Jacob BurckhardtRecensioni

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I found this hard sledding most of the time. A layered look of the different elements that contributed to the Renaissance in Florence and elsewhere in Italy. Like describing a beautiful painting in prose, while factually true, it is probably better to just look at it. On the other Mr. Burckhardt gives a comprehensive look at Italy is this era. A period of tremendous discord and violence and also beauty.

This authoritative study by a distinguished scholar presents a brilliant panorama of Italian Renaissance life, explaining how and why the period constituted a cultural revolution. Author Jacob Burckhardt chronicles the transition from the medieval concept of society as a conglomeration of classes and communities to the Renaissance focus on individual spirit and creativity. Burckhardt's comprehensive view of art, government, and aspects of daily life redefined both the Western world's understanding of the Italian Renaissance and future studies of cultural history.

Historian Hajo Holborn praised this survey as ''the greatest single book on the history of Italy between 1350 and 1550.'' First published in German in 1860, its exploration of art, fashions, manners, and philosophy traces the influences of classical antiquity on Michelangelo, Leonardo, the Medicis, and other thinkers and artists. As alive today as when it was written 150 years ago, this indispensable study chronicles the revival of humanism, the conflict between church and empire, and the rise of both the modern state and the modern individual

Absolutely fascinating account of one of those 'hinge' moments in history when the old (pagan) era is giving way to the new (Christian) era.

Burckhardt, in this massive tome, gives an overview of the major political, societal, and religious themes that occurred during the Renaissance. He starts off with the State as a work of out, then moves into a more individualistic perspective, and closes with the influence of (pagan) antiquity and morality. He clearly wants to cover all important aspects of Italian society during this time period, but his writing style prevents him from completing this task successfully. He shifts and flits around from subject to subject, never spending too much time on any one, which makes it intensely hard to follow while reading, even while within the same chapter. The book almost seems to have been written in a "stream-of-consciousness" format.

The other big issue, although one it's not really fair to criticize Burckhardt for, is that the book is FULL of biases, and they show through very easily. He never really touches upon the fall of Constantinople which was the impetus for the true flowering of the Renaissance, and he's very skeptical of the contributions of the Arabs to the renaissance. However, he was writing in the mid-19th century, so his point of view is understandable in historical context

Overall, not a great book about the Renaissance, but certainly an impressive one. I'd like to read more in depth about each of the things he touches on, with more background, but for an overview, it isn't awful.

Historia de la Cultura Griega

En su última obra Historia de la cultura griega, póstuma, publicada entre 1898 y 1902 en 4 tomos, los especialistas en la Historia de Grecia la rechazan cuando es publicada, porque Burckhardt no es especialista en ese tema. Sin embargo, la respuesta del público es otra, pues fue un libro de mucho éxito, y luego los especialistas la adoptan. Es una anécdota de la crisis que afectaba ya en esos momentos a la historia.
Sólo el primer tomo es de Historia Política El Estado y la Nación sobre la organización de la polis. El segundo tomo trata los temas de la religión y el culto y la adivinación del futuro. El tercer volumen versa sobre las artes figurativas, como filosofía o poesía, y el cuarto libro es el hombre griego en su desarrollo temporal, en la que analiza las estatuas para comprender su ideal de belleza o la sanidad existente en esa época.

Het Spectrum, Utrecht (Prisma-Boeken); 2 delen; 13 x 21 cm; 208 blz.; vertaling van "Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien" (1860)

Well, I guess that's what old history is like. Burckhardt piles up his anecdotes and, true to his word, gives you his own picture of the Italian Renaissance. Don't go looking for a narrative of events, or precise information. It's all allusion and generalities. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think I would've had a better time if I'd known that at the beginning.
The problem with this book is so obvious that it's almost silly to point it out: Burckhardt's picture of the Renaissance is, shall we say, a little partial. Everything the Italians did in the fifteenth century was wonderful and lovely; everything the 'Northerners' did before that was barabarous; everything the Spanish did after that - and boy, do the Spanish come in for a beating - was equally barbarous. The Muslims were okay, although they were a bit grasping and oppressive. In short, only in Italy in the fifteenth century was life lived properly.
So it's pretty amusing when he says, at the start of his final chapter on morality, "A tribunal there is for each one of us, whose voice is our conscience; but let us have done with these generalities about nations." He has to say this, though, so that we won't judge the Italians' morality too harshly All those murders, all that violence, the horrors? Just a consequence of the 'individualism' of the times. Can't be helped. Better that than a world in which men don't go around f'ing and killing whoever they want to. Don't judge the whole nation of Italians. Judge only all the other nations.
This is all nit-picky, of course. It's nicely written, and I'm sure everyone who's interested will find bits that appeal to them one way or the other. At least he doesn't try to theorize everything. But be aware that this book is basically a book about how the writers in the Renaissance saw themselves, and not, as the title implies, about the civilization itself. The middle ages weren't all that bad, and the Renaissance wasn't all that good.

