The Civilisation of the Period of the Renaissance in Italy

Burckhardt's 1860 magnum opus on the development of the Italian Renaissance, here reissued in the two-volume English translation of 1878.

Revolutionary in his all-encompassing view of the Italian Renaissance, Jacob Burckhardt (1818–97) saw developments in statecraft and war as the cause of more publicised artistic progress. First published in 1860, this work is considered his magnum opus and is reissued here in the 1878 two-volume English translation.On several journeys to Italy in the mid-nineteenth century, the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818–97) saw in the figures and events of the Italian Renaissance certain traits that he believed to be mirrored in the politics of his own day, notably some aspects of 'an unbridled egoism, outraging every right, and killing every germ of a healthier culture'. Revolutionary in his all-encompassing and unflinching examination of the Italian Renaissance, Burckhardt saw developments in statecraft and war as giving rise to the more publicised artistic progress of the era. First published in 1860, this work is considered to be his magnum opus on the subject, and is here reissued in the accessible two-volume English translation of 1878 by S. G. C. Middlemore. In Volume 1, Burckhardt considers three key themes: the state as a work of art, the development of the individual, and the revival of antiquity in education and philosophy.