A Renaissance Reclaimed - (Proceedings of the British Academy) by Stefan Bauer & Simon Ditchfield (Hardcover)

About the Book

A Renaissance Reclaimed reconsiders an 'essay' (Versuch) seen by many as the greatest work of cultural history ever written: the Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) by the Swiss Jacob Burckhardt. The contributors also investigate the ways in which this work was also a product of its time and place.

Book Synopsis

A Renaissance Reclaimed brings together an international team of historians of scholarship, politics, religion, literature, and ideas, whose expertise straddles the Renaissance and nineteenth century, to evaluate the achievement and legacy of the most famous work by the Swiss 'father of cultural history' Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97): The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). The capaciousness of Burckhardt's vision, which embraced fashion, false teeth, and hair extensions as well as the 'State as a work of art', development of the individual, revival of antiquity, discovery of the world and of man, society and festivals, and morality and religion, has never been equalled. Insights in this volume are made possible by the new critical edition that only serves to emphasise how artful Burckhardt's reading of primary (pre-eminently literary rather than art-historical) sources was. It also shows how Burckhardt's ambivalence towards the Renaissance reflected his deep anxieties about the social and political corollaries of modernisation.

Review Quotes

"One reason why Burckhardt can still be read out of sheer interest in his subject-matter is that he drew so much much of his material from primary sources -- chronicles, diaries, anecdotes, satires, comic novelle and so on. This was a humanistic and gentlemanly kind of scholarship, unlike the newfangled academic processing of archival documents; and it helped to inoculate his work against some kinds of obsolescence, since Vespasiano da Bisticci, Giorgio Vasari, Pietro Aretino and the rest can read just as freshly today as they did in 1860." -- Noel Malcolm, Times Literary Supplement

"Here and there in Burckhardt's book, one finds possible hints at the factors that formed this national "spirit" relatively egalitarian social conditions; consciousness of ancient glory; even a kind of tolerance generated by contacts with the Muslim world." -- Noel Malcolm, Times Literary Supplement

"a fascinating collection ... The reader learns about both the Renaissance itself and its historiography while learning about Jacob Burckhardt" -- Noel Malcolm, All Souls College, Oxford, Times Literary Supplement

"... a volume that offers important information on the invention of the "Renaissance" from the spirit of the 19th century and in this way encourages independent reading of the source." -- Volker Reinhardt, sehepunkte

"Burckhardt is still capable of imparting an energetic curiosity and love of the past, a drive to imagine it and to try it on for size, of inspiring us to tell our own stories about the Renaissance or early modern; that may be the constant here." -- Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA, Global Intellectual History

"This is a highly rewarding collection of essays, which sheds much valuable light on a canonical text, and also on many of the ways in which it has informed - and continues to shape - our understanding of, and approaches to, that critical period of European civilization." -- Kenneth Austin, University of Bristol, Forum for Modern Language Studies

"Renaissance in this great book is an intellectual and cultural construction of the nineteenth century and of the afterlife of German philosophical idealism." -- Goran Stanivukovic, Renaissance and Reformation

"This book is a state of the art on the state of the art in studies on the Italian Renaissance, standing on the shoulders of the giant Burckhardt to gain a broader perspective." -- Florence Bistagne, Avignon Université, Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance

"important aspects of Burckhardt's thought and writing as well as insightful interpretative horizons become apparent here." -- Georg Eckert, Universität Freiburg, Historische Zeitschrift

"Jacob Burckhardt's Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy is one of the most successful historical works all time; its critical reception is unique. Over a century and a half after the first edition was published, several of the author's central theses continue to be the subject of debate." -- Bernd Roeck, Zurich, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung

"a useful collection of often elegant studies of the circumstances under which Burckhardt wrote, of Civilisation's critical reception, and of its place within the writer's large literary corpus....This collection of studies will remain of lasting significance. The Editors, the contributors and the British Academy are to be thanked for bequeathing it to scholarship." -- William Connell, Seton Hall University, Storia della Storiografia

"This book is a state of the art on the state of the art in studies on the Italian Renaissance, standing on the shoulders of the giant Burckhardt to gain a broader perspective." -- Florence Bistagne, Avignon Université, Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance

"Important aspects of Burckhardt's thought and writing as well as insightful interpretative horizons become apparent here." -- Georg Eckert, Universität Freiburg, Historische Zeitschrift

"Jacob Burckhardt's Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy is one of the most successful historical works all time; its critical reception is unique. Over a century and a half after the first edition was published, several of the author's central theses continue to be the subject of debate." -- Bernd Roeck, Zurich, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung

"a useful collection of often elegant studies of the circumstances under which Burckhardt wrote, of Civilisation's critical reception, and of its place within the writer's large literary corpus. ... This collection of studies will remain of lasting significance. The Editors, the contributors and the British Academy are to be thanked for bequeathing it to scholarship." -- William Connell, Seton Hall University, Seton Hall University

"As a reflection of Burckhardt's broad vision, the volume touches upon many fields of study and is therefore likely to appeal to a wide range of scholars." -- Wouter Kreuze, Washington DC, Renaissance Quarterly

About the Author

Stefan Bauer, King's College London, Simon Ditchfield, University of York

Stefan Bauer is a lecturer in early modern world history at King's College London. He is a fellow and council member of the Royal Historical Society and has taught at the universities of York, Warwick and Royal Holloway as well as in Switzerland and Italy.

Simon Ditchfield is professor of early modern history at the University of York, where he has taught for over thirty years. His research interests encompass religious history and the history of history writing. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Accademia Ambrosiana, Milan.