Burckhardt's 1860 study was revolutionary, but it is also full of Romantic conceits that haven't held up well. On the other hand, how many other histories from the 1800s are still read after 2000? My copy was accidentally immersed in water, then baked to try to return it to a legible state — and it still holds a place on my shelf.

I'm still not convinced that the Renaissance is a real event, but there's no denying that interesting stuff was going on in Italy from the 1300s to the 1600s. Burckhardt was not the first to notice — the Italians had not exactly been shy about pointing out their own greatness — but he was the first to periodize it and give it a memorable name, "Renaissance."

Why did Burckhardt give a French name to this Italian phenomenon? I believe it's a marker of Burckhardt's identity as an elite citizen of Basel, Switzerland. Basel is an independent-minded German-speaking city that shares a border with France, and the city's polyglot ruling class have traditionally dotted their German speech with French grace notes. Lionel Gossman's book, Basel in the Age of Burckhardt, documents this habit in everything from business letters to the Église Française where all the "best" families worshipped God. So it's little wonder that Burckhardt never seriously considered naming what he considered a glorious historical epoch with any language but French.

This is not a book to read if you are looking for a straight forward account of political events and movements in renaissance Italy: Burckhardt’s book is much more ambitious than that. He is intent, no less, on examining why there was a rebirth (renaissance) in Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries and how it differed so very much from the straight jacket of medieval culture and society.

The Civilisation of Renaissance Italy was published in 1860 and Jacob Burckhardt was one of the first historians who wished to provide more than just a series of events with an explanation of their cause and effect. His idea was to get under the skin of the culture of the period; to define the character of the society so that the reader is able to understand why people behaved the way they did. In short he wanted to provide as complete a picture as possible and in many ways he is successful. He is strong on the cultural history particularly literature, but also takes into account painting sculpture and architecture. He is also very good on religion, social institutions, society and daily life. What emerges is a real feel for the period and a presentation of the underlying circumstances that led to such rapid changes to the society in that small part of the world.

His approach has been labelled as unsystematic, but I would not agree. There are six parts to the book and each part introduces another subject that builds on what has gone before. He could be criticised for not drawing all the strands together at the end, but this is missing the point as there is plenty of guidance along the way and it is up to us to form our own conclusions. What we should keep in mind is that this is a Victorian perspective and so his central premise that it was the individuality of the Italian character and its unique place in history that was responsible for the renaissance would be challenged to some extent by modern historians.

Part 1 is a sort of gallop through the various political states that made up what we now know as modern Italy. Emphasis is on the individuality of these states and how they differed in character from the kingdoms prevalent in the rest of Europe. They were city states where it was said that “even a servant could become king”. There is a more detailed examination of Venice and Florence, two powerful states with completely different characteristics.

Part 2 starts to examine the character of the people within these states concluding that the absence of feudalism and the political culture led to the rise of the individual. Fame could be achieved in the arts as well as in politics, people began to revel in their own uniqueness, they could educate themselves, there was more freedom than in the more clerically dominated middle ages.

Part 3 discusses the huge importance of the rediscovery of antiquity. Particularly relevant to Italians as many of the Latin texts were felt to be their very heritage. This new found humanism was pagan in nature, which led to a discovery of a whole new approach to the world; one that did not involve such a close relationship with Christianity. Humanism and Christianity were viewed by some, as parallel viewpoints

Part 4 covers the outward bound Italians, emissaries to other states, explorers and adventurers and a more ready acceptance of the Muslim world with whom there was trade and cultural exchanges. This part also covers the great strides made in literature and the first hesitant steps in dealing with the inner man, there is also much here on daily life gleaned from poetry and novels.

Part 5 is entitled Society and festivals. Burckhardt is again at pains to point out how much this differed from life in the middle ages he says:

“Middle ages had courtly, aristocratic manners and etiquette differing very little in various countries in Europe….. Social life in the renaissance offers the sharpest contrast to medievalism, social intercourse now ignored all distractions of caste and was based largely on the existence of an educated class as we now understand the word”

Nobles and burghers dwelt together within the city walls. The church too was not to be used as a means of providing for the younger sons of noble families. Burckhardt claims that women stood on an equal footing with men and also examines costume and fashion, music and the cult of the festivals.

Part 6 delves into Morality and Religion and Burkhardt is at his best in this final section. The corruption within the church, the rediscovery of antiquity and the individuality of character all pointed towards men and women being able to think for themselves. Their religion; whatever form it took came from within rather than being hammered home by the clerical establishment. The old faith of paganism mixed with magic and mysticism also feature along with astrology. Immorality and the lawlessness that abounded in the city states is featured throughout the book but in this final chapter some explanation of this phenomena is given. Burckhardt indulges us with some of the more scandalous stories and I get the feeling that he is a little uncomfortable with some of these.

