This program focused on the revival of classical culture in the early modern period, through extensive engagement with the city of Rome and its environs as well as Florence in  Tuscany.  One course studied the revival of classical learning and ideals during the Renaissance, and then traced subsequent developments from the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century through the Scientific Revolution in the seventeenth century.  The second course examined Rome as the eternal city and caput 
mundi (world capital),  providing the backdrop for our study of the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the discovery and conquest of the Americas, and the birth of the scientific method.  This course examined the city of Rome from a cultural, literary and historical perspective. The program taught through reading, walking, and experiencing the neighborhoods and monuments of the city.