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BURCKHARDT, Jacob (1818-1897). Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien: ein Versuch. Basel: Schweighauser, 1860.
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BURCKHARDT, Jacob (1818-1897). Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien: ein Versuch. Basel: Schweighauser, 1860.
8o. Contemporary Swiss/German quarter-roan, marbled boards, spine gilt (rebacked preserving original backstrip); half morocco folding box. Provenance: Dieckhaus (signature); Karl Blanck (signature).
FIRST EDITION of "the pioneer cultural study of the Renaissance in Italy, now a classic" (Arntzen), and "the most penetrating and subtle treatise on the history of civilization" (Lord Acton). "'The state as a work of art' contrasts the monarchies of the tyrants and dynasts with the republics of Venice and Florence, 'The development of the individual' and 'The discovery of the world and Man,' emphasize the optimism and amorality of the age, 'The revival of classical antiquity' sketches the importance of the humanists in the fields of education and culture, 'Society and festivities' and 'Morals and religion' deal with the outward and spiritual manifestations of public and private life as, for instance, embodied in Castiglione's 'The Courtier'...Modern historical research has revealed the weaknesses of Burckhardt's picture: his obliteration of the medieval roots of the Renaissance, especially of the Carolingian and Anglo-French 'renaissances' of the ninth and twelfth centuries respectively; his identification of the Renaissance with the 'modern world'; his over-sharp antithesis of despotic and popular forms of government; and, of cource, his dependence on the contemporary state of historical knowledge. In fact, the whole concept of the Renaissance as Burckhardt saw it has been called in doubt. However, as in the case of other great historians no criticism of details can detract from the powerful spell which Burckhardt's book has exercised upon such widely different writers as Ruskin, Nietzsche and Gobineau, as well as upon innumerable lovers of the most magnificent period of European history"--Printing and the Mind of Man 347.
8o. Contemporary Swiss/German quarter-roan, marbled boards, spine gilt (rebacked preserving original backstrip); half morocco folding box. Provenance: Dieckhaus (signature); Karl Blanck (signature).
FIRST EDITION of "the pioneer cultural study of the Renaissance in Italy, now a classic" (Arntzen), and "the most penetrating and subtle treatise on the history of civilization" (Lord Acton). "'The state as a work of art' contrasts the monarchies of the tyrants and dynasts with the republics of Venice and Florence, 'The development of the individual' and 'The discovery of the world and Man,' emphasize the optimism and amorality of the age, 'The revival of classical antiquity' sketches the importance of the humanists in the fields of education and culture, 'Society and festivities' and 'Morals and religion' deal with the outward and spiritual manifestations of public and private life as, for instance, embodied in Castiglione's 'The Courtier'...Modern historical research has revealed the weaknesses of Burckhardt's picture: his obliteration of the medieval roots of the Renaissance, especially of the Carolingian and Anglo-French 'renaissances' of the ninth and twelfth centuries respectively; his identification of the Renaissance with the 'modern world'; his over-sharp antithesis of despotic and popular forms of government; and, of cource, his dependence on the contemporary state of historical knowledge. In fact, the whole concept of the Renaissance as Burckhardt saw it has been called in doubt. However, as in the case of other great historians no criticism of details can detract from the powerful spell which Burckhardt's book has exercised upon such widely different writers as Ruskin, Nietzsche and Gobineau, as well as upon innumerable lovers of the most magnificent period of European history"--Printing and the Mind of Man 347.