Why read The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy?

Book cover of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

Book description

For nineteenth-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, the Italian Renaissance was nothing less than the beginning of the modern world - a world in which flourishing individualism and the competition for fame radically transformed science, the arts, and politics. In this landmark work he depicts the Italian city-states of Florence, Venice…

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European history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Peter Elbling

Author

Burckhardt’s encyclopedia became my bible. Whatever I needed to know about the clothing, or the buildings, or the politics—or anything else about that period, I only had to open Burckhardt’s book, and it was all there for me. The information was easy to find and eminently readable; and while I am hardly a scholar of the Renaissance, after devouring his book a thousand times I believe I can now call myself an honorable student.

From Peter's list on the brilliance of the Italian Renaissance.