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131st out of 976 books
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796 voters
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
Although it attracted little attention when it was first published in 1860, Burckhardt's essay became the most influential interpretation of the Italian Renaissance, and it is now regarded as one of the classics of nineteenth-century historical writing.
[From Penguin Classics edition back cover]
[From Penguin Classics edition back cover]
Paperback
Published
December 4th 1990
by Penguin Classics
(first published 1860)
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Well, I guess that's what old history is like. Burckhardt piles up his anecdotes and, true to his word, gives you his own picture of the Italian Renaissance. Don't go looking for a narrative of events, or precise information. It's all allusion and generalities. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think I would've had a better time if I'd known that at the beginning.
The problem with this book is so obvious that it's almost silly to point it out: Burckhardt's picture of the Renaissance is,...more
The problem with this book is so obvious that it's almost silly to point it out: Burckhardt's picture of the Renaissance is,...more
A brilliant piece of writing--- and the source for what so many of us in my generation believed about the history of the Renaissance. The prose here was celebrated in Peter Gay's (classic) "Style in History" for both its cool patrician detachment and deep aesthetic sense, and reading Burckhardt is a pleasure. I have a History PhD, and I've taught History at universities--- and while there are newer visions of the place and time that are more "scientific" and based on findings and techniques unav...more
Burkhardt looks at Renaissance Italy in a topical fashion, starting with the various types of states/statelets and ranging through various aspects of the arts, thinking, clothing and other things. His most important theme is that this was the beginning in the West of the idea of the individual.
I was glad to have read other books about the Renaissance before reading this, because there were many names and some details which would have overwhelmed me otherwise. Still, for all the insights he provi...more
I was glad to have read other books about the Renaissance before reading this, because there were many names and some details which would have overwhelmed me otherwise. Still, for all the insights he provi...more
I read it.
Got to know a lot about Dante.
Dante is so important because he broke the mold of writing in Latin. He wrote in Italian, in the common language for the common people.
I did get a kick out of the macaroni poetry. It was written in such a way that the Latin endings sounded like slips of the tongue.
I didn't realize how many authors there were back then. My head was swimming with all those names and titles.
There was a section in there on paid assassins. Makes me wonder if that's where the Ma...more
Got to know a lot about Dante.
Dante is so important because he broke the mold of writing in Latin. He wrote in Italian, in the common language for the common people.
I did get a kick out of the macaroni poetry. It was written in such a way that the Latin endings sounded like slips of the tongue.
I didn't realize how many authors there were back then. My head was swimming with all those names and titles.
There was a section in there on paid assassins. Makes me wonder if that's where the Ma...more
I came across this book when I read in Foucault's History of Sexuality about the art of living in Renaissance. Probably the half of the book is related with matters of Subject's developement, and not only the second part which has the specific title. A kind of new discovery of the world and man came about in this era. There are many references to matters of the way the subject was related with himself, the other people, his body, power, education, sexuality, language, beauty, nature, traveling,...more
'Ah, the old war-horse,' an English professor of mine said when I told him I was going through this book years ago in college. I have to say, its not quite Decline and Fall or Thucydides but its almost up there in the pantheon. This really is a great history, and a real eye-opener on one of our most valuable legacies in the heritage. Burckhardt opens up with a bang--the book is divided into two sections--with 'the State as a Work of Art,' which details the desperate evil of the multitudes of ill...more
It's hard to see this work as a whole, despite Burckhardt's clear desire to create something that is exactly that, just because I took far too long to read it. I'm a quick reader, but the denseness of this (more in terms of facts than in terms of comprehensibility; it's not difficult) makes it move slowly. It improved, for me, as he began to get into things about which I know more, such as literature, and it's created a better picture for me of how artistic outlook evolved during the course of t...more
THis book nearly killed me. It was so so so so hard to get through. It was probably written originally on papyrus. ha. It was written so very long ago. There were so many prejudicial and racially charged statements and biases throughout it. I guess these reflected the era in which it was written . (the poor "orientals" took a beating...the author hated them)
On the good side....the reason I chose it in the first place and plodded through it, was due to our magnificent recent trip to Italy. I got...more
On the good side....the reason I chose it in the first place and plodded through it, was due to our magnificent recent trip to Italy. I got...more
This is a difficult reading for someone with an advanced degree in Medieval History much less lay people. The content may be of the highest caliber; but there is so much more detail than in traditional Renaissance studies that most readers are quickly overwhelmed.
Quando comecei a ler este livro, achei que era ma coisa, porém é totalmente diferente do que pensei.
