Description: Within the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt finds the first stirrings of the modern world--and in the Renaissance Italian, the first modern man. In this landmark study of Italy from the fourteenth through the early sixteenth century, Burckhardt chronicles the rise of Florence and Venice as powerful city-states, the breakup of the medieval worldview with the rediscovery of Greek and Roman culture, and the new emphasis on the role of the individual. All these went hand in hand with the explorations of science and contributed to the more naturalistic depiction of the world in art and literature.
Brief description:
Jacob Christian Burckhardt (1818-1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, published in 1860, is his best-known work, and remained for many years the classic analysis of the Renaissance.
Review Quotes:
"The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy is a classic of modernism."
-- "Guardian"