The book is free to download from The Gutenberg Project and although there are a few errors in the text, it is still very readable. Buckhardt writes well and the book seems to get stronger as it goes along with the authors portrayal of renaissance Italy coming together chapter by chapter and leaving the reader with a fine depiction of the period. A must read for anybody interested in the renaissance with the proviso that this is a somewhat outdated view, but then again there is so much here that feels exactly right to me.

Burckhardt is halfway decent in terms of assessing character and predicting the direction of social movements but is also completely paranoid and bitter about something or other. WHat would be a better book is also marred by overt and contemptible anti-Semitism, which is out of place here in a way in which it is not in classics of an earlier date.

Un clásico. Para el autor, lo que hace del Renacimiento italiano algo único es el individualismo de sus protagonistas. Desde la concepción del mundo hasta la religiosidad o la política, todo surge del poderoso influjo de la individualidad. Lo cierto es que la idea sigue vigente hoy, junto con otras no menos geniales: la concepción de la política como arte o la matización de la tópica influencia de la antigüedad en la época. Burckhardt, por supuesto, ignora olímpicamente todo lo que tiene que ver con la economía, la sociología, la demografía o incluso la narración política, es decir, casi todo lo que hoy entendemos como el "núcleo duro" de la Historia. Para él, es la caracterización cultural de una época lo que hay buscar, su espíritu (aunque, decididamente anti-hegeliano, nunca utiliza esta palabra). Los mejores pasajes, para mí, al principio, al describir la política de tiranos, condotieros y repúblicas como una forma de expresión artística, incluso buscando meramente la estética, aunque no son nada desdeñables los últimos, dedicados a la religiosidad y a discutir el ateísmo de la época. Muchas veces he mencionado la falta de espíritu, de implicación, en los historiadores al uso; Burckhardt es un ejemplo de lo contrario. Sin renunciar a usar las fuentes con profusión, incluso con erudición a veces difícil de seguir (uno no se sabe de memoria La Divina Comedia ni los versos de Petrarca, ni tampoco lee latín como si se tratase de italiano moderno), da su opinión cuando le parece, pero tampoco con demasiada abundancia, evitando así la pesadez. Se nota, así, que ama la época que está historiando, algo que no se puede decir de muchos de mis profesores.

Este ejemplar lo saqué de la biblioteca. Yo tengo en casa una edición más antigua, de 1984, pero tiene serios defectos de impresión, y saqué esta con el ánimo de leer aquí sólo la parte ilegible en la mía, y después devolverla. Pero me encontré no sólo con una nueva traducción, sino que además estaba hecha sobre la base de una segunda edición del original, corregida y aumentada, y que además presenta una disposición diferente (sólo tienen en común las siete partes en que se divide la obra, pero en este caso cada parte no tiene divisiones, sino títulos de parágrafos, mientras que en la primera edición, que es la que yo tengo, hay división interna en capítulos y apartados; lo cierto es que la división primera es más fácil de leer que la segunda, pero qué le vamos a hacer). Por tanto, decidí leer entera esta edición.

In de Renaissance ontdekt de mens zichzelf en de wereld om hem heen. Hij wil zijn eigen oordeel vormen en besteedt grotere zorg aan wonen en kleding, krijgt meer belangstelling voor de natuur en landschappen en richt grootse bouwwerken op. Niet de afstamming, maar individuele prestaties en roem tellen. Er is een hernieuwde interesse voor de oudheid en studie van Latijn. Andere trends zijn het schrijven van biografieën, lofredes, satires, optochten en feesten. De grote schrijvers zijn Dante en Petrarca. Dit gaat gepaard met weinig respect voor de kerk en clerus en dat duurt voort tot de contrareformatie. Het is ook de periode van de stadstaten, waarvan Florence de belangrijkste is, gevolgd door Venetië.
Jacob Burckhardt, een Zwitserse cultuurhistoricus, heeft met dit boek 150 jaar geleden een standaardwerk geschreven. Hij presenteert de Italiaanse Renaissance als het einde van de Middeleeuwen en het begin van de moderne tijd. Soms moeilijk om doorheen te komen, maar met veel waardevolle informatie.½

This was hard at points and fascinating at points. It made me want to go to Italy! :)½

I introduktionen till min utgåva ifrågasätts om det finns någon annan historiebok med 140 år på nacken som fortfarande läses. Även om man bortser från sådana böcker som numera är mer eller mindre enda källskriften till den tid de skildrar – som Herodotos', Thukydides' eller Livius' skrifter – är ju ändå Gibbon otvivelaktigt äldre. Dessutom är han betydligt mer värd att läsa, för Burckhardt är faktiskt dötrist (NB: den utgåva jag har innehåller bara det Burckhardt själv skrev. Tydligen skall hans redaktör sedan belamrat verket med en massa extramaterial).

