The main political, socioeconomic, intellectual and artistic currents in Italy (c. 1350--1530) and northwestern Europe (c. 1500-1560); emphasis on leading thinkers (Petrarch, Bruni, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, Montaigne) as creators of the modern Western mind. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered GRS HI 811.