legend vs. reality) |
|
Averroës (orig. Ibn Rushd) |
Hannibal |
Saladin |
|
Babur (Babar) |
Harun al-Rashid (Abbasid caliph, legend |
Sappho of Lesbos (woman writer) |
|
Baldwin I of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem |
vs. reality) |
Sei Shonagon (woman writer) |
|
Bar Kochba (Kosiba, Simon, Jewish rebel |
Henry the Navigator (exploration) |
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, the Younger |
|
Becket, Thomas à, Archbishop of |
Henry V, English king |
Socrates |
|
Canterbury |
Herod (the Great, 37-4 BCE, King) |
Solon |
|
Benedict of Nursia (Saint Benedict) |
Herodotus |
Sundiata (Son-Jara, Sunjata, African king) |
|
Bernard of Clairvaux |
Ibn Battuta (Batuta) |
Thucydides |
|
Boccaccio, Giovanni (scholar, writer) |
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) |
Urban II, Pope (and the 1st Crusade) |
|
Boleyn, Anne, Queen of England |
Isabella of Castile (Isabel I, Spanish |
Vinci, Leonardo da |
|
Borgia, Cesare |
Queen) |
Virgil (writer) |
|
Borgia, Lucrezia (Cesare's sister, study |
Joan of Arc |
William the Conqueror (Duke of |
|
legend vs. reality) |
Julian "the Apostate" (Emperor) |
Normandy) |
|
Caesar, Julius |
Julian of Norwich (mystic, writer) |
Wu Zhao, Empress (Wu Chao, Wuzhao) |
|
Caligula, Gaius Emperor |
Kalidasa |
Zenghe (Cheng Ho, Zheng He) |
|
Catherine de Medicis (period after 1560, connection with art is interesting) |
Khubilai Khan |
Lao-tzu, Lao Zi |