Burckhardt's `Civilization of the Renaissance' A Century after its Publication Author(s): Hans Baron Reviewed work(s): Source: Renaissance

News, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Autumn, 1960), pp. 207-222 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2857720 . Accessed: 04/11/2012 18:46
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Burckhardt's 'Civilization of theRenaissance' A Century itsPublication after

by HANS
BARON

sincethe apN September I960 a hundred yearswill havepassed der Renaissance in Italien. of Burckhardt's Kultur pearance Jacob on the formation of influence No otherworkhashada comparable thelastone or two genthe conceptof theRenaissance, andduring readin all western it hasbecomean historical classic counerations text ofBurckhardt's tries.Sincethere-publication Walter original by andEnglish WorldWartheearlyItalian translations second beganto
sharein this ever-growing popularity (Americahas seen three new editions recently), while the first Spanish translationcame out in
South America in 1942.

Goetz in I922,1one Germanreprinthas followed another.After the

How is the Renaissancescholarto evaluatethis late posthumous triumph of a book whose slow acceptanceby his contemporaries brought bitter disappointmentto its author?Fifty years ago, when the 'revolt of the medievalists'against the nineteenth-centuryconception of the Renaissancewas in full swing, the usual reaction of work was fearthat an apparently scholarsto Burckhardt's irrepressible productof a period of historiography long passedmight perpetuate an antiquatedbias againstthe Middle Ages and a false image of the unscrupulous, ruthless,and lusty 'superman'of the Renaissance. another after Today, half-century, little of that suspicionhas survived. Many, of course, disagreewith Burckhardt's views, but few still think they are confronted with a work disfiguredby strong prejudicesagainstthe medievalpast. The reasonis both a change of attitudetoward some of the phenomenadescribed in the Civilization Renaissance even a the better more, and, of knowledge of its author. Our views of Burckhardtand his place as an historianhave been in threerespects. transformed First,we can seemore clearly essentially the injustice of comparing too closely the positions of Burckhardt and Michelet, the two authorswho first entitledbooks 'The Renaissance'-even though it is true thatBurckhardt borrowedfrom Mich1 From the third to the twelfth edition, L. Geiger, as editor, had transformed the book into a two-volume handbookconstantlygrowing in length. [207 ]

elet the famousformula'the discovery of the world and of man'. Forwhereas as heir to sawthe Michelet, attitudes, eighteenth-century Middle of nature andscience, of'abdiAgesasatimeof'proscription' de l'independence onefindsno traceof cations successives humaine', in Burckhardt. sucha disparagement Thathis work couldbe at all to a considered reflect similar anti-medieval is explainable prejudice, the circumstance that and of the the terse comments only by pointed Civilization the Renaissance be read cannot with the together of origion theculture of theMiddle volumes nallyplanned companion Ages forthepreviously whichwereneverpublished written Ageof (except in Zirich andin Basel, theGreat). Constantine Asanacademic teacher on lectured medieval Burckhardt however, history,and continually the carefully of theselectures, in the prepared manuscripts preserved Burckhardt havebeenconsulted the last few decades archives, during of hishistorical for thereconstruction ideas,in particular by Werner of Burckhardt. In his courses, Kaegifor his fundamental biography at theverytimewhenhe wasworkingout the guidingprinciples of his Civilization, we find Burckhardt to his listeners at apologizing Zurichfor the adoption-'for want of something better'-of the fashionable term'Renaissance' eventhoughthe wordsounded 'asif the all Middle cultural had life been as during Ages sleeping though He talked dead'. aboutthe 'undying thatcaptures sympathy' anyone who has grasped the spiritual of medieval and even art, harmony of hisbookhe neverretracted afterthe appearance in hislectures, to the end of his long life, his positiveapproach to the MiddleAges.2 from the on art classic his greatest became love I85o's Although and althoughhe now discovered the emergence of a new world in the Italyof thefifteenth of culture andsixteenth he did centuries, not losehis responsiveness to medieval values.Rather,he set an exof hisampleof flexibility, becomingone of the foundingfathers
toricism.

in the appraisal Therehasbeena corresponding of Burckchange hardt's school andinfluence. theturnof thenineteenth Whenatabout centuryscholars beganto criticizeand refutethe late-nineteenthof and secular, if not pagan,'manof centurymyth the uninhibited theRenaissance', littledistinction wasmadebetweenJohn Addington
2 W.

Burckhardt: EineBiographie, vol. m (Basel,I956), pp. 325 f., 586, Kaegi,Jacob

590.

