Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Will be seeking a refund -- typos on every page September 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This review is of the edition of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy published by BiblioBazaar. This edition should be recalled by the publisher: there are typo's on every page, making it nearly unreadable. I attempted to continue reading the book (which is of course a classic) but was too annoyed with trying to figure out what certain jumbled characters meant.
I think BiblioBazaar must has scanned the text of an old edition of the book whose copyright had expired, but then never bothered to proofread the finished product. Very bad business. Save your money and get an edition by a reputable publisher.
 Great Essay Slopppy Edition December 24, 2007
This is an excellent essay, even for those who did not know they cared about the Renaissance.
My primary motive for purchasing this book was the fact that it had influenced Nietzsche; however, this book has much independent merit, whether you love hate or don't care about Nietzsche, there will be something here for you.
Burckhardt does a great job of capturing the amoral ethos of the time on its own terms; not judging it from the position of some imagined superiority. He is obviously well-versed in the relevant literature, and the translation does not seem to obscure him.
This particular edition does have numerous typographical errors, which can be somewhat distracting as one reads.
synthesis of an era October 30, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Modern Library Classics)The Civilization offers a handy checklist for anyone wishing to delve deeper into the Medieval and Renaissance studies. The somewhat tortuous introduction which outlines the political turmoil in 15th century Italy adds weight to the two conclusions which Burckhardt makes towards the end: the Reformation had galvanized the Vatican into action and helped, inadvertently, the Catholic church to regain ground, and, secondly, a combination of a fragmented national identity, secularization and reliance on cunning and talent prompted the rise of the individual.
Burckhardt then proceeds to chart out the different trends, fashions, and cultural shifts which made the Renaissance: revival of the interest in antiquity, search for classical manuscripts, studies in classical Latin, rediscovery of ancient literary forms, creation of libraries, patronage of the arts, exaltation of man in painting, dress and literature, interest in the human body, the opening up to the world - in short humanism.
In his account of life in the Renaissance Burckhardt notes how laughter insinuated itself into artistic expression as a form of protest against dogma and despotism. Where its impact was felt most was in the celebration of religious festivals. Ridicule and paganism were never deep under the surface in miracle plays and pageants.
After examining the Italian Renaissance man's values and finding that honour had supplanted guilt, Burckhardt takes a closer look at religion. Inevitably there is reference to the medieval worship of relics, simony, sale of indulgences, moral corruption in the Church from top to bottom, but also an equally bitter treatment of the things which replaced, or rather reinforced, them: preachers of repentance, adoration of the Madonna, persecution of heretics and in particular the Epicureans. Added to the mix was superstition, which does not strike a student of the Renaissance as particularly modern but with which the ancients would certainly have been at home.
This paradigm shift which touched the lives of many men in the 14th and 15th century left many men adrift, spiritually and intellectually. Along with the unquestionable achievements in all areas of life which were ushered in by the Renaissance, Burckhardt observes, the age was marked by a steady slide towards fatalism and skepticism. Welcome to modern times!
Note to the editor May 15, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a reference book for those that need a concise edition on Renaissance. However for the reader less learned, this issue is lacking an editor's information, for example, a brief comment on the author; wich language his work was first published; others english translations after 1878 Middlemore, and so on.
 A Classic, "Antiquated" or Not March 11, 2007
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
Burckhardt's 'Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy' is fundamental to our understanding of the Renaissance, even though it has long since ceased to be definitive. For Burckhardt (who wrote `Civilization' in the 1850s), the Italian Renaissance represented the punctuated end of the middle ages and the beginning of the modern world. He placed particular emphasis on the idea that for the first time in history, the Renaissance gave us "individuality": the idea that a person could separate themselves from the crowd by their creative genius (in art, politics, science, etc.).
Contemporary scholarship, however, takes a more nuanced approach: while Burckhardt did indeed identify in the Renaissance new cultural, political, and artistic trends, it is now argued that the Renaissance nevertheless retained many aspects of medieval civilization while the Italians, and later other Europeans, revived classical art, architecture, and science and created a new economic and political order.
Two different publishers of this book each offer introductions by two excellent contemporary historians: the Penguin Classics version is introduced by Peter Burke, and the Random House Modern Library version is introduced by Peter Gay. In the Penguin version (reviewed here) Burke (as elsewhere) argues that the Renaissance was not the clean break with the medieval past that Burckhardt suggests, although he readily acknowledges Burckhardt's foundational contribution to early Renaissance scholarship: "Burckhardt's view of the Renaissance may be easy to criticize, but it is also difficult to replace."
And of course, Burckhardt's influence on Friedrich Nietzsche should not be ignored: the concept of the `rise of the individual' (found in Part II of `Civilization': The Development of the Individual) was to have significant impact on Nietzsche's concept of the `Übermench.'
Because for so long Burckhardt's 'Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy' defined what the Renaissance was, one must spend at least a little time with Burckhardt to understand current concepts of the Renaissance in any depth. Burckhardt is effectively now a primary source.
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