No começo me empolguei com os governos tirânicos da Itália e tudo o mais que o cercava naquela época. Porém, logo comecei a perceber que o autor dá suas opiniões sem tentar ser imparcial e acaba descrevendo a Itália como o melhor lugar da Europa, como se fosse o único lugar onde se tinha uma civilização e todos os demais países europeus fossem formados por pessoas sem cultura e sem pensamento próp...more
No começo me empolguei com os governos tirânicos da Itália e tudo o mais que o cercava naquela época. Porém, logo comecei a perceber que o autor dá suas opiniões sem tentar ser imparcial e acaba descrevendo a Itália como o melhor lugar da Europa, como se fosse o único lugar onde se tinha uma civilização e todos os demais países europeus fossem formados por pessoas sem cultura e sem pensamento próp...more
I want to read again. I read it while in Florence--perfect for background. Recommended by prof of Italian lit at columbia, Piccolomini, whose mother owner the Palazzo Antellesi where we stayed.
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long, Holly."
Even if Harry Lime was right, he was wrong. Burckhardt, the man who invented the modern history of the Renaissance, was S...more
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Too boring, didn't really know much about the people of the time so I felt lost at times. I did get the idea that I might like to watch the series The Borgias now though.
Published in 1860, Burckhardt’s great work redefined our sense of the European past, wholly reinterpreting what has since been known simply as the Italian Renaissance. With unsurpassed erudition, Burckhardt illuminates a world of artistic and cultural ferment, innovation, and discovery; of revived humanism; of fierce tensions between church and empire; and of the birth of both the modern state and the modern individual. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy remains the single most importa...more
This is an excellent book, one that still sounds quite modern though it was published nearly a century and a half ago, now! If you are any kind of medievalist, you owe it to yourself to read this classic work.
Though there are other, more recent, accounts of the italian renaissance, Burckhardt's book remains the touchstone of how we think about and talk about this remarkable moment in Western Civilization. This is about as Old School as you're going to get, and the writing is in High German Academic mode. i wouldn't call it dull, exactly, but effervescent it sure isn't. if you can get past that, the book provides some wonderful insights into the politics and philosophy that sparked this remarkable per...more
I read this because of its influence on Nietzsche but ended up enjoying it in its own right quite a bit. In this context, it oddly makes me think that the Renaissance, as much as Hellenism, is a place to go to to show the problem with believing that the history of philosophy (or even of Platonism) is reducible to the received wisdom about the history of "Platonism."
May 11, 2009
Ned
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Patriots
Shelves:
current
Splendid! Every edition of this should come with good clear, quality reproductions of a fair hunk of the art it talks about. This one does. Unfortunately, most of the time you have to take a trip to the Library or very often a University to find a good clear and sizable enough edition to get a sense of what the pictures are showing. Then it begins to seep in.
A masterpiece. One has to be sure, of course, to find a copy that includes the photographic plates -- which are essential (the penguin edition includes only the text and so is incomplete). Worth whatever you pay.... If there were six stars available on this board, I would give it ten....
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=LuUuYnX...
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=LuUuYnX...
3 likes · like · see review
In my opinion, this book is first rank history that is at least on the level of Gibbon. A great introduction to the violent world of the Renaissance and the forceful individualism it enhanced. It's pretty amazing to read something written in 1860 that is more cutting edge - and interesting - than most textbooks published today.
I have just re-read portions of the 1955 edition for the first time in about 20 years. I was curious about a few things after reading a current book on the history of the Roman Catholic Church so I went back to my roots as a history student! The book still reads as charming, informative and enlightening!
So many works of art history from theose days still hold a very strong ground. Therefore I was truely surprised to realize that this famous work is astinishingly superficials and unstructured. Quite a disappointment.
Jan 25, 2010
Erik Graff
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Renaissance fans
Recommended to Erik by:
no one
Shelves:
history
Not knowing much about the Renaissance, but knowing something of Burckhardt's prominence and having read a book by him already, I selected this as a general introduction. Frankly, I found it detailed enough, but dry.
Rather general in its descriptions but easy and engrossing read. The presentation of history has changed over the century but very useful as background reading.
Sep 27, 2009
Patrick
marked it as to-read
Recommended by an expat uncle of mine now living in France. This was the book that inspired him to leave Ohio and travel through Europe. So far, so good.
fascinating read. have been wandering about in a liripipe and quoting machiavelli for days.
Jun 18, 2013
Colbie
is currently reading it
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Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt was a historian of art and culture, and an influential figure in the historiography of each field. He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history, albeit in a form very different from how cultural history is conceived and studied in academia today. Siegfried Giedion described Burckhardt's achievement in the following terms: "The great discoverer of...more
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