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of Nietzsche's of the Renaissance, the effects glorification Symonds' and of own SinceWorld the Burckhardt's ideas. superman, teaching in Germany, of investigations, Warii, however,a number especially Burckin that out the difference havesharply brought spirit separated a difference from Nietzsche's hardt's attitude clearly reinterpretation, himself.In America, WallaceK. Ferguson's noticedby Burckhardt of the Renaissance haspointedout that historyof the interpretation andpruned Burckhardtian elements thatwereattacked thepresumed to alargeextent own views, notBurckhardt's afterI9oowereactually writers.3 but rathertheirmodifications by late-nineteenth-century has also influenced the long-standing This recognition controversy of religion in theRenaissance. To aboutBurckhardt's interpretation has reattitude of the trecento and quattrocento be sure,the religious of the period,but mainedone of the most widely discussed aspects of or the anti-Burckhardtian asperity forty fiftyyearsago hasdisapfrommostof thesediscussions we havebecomemore because peared own tendency to give dueplaceto the Chrisawareof Burckhardt's andevento theimpactof traditional medieval tianreligion religion, andtheistic theagnosticism whicharestressed in alongside religiosity we that his picture. realize better Furthermore, today only through can theideasof St. Francis distortion anachronistic andhis firstfollowersbe thoughtto convergewith the fifteenth-and sixteenthto imaginea panorama of the centurymind.It hasbecomepossible in whichthe influence of Franciscan Renaissance on spirituality the of the is followed and period beginning replaced by the secular whichemerged in the quattrocento. individualism of the Burckhardt's workhaschanged because Finally, perspective of a widening of the of the Renaissance that knowledge conceptions had preceded it. Many studiesof the historyof thoseconceptions not onlythattheterm'Renaissance' haveestablished4 asthe nameof an historical had been in in France, use, period widespread especially when Burckhardt also but that the view which held adoptedit, fifteenthandsixteenth-century Italian culture to be thefirststagein
3 A. v. Martin, NietzscheundBurckhardt: Zwei geistigeWeltenim Dialog (3d ed., und Nietzsche(2d ed., Heidelberg, Basel, I945), passim;E. Salin,JacobBurckhardt W. K. Ferguson,TheRenaissance in Historical 1948),passim; (Boston, 1948), Thought
pp. 204 f. 4 EspeciallyW. K. Ferguson,op. cit. On the Renaissance conceptionof the French Enlightenment, see also Franco Simone, Studi Francesi, ix (I959), 399-411.

