Introduction: a Renaissance reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered

Simon Richard Ditchfield; Stefan Bauer

Introduction: a Renaissance reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered

History

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

Abstract

The conference that led to this volume was convened in 2018 to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Jacob Burckhardt, the ‘father of cultural history’. The contributors were tasked with the dual aim of, on the one hand, analysing the intentions and methods behind The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) and, on the other, considering whether the work has any continuing relevance. Not wanting to reduce the Swiss historian to having been either merely an implausible Whig or simply a reactionary prophet, the emphasis of this essay collection is on Burckhardt’s complexity, above all his ambivalence about the virtues and vices of modernity and the role played by the Italian Renaissance at its birth. After a summary of the individual chapters, the introduction closes with, first, a brief survey of the relevant chapters of the volume occasioned by the other anniversary conference held in Burckhardt’s birthplace of Basel, and then with some concluding reflections on the enduring value of the author’s provisional and subjective approach and his masterly deployment of the language of irony.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	A Renaissance Reclaimed:
Subtitle of host publication	Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered
Editors	Stefan Bauer, Simon Ditchfield
Place of Publication	Oxford
Publisher	British Academy
Chapter	1
Pages	1-22
Number of pages	22
Volume	245
Edition	1st
ISBN (Print)	9780197267325
Publication status	Published - 24 Mar 2022

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the British Academy
Publisher	British Academy
Number	245
ISSN (Print)	0068-1202

Cite this

Ditchfield, S. R., & Bauer, S. (2022). Introduction: a Renaissance reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered. In S. Bauer, & S. Ditchfield (Eds.), A Renaissance Reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered (1st ed., Vol. 245, pp. 1-22). Article 1 (Proceedings of the British Academy; No. 245). British Academy.

Ditchfield, Simon Richard ; Bauer, Stefan. / Introduction: a Renaissance reclaimed : Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered. A Renaissance Reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered. editor / Stefan Bauer ; Simon Ditchfield. Vol. 245 1st. ed. Oxford : British Academy, 2022. pp. 1-22 (Proceedings of the British Academy; 245).

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Ditchfield, SR & Bauer, S 2022, Introduction: a Renaissance reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered. in S Bauer & S Ditchfield (eds), A Renaissance Reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered. 1st edn, vol. 245, 1, Proceedings of the British Academy, no. 245, British Academy, Oxford, pp. 1-22.

Introduction: a Renaissance reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered. / Ditchfield, Simon Richard ; Bauer, Stefan.
A Renaissance Reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered. ed. / Stefan Bauer; Simon Ditchfield. Vol. 245 1st. ed. Oxford: British Academy, 2022. p. 1-22 1 (Proceedings of the British Academy; No. 245).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

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Ditchfield SR , Bauer S. Introduction: a Renaissance reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered. In Bauer S, Ditchfield S, editors, A Renaissance Reclaimed: Jacob Burckhardt's Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy reconsidered. 1st ed. Vol. 245. Oxford: British Academy. 2022. p. 1-22. 1. (Proceedings of the British Academy; 245).