Det stora problemet är troligen att han tror att alla är lika hemmastadda bland italienska autokrater och humanister som han själv, och att det hela därför lider på en besvärande brist av förklaring. Lägg därtill en överlägsen ton, där hans teorier anses som självklart sanna, samtidigt som dessa framstår som mer eller mindre förälskade: det är ett evigt tjatade om hur jävla långt före italienarna är jämtemot Västerlandet och hur de är »moderna«, vilket tydligen skall förstås med att de till skillnad från resten av Europa är individualister och har insett att de inte bara låter sig reduceras till en medlem i någon ras, korporation, folk eller familj. Humbug, säger jag. Egentligen borde väl något motargument ges, men när jag inte får något argument för idén så orkar jag inte bry mig.

Boken försöker dock tillämpa denna teori, liksom en idé om den personliga ryktbarheten på de flesta områden, men lyckas aldrig övertyga, utan ger istället en med tiden allt starkare känsla av förtvivlan inför hela ämnet: varför skall jag egentligen bry mig om vad någon halvt okänd auktor tyckte var själva inkarnationen av skönhet? Varför bry sig om vilka versmått olika halvkända diktare nyttjade och vad detta kunde ha för inverkan på folklynnet (lite roligt är det dock när han avfärdar samtida dikt som oläsligt– inget nytt under solen, sa predikaren)? Ibland görs försök att liva upp det hela med någon anekdot, men inte ens det blir speciellt spännande.

Nej, det här var ett riktigt bottennapp. Undvik, för allt i världen.½

Burckhardtovy Betrachtungen jsou knihou, která se nečte nijak lehce.

Jedním z důvodů je například to, že autor mnohé myšlenky a postoje ani příliš nevysvětluje, ale prostě je postuluje jako hotové věci. Nezdržuje se vysvětlováním cesty, protože ji sám mnohokrát a velmi důkladně prošel a tudíž se mu zdá nezajímavé se složitěji rozepisovat, o něčem tak "banálním". Mnohdy je proto vcelku obtížné pochopit, k čemu se že Burckhardt vlastně konkrétně vyjadřuje, proč argumentuje tak jak argumentuje, a především, proč tvrdí právě to. Při důkladnějším promýšlení je ovšem jasné, že nejde o nějaké náhodné okamžité nápady, ale o tvrzení hluboce promyšlená. Je ovšem pravda, že více než sto let historického bádání interpretaci mnoha historických událostí výrazně proměnilo, takže mnohá Burckhardtova tvrzení neobstojí jednoduše právě proto, že vycházel z chybných nebo příliš zjednodušených předpokladů.

Jiným důvodem faktu, že kniha se "nečte lehce", že na čtenáře klade zvýšené nároky a mnohdy může vyvolávat polemické reakce je i to, že autor psal text knihy velmi subjektivně, navíc opravdu spíše v podobně poznámek a nikoli k publikaci připravené knihy.

Navíc si kladl otázky, které si většina historiků raději neklade. Stačí například uvést název kapitoly: "O štěstí a neštěstí v dějinách", aby bylo jasné, do jakých osidel se autor nutně dostává. Činí to ovšem vědomě a činí to proto, že chce k tomuto tématu cosi podstatného sdělit.

Jako celek, jako "hotový interpretační klíč" světových dějin kniha neobstojí, jako pozoruhodný doklad ovšem rozhodně a jako "chytrá knížka" plná pozoruhodných postřehů, myšlenek, tvrzení také. Pokud ji člověk čte nikoli s tím, že chce strhat rekord v rychločtení, ale naopak nespěchá a jednotlivá tvrzení kriticky promýšlí, jsou Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen čtením velmi zajímavým a hluboce podnětným.½

A classic on the Constantinian era. Shows strong anti-Eusebius bias.

Published in 1860, Burckhardt's great work redefined our sense of the European past, wholly reinterpreting what has since been known simply as the Italian Renaissance. With unsurpassed erudition, Burckhardt illuminates a world of artistic and cultural ferment, innovation, and discovery; of revived humanism; of fierce tensions between church and empire; and of the birth of both the modern state and the modern individual. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy remains the single most important and influential account of this crucial moment in the history of the West.

Yes, 150 years of scholarship have passed this by. Yes, the Middle Ages were more subtle than Burckhardt claims. Yes, he made a number of dubious generalizations about the Italian character, but remember this is an essay. As such, it is a good place to start for a study of the Renaissance. Will probably only read once.

This is a gorgeous big book full of lovely works of art to be found in the great churches of Italy. Huge beautiful color images on every page, you will enjoy your time spent here.

1/28/23

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Introdução de Peter Burke.