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sincethe daysof of modernculture hadbeenaccepted the evolution hadbegun of the historians the Humanism. Enlightenment Although andtheinof neglected studies classical to arguethattheresumption an after1453couldnot havecaused flux to Italyof Greekscholars that and fifteenthnot doubted intellectual revolution,they had sucha revolution. As sixteenth-century Italyhadin factexperienced alone had 'the Italians the Medici the of Voltaire it, put during age Hisinthenaccessible. achievements everything'-allof thecultural view only in concluding fromthe humanistic differed terpretations letters hadultimately andnot therevived that'le geniedesToscanes' and thatHumanism and causedthe floweringof the Renaissance, of an rational that art contained element classical enlightenment in theFrance of classicism aftertheperfection wouldfinallyblossom, and 'la raisonhumaine of Louisxiv, into a 'soundphilosophy' pertendencies fectionnee'. Whenever,afterthat, classicist reappeared, writers and of theseeighteenth-century the views of the humanists in the eachother.Gibbon, couldfuse,strengthening appraising epiof the knowledgeof andFallthe re-emergence logue to his Decline the humanistic erudiin fifteenth-century Italy,described antiquity dew' thathelpedto prepare as the 'celestial tion of the quattrocento idiomsandliterathe groundfor the riseof the modernvernacular and experimental for speculative tures,and eventually philosophy own period, science.In Burckhardt's Charpentier Jean-Pierre pubenEurope delaRenaissance desLettres au Histoire lisheda two-volume siecle(1843)in which the MiddleAges and the Italian quinzieme theHumanism werelookeduponastwo different worlds, quattrocento to the modern national the of the quattrocento havingopened way which culand to the skeptical, anti-authoritarian literatures spirit in Erasmus andMontaigne. minated the Renscheme of modernhistorythatincluded An evolutional for severalcenturies aissancehad, therefore,been commonplace in his set to work.Whatwasnew andimportant whenBurckhardt the difference first after in the that, was, havingbeen place, approach in hisyounger he was neither a followerof Romanticism years, ready of enlightthespirit of Renaissance to identify Italywith theinfancy thesisof a enedthoughtnor willingto agreewith the neoclassicist of ancient hisbook,in fact,abounds rolefortherevival causal letters; thisclassicist belief.Someothersof theprinciwith rebuttals against
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andsubpersonal pleshe followedwerealsofarfrombeingbasically borrowed from since were movethey contemporary jectiveguesses, for his revoltfromthe Romantimentsin whichhe foundsupport of the cismof hisyouth.Thenotionthattherehadbeena 'discovery was shared worldandof man'duringthe Renaissance, by manyof cult of the the romantic his contemporaries who, afterabandoning MiddleAges, were wonderingaboutthe natureand originof the andreligious ascetitheageof feudalism worldwhichhadsucceeded and 'la cism. While the succinct elegantformula decouvertedu a similar was mondeet ... del'homme' camefromFrance, approach Karl and historians foundin Germany. like who There,Hegel Hagen wereinfluenced by himhadbegunto definethetendencies initiating a vindication of the modernworld in termsof a new self-respect, inand the and a new life of material labor, family goods, dignity in 'man's innerlife'andin 'external nature'. Someof thecrucial terest in Burckhardt's of theindividelements leitmotifof'the development of Benual'were derived from Goethe.To his German translation in had Goethe venutoCellini's autobiography (published I803), apworld that had pendeda sketchof Celliniand his contemporary turned theold, time-honored thewickedness accusations and against of the Italian into a sixteenth-century depravity searching psychologIn studying ical analysis. Cellini,Goethehadformedthe ideaof an marked age whichhadbroughtforthmen of rarepassion, by gross and brutal but feverish, vindictiveness, also by higher sensuality for religious an honestrespect andethical values,for the yearnings: In Goethe's appraisal, geniusof greatmen,andfornobleenterprises. of Cellini's natureyieldsto a thousand the impulsiveness temptaThe forceof to lowly pleasures. tions,but doesnot finallysuccumb this psychology (and perhapsof some comparable of portrayals in Stendhal Italians is felt by sixteenth-century France) throughout Burckhardt's of the development of the individual analysis ThefactthatBurckhardt wove allthesevarious strands of thought into his Civilization doesnot detract from its originality. It is high of an if it that can be said historian's work he has praise helpedto of the fruitful some most ideas of his own time into frameof the put reference used in exploringan areaof the past. In Burckhardt's and the Italian case,the newly mappedareacomprised quattrocento of the trecento after Dante and Petrarch-in other words, part roughly
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of historyon whichthehistoriography of Humanism thestretch and of the Enlightenment had long centered.Focusingthe historical of the earlynineteenth centuryupon this very part of questions Italian was nonetheless new. Hegelwhenattributhistory something aswell as of themodernage to theReformation, ing the beginning linein thesixteenth thedividing and Michelet whenplacing century had the civilization both outside of chiefly Italy, expressly disparaged of the And the observations Italy.5 quattrocento psychological poets and writers,thoughreferring to Italy,had dealtwith the sixteenth it is truethatsomeof Burckhardt's century. although Consequently, or predecesbasicquestions fromcontemporaries hadbeenadopted thrownlight on the sors,no one had yet, by usingthesequestions, was to be called theItalian since RenaisBurckhardt, which, period for thisshiftin quatsance.Burckhardt hadfoundthefirstincentive trocento coulddevelopinto a statebut beforehis observations art;6 in general, menton theroleof thequattrocento forRenaissance culture andotherhishe hadto assimilate new worldof chronicles an entire toricalsources thathad neverbeenseriously exploitedfor 'Kulturwe can now learnthatBurckFromKaegi'snarrative geschichte'. hardtaccepted the call to Zurichduringthe half-decade preceding in partbecause the publication an important colof the Civilization lectionof editionsof fourteenthandfifteenth-century sources had been broughttogetherthere.One by one he took home the huge volumes of Muratori's Rerum Italicarum andalltherichmaScriptores terialbroughtto light in his own time,layingfoundations broader thanthoseof anyprevious of theage effortto reconstruct thehistory of humanistic literature andculture. Ourawareness of the gradual growthof thehistorical conception set forthin the Civilization is the thirdfactorreof theRenaissance for thedifferences of Burckbetweenourpresent sponsible appraisal hardt and thejudgments stillcurrentin the I920's. No one familiar with theantecedents andthegenesis workwill wonofBurckhardt's
5 On Hegel, cf. D. Cantimoriin AnnalidellaScuola Norm.Sup. di Pisa,ser.n, vol. I

placedthe beginning of in the propersense' (eigentliche 'the Renaissance at 'aboutI420' (BurckRenaissance) vol. m, p. 153); cf. also the magnificentdescription of the 'new hardt,Gesamtausgabe, spirit' in painting developing 'during the first decadesof the Isth century' (ibid., vol. iv, p. 186).
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235-239. (I932), 6 In the Cicerone (I855) he had, for the field of architecture,

ern mind.' No other leitmotif occurs as often in the text as the contention that the Italianof the Renaissance'was the firstbornamong the sons of modern Europe', that 'the ItalianRenaissancemust be called the leader of modern ages', and that 'the first truly modern men', 'a wholly recognizableprototype of modern man', arosefrom Petrarch'stime to the quattrocento.8 Only two other points are made
7 Kaegi, op. cit., pp. 664, 673. 8 The Civilizationof the Renaissance in Italy (ModernLibrary,New York, I954),

der whetherhis apparent of a new periodwas, perhaps, discovery a rashact of illusion-whether (aswas askednot manyyearsago) therewas any Italian Renaissance at all. of Burckhardt's Does agreement aboutthe solidityand vastness attainment meanthathis view on the placeof the Renaissance in a is after hundred the now, years,finallywinning history European thesis,to be sure,was not simplythatthe basic dayeBurckhardt's in a rudimentary elements of modern firstappeared form civilization in fifteenth-and sixteenth-century from thereand Italy,to spread latehumanists advance This how the northern countries. was through hadviewedtheprogress sincetheearlyquattrocento, and of theircause how eighteenth-century from writershad conceivedthatprogress the Medicean and to 'sound of French the the age Engphilosophy' lishEnlightenment. Butto thegeneration whichhadfreeditselffrom to be thatafterthe decay the cardinal Romanticism pointappeared of feudalism anda hierarchical ordera 'modern' typeof societyhad in somewhere which the social function of the individual, emerged his senseof values,andhis perceptive had Burckchanged. powers hardtwassearching not so muchfor therootsof a gradually unfoldmodern as for the first evidence of the ing development, recognizable modernstateandof modernman.'TheRenaissance was to be preof his work, declared sented,'Burckhardt duringthe preparation 'insoweit sieMutter undHeimat desmodernen Menschen geworden of phenomena of themodist';thebookwasto pointout 'anumber

modernenMenschen',runsin the only available, continuallyreprintedtranslation by S. G. C. Middlemore:'a significanttype of the modern spirit'.'Significant','type', 'spirit',are all inaccurateand misleadingrenderings-a warning againstthe use of Middlemore'stext without consultationof the Germanoriginal. Incidentally,this specificreferenceto the 'UrbilddesmodernenMenschen'was latercancelled, presumably becauseof objectionsraisedby Wilhelm Dilthey; cf. Kaegi, op.cit.,pp. 719-722.
[213 ]

pp. Ioo, 416, 219, 249. The last quotation, in German 'ein ganz kenntliches Urbild des

both closelyinterrelated with the first.One is quiteas frequently, revival in literature andartwasnot the causeof the thattheclassical The otheris thatthe fresh but only a helpfulsupport. new culture, a new society cultural growthtook placebecause by the quattrocento the individual fromthe bonds anda new kindof statehaddelivered of the feudalage and taughthim to acceptthe validityof secular outsideItaly valuesand of critical thoughtthatwas not recognized or later. untilthe sixteenth century in theseprecise notionof the RenCouched terms,Burckhardt's tobeonitswayto general aissance bypresenthardly appears adoption At havealso students. evolutional schemes least two day antagonistic a of beenmakingmuchheadway First, resurgence the hurecently. manistic view of historyhascomeaboutin a new guise,in spiteof therevivalof theclassical studies Burckhardt's caveat against treating inmedieval ascausaprima. Astheclassical factor literature, philosophy, culture andartbecame better known,thehistoryof European began to be viewedby someas a continual oscillation betweenperiodsof and lesserinfluence In elements. of the antique-humanistic greater of the fourteenth thisview, the Italian Humanism to sixteenth centuries fallsbetweena medieval anda modern phase phaseof humanand istic classicism thus underFrench Renaissance leadership, Italy losesmuchof theairof newness whichtheBurckhardtian perspective in themedieval orwherever interest Humanism givesto it. InFrance, in the of thetwelfthcentury orin thehumanistic of Thomism aspects has been very strong,the work of Burckhardt has until thirteenth for the general now heldlittleattraction nor haveits effects reader, on scholars increased. lately At the opposite of attributing moreinendarethosewho, instead to the of than Burckhardt would fluence allow, heritage antiquity wonderwhetherour standard of whatwas 'modern' afterI300 has remained eventoo closeto thehumanistic view of culnot, perhaps, whether we are not to from our wrong exclude ture; conceptof the therealistic, andurban outRenaissance movements individualistic, sideItaly.Shouldwe not search for changesof European scopein view of suchfourteenthandfifteenth-century currents asphilosophinherent in the naturalism ical 'nominalism' andOccamistic science, thepolitical fromtheclashes whichsprang between papal philosophy andsecular of the the late Middle movements Ages, powers, mystical
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shouldwe of Flemish arteIn thislarger andthe realism framework, thanthat to the courseof eventsin Italymoresignificance attribute of a localor national development? varietyof the European meritsof the to weightherelative Thisis not theplaceto attempt we have every The is that thus sketched. three approaches point to expectthatin theyearsaheadtheywill be lockedin a vigreason to whatextentwill thosewho beInthiscontroversy, orousstruggle. of is a 'prototype' Renaissance thattheItalian lievewith Burckhardt the modernage, stillbe ableto usethe Civilization of theRenaissance Foran answer, we mustexplorea littlemore in Italyas a validbasis? of or incompleteness thecomprehensiveness thanis usual thoroughly and sixteenthof fourteenth-, Burckhardt's fifteenth-, presentation culture.9 century in Burckhardt's evenfromtheviewpoint Thereis a lacuna analysis A view widespread in the historical 1860. of during year scholarship andvitalityhadbeen hadbeenthatprosperity theeighteenth century andsucthe establishment communes in the Italian through sparked cessfuldefenseof freedomduringthe eleventh,twelfth,and thirrose to new and that arts and lettersafterwards teenthcenturies, When the to of the revival during later part antiquity. heights owing thatantiqthe conviction of the eighteenth gainedstrength century had not the groundbeenwell uity would not have beenrevalued arosean increasing needto in the there Italian city-states, prepared several centhat after Iooo the forces through identify sociological the nineteenth cultural life in turies remolded Italy.By early century, to scholars. theories hadbecomeaccessible two complementary within Onewastheideaof theinvigorating powerof competition andbetweenfreecity-states; thiswasan Englisheighteenth-century to Hume (who, however, was too prejudiced thought traceable Italian to applyit to the Italiancityagainst politicsand literature in AdamFerguson's and most Essayon states) maturely developed when in free theHistory of I767. The Essayargued: of CivilSociety of men react to a common societies challenge, everysort manytypes of humanenergybursts and 'exertion' become forth;engagement stimulifor culture. into little and divided 'Greece, states, agimany
9 The only omission in the Civilization which is usually mentioned is the neglect (originally not intended) of Renaissance art; cf. Kaegi, op. cit., pp. 665 f., 689 f. There are, however, other omissions with graver consequences, as will be seen. [215]

tatedbeyondany spot on the globe by domesticcontentions and of set the in The literature. fire example everyspecies foreignwars, to Rome;not whenthestate ceased to be warlike wascommunicated herpolitical andhaddiscontinued but when she mixedthe agitations, and of pleasure with her national love of refinement and pursuits, to studyin themidstof ferments, aninclination occasioned indulged of oppositefactions. It was revivedin by the warsand pretensions of the states modemEurope turbulent modern among Italy... .' Thesecond of popular theorywasstimulated by Rousseau's praise small and direct in In local states. the democracy sovereignty lightof in the hisideas, citizen life of his participation by every citypatria apasan evenmoreeffective factorthanthespurof'turbulence'. peared de' Sismondi, It was Rousseau's Simonde who during countryman, to used for a comRousseau's Geneva's ideas subjection Napoleon of the effects of the ancient Greek and medieval Italian study parative on the behavior and outlookof theircitizens. Sismondi's city-states of theItalian of theMiddle multi-volume history republics Ageswas, a it is true, stronglydisfigured often anachronistic, by passionate, and rationalist democratic his booksto fall into bias,whichcaused but this does not fromthefactthat detract oblivion; relatively early the consequences he wasthefirstto weighseriously of theparticipation of everyfull-fledged citizenin sovereignty andgovernment, in the Italian as well as the Greekcity-states. A man who oncehad a in theexercise of publicpower,Sismondi share 'estunecreaargued, tureplusnoble,plusrelevee, forhis queceluiquin'enexerceaucun,' horizons hispowersof critical havewidened, reflection havegrown. 'Au lieu de ne s'occuper que de lui-meme,il s'estoccupedes autres Il a doncouvertsoncoeura dessentiments leur bien. pour plusgrand il a uneplushaute ideede sapropre plusreleves, dignite.....' 'Liberte that active in of the state,'estla the life is, politique', participation noble des educations donner a a citizen l'homme'; plus qu'onpuisse thisdivinefood,'dedaigne who hastasted toutenourriture humaine.' One mightcallthisthefirsttheoryof thehistorical of consequences it is to ancient Greece late and medieval in one polislife; applied Italy effort.10 comparative
10On Hume, cf.J. R. Hale, England andtheItalian Renaissance (London,I954), pp. sur 46 f.; Adam Ferguson,Essay(Edinburgh,1767),pp. 27I f.; Sismondiin his Etudes les constitutions despeuples libres desrepubliques italiennes (Brussels, 1836)andhis Histoire [216]

In theworksof AdamFerguson andSismondi we findtheseeds whichintimately of an interpretation11 connects and psychological of with the citizen's Historians intellectual life. way changes political thisapproach of the Romanticschoolcarried stillfurther. In I844, dellebelle artiin Italiaby Emiliani-Giudici the Storia (undoubtedly, andSismondi's to Burckhardt) like Ferguson's made works,familiar for 'a of a special literature' plea political interpretation ('spiegazione andliterary dellaletteratura'). Political ideaswereto be conpolitica in conjunction because of the interrelationship sidered which exists and betweenpolitical mentale'. As late independence 'independenza asthesixteenth to endeavored (Emiliani-Giudici century show)there in intellectual difference was a profound attitude betweenMachia'scrittori tutti educatial libero pensarementre velli's generation, ancorail cuoredellarepubblica', andthe courtiers of the palpitava of the periodunderDuke CosimoI; any understanding subsequent Florentine on the climate depended clearly cinquecento differentiating of the firstthirtyyearsfromthatof the restof the century. thisbackground onerealizes thatsomeof thealready availAgainst able approaches were not included in Burckhardt's of explanation of the individual'. 'thedevelopment In the chapter so entitled, after on the disappearance someinsistence of medieval castedistinctions, hetraces backtheintellectual of new fields of knowledge, many grasp the changein the evaluation of life, and the trainingof uniquely 'rounded' not to the moldinginfluence of a societyin personalities, whichcitizens werecompelled to be rulers as well as ruledandwere to the of conditions civic to the life, but rather competitive exposed effectsof the tyrants'courts12 and to the situationof those who, frompublic cultural leisure. Thelatter life,gained through separation of indifferent to and busied man, type 'private politics, partly... with the interests of a dilettante', is saidto havedeveloped underthe as as in well the men in cities where tyrants republican poweroften
de Sismondi: Gedanken iiberFreiheit (Paris,I809 if.); see also H. R. Felder, Simonde (Diss. Zurich, i954), pp. II, 25, 29.
11 Hardlymore than seeds,becauseFerguson's Essaydid not elaborateupon conditions in Italy, and Sismondicondemnedthe quattrocento too passionately as the period of tyrantsto searchfor any survivalof liberte afterthe fourteenthcentury. politique 12 'Despotismfosteredin the highest degreethe individualitynot only of the tyrant or Condottierehimself,but also of the men whom he ... used as his tools: the secretary, minister,poet, and companion.'Civilization,op. cit., p. IOI.

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of a short andafterwards, had'tomaketheutmost' periodof triumph orexiled,foundthemselves 'ininvoluntary Likethe leisure'. defeated suchmen, recognizing 'the dangers and the of the tyrants, subjects life' of publiclife',learntto prize'a developed thanklessness private basisof cultural as the necessary pursuits. to thisone sector, limithisinterest why did Why didBurckhardt of life alhe not makeuse of the rudimentary sociology city-state of and of the Rothe historians Enlightenment by readyprepared therolesof Florence not because he misjudged manticism? Certainly andsymsomeof themostimpressive andVenice.Hisbookincludes in the Florentine on achievements ever written repubpages pathetic anda keen spiritof calculaof politicalraisonnement lic: the spread tion amongan entirepeople;the priorityin time of the patronage the contrastbetween citizensto that of the princes; of Florentine for citizens,as the citizens Florentine 'by historiography-written in mostprincidid'-and the hired,official ancients historiography without whichFlordefense of and the heroic last, 1529-30, palities; one of its and entinehistory'wouldhavebeenthepoorer by greatest didnot deThe reason memories'. mostennobling why Burckhardt of his for of features these general conception the period velop any to culture. his in bent of the During relationship personal peculiar lay not whenhe was yet thirtyyearsold,he hadturned themid-I84o's, from the then rising democratic with abhorrence trend, which an a fatalperilto civilization, seemedto him to prelude heralding His and own the brutal of life, in wars, masses, despotism. upsurge suchan iron,barbaric private age, was to be devotedto a secluded the old, aristocratic in which he might help to preserve existence, herehow good a culture. of European We arenot asking traditions and twentieth-century developjudge and prophetof nineteenthto us is the impactthesepasmentsBurckhardt was;whatmatters as a cultural hishad on his views andmethods sionate convictions of outlookwasfarfromthe'liberalism' hispolitical torian. Although whomhe adlike Wilhelmvon Humboldt. Neuhumanisten German Humboldt's bemired,in effecthe adopted conceptof a separation it that and the State. While is true Burckindividual culture tween state of the masses hardtwas thinkingof the nineteenth-century of hadbeenthinking of theabsolutist Humboldt whereas monarchy the harmonito the ultimate was both the eighteenth century, goal
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of the individual ous growthandtraining of all the potentialities in the from State.13 proudindependence Was Burckhardt, fromthispositionof German 'neo-humanistic' to delicate balance the between unusual liberalism, likely graspfully and unusual stimulation violationof individual privacy,typicalof in lateryearsdeciviclife in a city-state WhenBurckhardt society? and finedthe relationship betweenthe Greek Greekculture in polis hisimposing lectures on theHistory Greek he Civilization, emphaof thanmostclassical scholars sized,morestrongly todayconsider justito force the individual, fied, the tendencyof the Greekcity-state in the hothouseatmosphere of the afterhe had come to maturity to of the community andbuild, polis, 'flee'the despotic pretensions like Diogenes,a trueandhumaneculture from the state.On apart the whole,in post-Burckhardtian a gradhas been there scholarship, ualexpansion of thearea in whichthelifeof thepolisis recognized as on the ideasandidealsof Greek culhavinghada positiveinfluence motifof the'freeindividual' bredby thecityture;andBurckhardt's life independent state,but forced-and happy-to buildhis cultural of the demands of the polis,has retained merelythe validityof a There is a very similardivergence of betweenthe approaches scholars andBurckhardt's of viewsof the relation manypresent-day Renaissance cultureto the Renaissance state.Even thoughno one deniesthatthe appearance of a 'private to politics, man,indifferent and busiedpartly... with the interests of a dilettante' was a major factorin Renaissance its later life, especially during stages,a good dealof recentstudyhasfocused, evenfor thefifteenth andsixteenth on situations in which new values and ideas werecreated centuries, andintellectually, were deeplyinvolved by men who, emotionally in the struggles of theirage. Few suchinquiries havebeen able to from in the Civilization proceed questions posed of theRenaissance; hadto makefromanentirely new beginning. This theyhaveusually hasalsobeentrueof all attempts to relate to thelife andspiritof the
Der Mensch inmitten der Geschichte (Luzern, 1936), pp. I52-I88, 363-371; D. Cantimori on Burckhardt's apolitismo,Rivista Storica Italiana, LXVI (I954), 532 f., 536. Burckhardt's griechische Kulturgeschichte', Die Antike, vn (I93I), esp. 57-62.

partialtruth.14

13K. L6with, 'Burckhardt's Entschlusszur Apolitie', in L6with'sJacob Burckhardt:

14Cf. R. Stadelmann's keen, though occasionallyoverstrained, analysisof 'Jacob

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nals of Roman history.16 Thus still anotherwindow through which theRenaissance.

its new politicalscience-those subtledesignsof conRenaissance on the exstitutions 'worksof art')that,drawing (trueRenaissance of generations, triedto assure andjust shares for efficiency periences an of social division thecompeting elaborate powers. groups through in thefashion of theRomantics, decries 'thegreatmodBurckhardt, em fallacy thata constitution canbe manufactured by a combination of existing allhe hasto sayis thaton thisscore forces andtendencies'; 'the patternand earliest Renaissance thoughtmust be considered of Thesamelackof sympatype'of the'defects' themodemworld.15 is shownin the Civilization theticinterest towards of theRenaissance of history was shaped. theforcesby whichthevitalnew philosophy Inpost-Burckhardian themehasbeentheinterthecentral research, of thehumanists merits of minable aboutthe respective controversy of the respublica romana and the subsequent the Roman monarchy in the well-knownquestof culminating emperors-a controversy thehistorical of Ciceroor Caesar. no We have,perhaps, justification for studying bettermirror thebasicdifferences thanthiscontroversy in thecity-republics in thepolitico-historical outlookdeveloping and hasnot at the tyrantcourts.Againthe Civilization of theRenaissance a for our discussions. From the provided starting point manuscripts in the Burckhardt archives we cannow learnthatonly a few years forhisbookhe hadcommented beforebeginning thepreparations at assassination in his lectures. and Caesar's One is lengthuponCaesar amazed of objective to findthatthegreat master historicism hadbeen to recognize hadclashed unable thattwo agesand Weltanschauungen in thatconflagration. To Burckhardt, alllightandhistorical justification was on the sideof Caesar; his murder hadbeenperpetrated by in theanit was 'thegreatest recorded criniinals', 'genuine stupidity' thereciprocity of thought andpolitical in theRenaissance experience canbe mostclearly to theauthor of theCivilization seenwasclosed of

The consequences of Humanism. extend even to the appraisal Burckhardt had with the classicist Although parted interpretation thattherevival of ancient literature of theRenaissance, wasthecause he didnot change view aboutthenature thetraditional of essentially
15 Civilization, ed. cit., p.
16

68.

Kaegi, op. cit., pp. 308 f.

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The notionof a rehumanistic contacts with the classical heritage. of something old aftera long interval remained nascence at the heart of his conceptof the humanistic movement,even thoughthe reof of ancient RomanItalywas now more emergence manyaspects idea.The essence of intelligibly explained by the romantic Volksgeist theclassical the we readin the Civilization was revival, Renaissance, of an 'alliance betweentwo distantepochsin the civilization of the samepeople',a 'partial of the old Italian re-awakening genius...thewondrous echoof a far-offstrain'. of By thistoken,thosefeatures the humanistic to call the movementwhichBurckhardt continued in the foreground. humanistic of antiquity' remained 'reproduction This meansthatneo-Latin poetryand the new Latinoratoryand were while 'Latintreatises', epistolography dialogues, emphasized, and worksof historiography were given only a few pagesor even The orderof emphasis haspractically beenreversed in paragraphs. the studyof Renaissance Humanism the twentieth during century. Mostof theinterest-anentire, of critical new branch research-has beendevoted to thetreatises, andworksofhistoriography. dialogues, And thishashappened of humanistic because thesegenera precisely whileprobably theleastsuccessful asimitations of classical literature, to the of the since models,testify Renaissance, originality through themhumanists wereableto express theirown convictions andsense of lifeandto recreate thepicture of theancient pastfromfresh points of view. In revealing theirauthors' these humanistic works minds, oftenallowus deeper thanany othersources into the differinsights encesin outlookthatexistedamongthe humanists in various social between in in writers civic and groups,especially courtlysociety. it is largelybecause of thetransference of scholarly attention Indeed, to theseformerly of humanistic sections workthatBurckneglected hardt's of the respective estimate contributions of the long-accepted communal andthe 'individualistic' to the culture of the Renspirit aissance hasrecently becomea matterof doubtandquestioning. Yet continued limitation of the role ascribed to Renaissance 'individualism' hasin thefinalcountnot weakened, butrather strengthened the validityof the thesisthat the ItalianRenaissance was a of life andthoughtin themodern world.Forthe concluprototype sionthatmanyof the 'modem'features of Renaissance Italyresulted from the politicsand cultureof the city-state is in harmonywith
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otherpersuasions of present-day historical With respect philosophy. extension of our over to the ancient the civilizaworld, knowledge the interpretation tionsof the Easthasonly strengthened thatGreek andRomanculture wasdifferent-andin someway prototypical of later it of was founded on manyaspects history-because European thatin the tenseandbracing of independent city-states; atmosphere thosesmallcommonwealths of the and culethical, many political, turalproblems whichwere to remainthoseof the moder western world were first fathomedand worked out. The more fully we realizethe significance which city-state societyhad for the Italian evenduring itslaterphases, themoretherelationship of Renaissance, Renaissance cultureto 'modem'life becomesfor us a part of the affiliation of westernhistorywith generalproblemof the singular traditions inherited fromearlycity-state It is in association republics. with theincreased attention now paidto sociological thatthe factors core of the Burckhardtian of the Renaissance can carry conception full conviction for a reader of today.In thismetamorphosis, Burckhardt's view provesequalandmay still,eventually, provesuperior to the competingviews about the natureof the transition to the modemage.
NEWBERRY LIBRARY

TwoUnpublished Stage Songs the for 'Aeryof Children'

by ANDREW J.
SABOL

Hamlet the reappearance of the choirboy (I603) was printed, of the Chapel andthe Children of Paul's-at troupes-the Children theirown privatetheaters in Londonprovided serious competition to the adultcompanies andamongthem actingon thepublicstages, the Chamberlain's in Men, Shakespeare's company.In a topicality thiscorrupt,'reported' versionof the play, Guildenstem alludes to the popularity of the childactorsas he accounts for the visit of the traveling players:
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a few years beforetheFirst AT the turnof the century, Quartoof