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THE PROBLEMS IN EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION SERIES
(Arranged in approximate chronological order)
Monotheism and Moses: The Genesis of Judaism Robert J. Christen and Harold E. Hazelton
Tiberius Gracchus: Destroyer or Reformer of the Rupublic? John M. Riddle
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Why Did It Collapse? Donald Kagan
The Pirenne Thesis: Analysis, Criticism, and Revision (rev. ed.) Alfred F. Havighurst
The Rise of Rome: How to Explain It David Hood
Town Origins: The Evidence from Medieval England John F. Benton
The Coronation of Charlemagne: What Did It Signify? Richard E. Sullivan
The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages: Universal State or German Catastrophe?
Robert E. Herzstein
The Gregorian Epoch: Reformation, Revolution, Reaction? Schafer Williams
Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the World? James M. Powell
The Crusades: Motives and Achievements James A. Brundage
The Renaissance: Basic Interpretations (2nd ed.) Karl H. Dannenfeldt
Machiavelli: Cynic, Patriot, or Political Scientist? De Lamar Jensen
Henry VIM and the English Reformation Arthur J. Slavin
The Reformation: Basic Interpretations (2nd ed.) Lewis W. Spitz
Elizabeth I, Queen of England Richard L. Greaves
Calvin and Calvinism: Sources of Democracy? Robert M. Kingdon and Robert D. Linder
Reformation and Authority: The Meaning of the Peasants' Revolt Kyle C. Sessions
The "New Monarchies" and Representative Assemblies: Medieval Constitutionalism or Modern
Absolutism? Arthur J. Slavin
The French Wars of Religion: How Important Were Religious Factors? J. H. M. Salmon
The Thirty Years' War (2nd ed.) Theodore K. Rabb
Mercantilism: System or Expediency? Walter E. Minchinton
Protestantism, Capitalism, and Social Science: The Weber Thesis Controversy (2nd ed.)
Robert W. Green
The Origins of the English Civil War: Conspiracy, Crusade, or Class Conflict?
Philip A. M. Taylor
Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan Revolt: Failure of a Man or a Faith? Richard E. Boyer
The Revolution of 1688 and the Birth of the English Political Nation (2nd ed.)
Gerald M. Straka
Peter the Great Changes Russia (2nd ed.) Marc Raeff
The Greatness of Louis XIV (2nd ed.) William F. Church
Enlightened Despotism: Reform or Reaction? Roger Wines
George III: Tyrant or Constitutional Monarch? E. A. Reitan
The Eighteenth-Century Revolution: French or Western? Peter Amann
The Social Origins of the French Revolution Ralph W. Greenlaw
The Influence of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution (2nd ed.) William F. Church
The Economic Origins of the French Revolution: Poverty or Prosperity? Ralph W. Greenlaw
Metternich, the "Coachman of Europe": Statesman or Evil Genius? Henry F. Schwarz
Napoleon: Historical Enigma David H. Pinkney
The Industrial Revolution in Britain: Triumph or Disaster? (rev. ed.) Philip A. M. Taylor
The Working Class in Modern Europe Mary Lynn McDougall
The Great Reform Bill of 1832: Liberal or Conservative? Gilbert A. Cahill
Romanticism: Problems of Definition, Explanation, and Evaluation John B. Halsted
1848: A Turning Point? Melvin Kranzberg
{continued inside back cover)
DR. CHARLES ELLIOTT.
Fj.
INSTITUTE FOR SINO-SOVIET STUDIES
THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
a
WASHINGTON* D. 20006
SEP 2 1 1977
The Renaissance
»
»
PROBLEMS
IN
EUROPEAN
CIVILIZATION
Under the editorial direction of
John Ratte
Amherst College
The Renaissance
Basic Interpretations
Second Edition
Edited and with an introduction by
Karl H. Dannenfeldt
Arizona State University
HEATH AND COMPANY
D. C.
Lexington, Massachusetts Toronto London
©
Copyright 1974 by D. C. Heath and Company.
Also copyright 1959 by D. C. Heath and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechan-
ical, including photocopy, recording, or any Information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
Printed in the United States of America.
International Standard Book Number: 0-669-90530-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-285
INTRODUCTION
vii
CONFLICT OF OPINION xiv
Jacob Burckhardt
THE CIVILIZATION OF THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY 1
Charles Howard Mcllwaln
MEDIAEVAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE MODERN WORLD 48
Hans Baron
TOWARD A MORE POSITIVE EVALUATION OF THE
FIFTEENTH-CENTURY RENAISSANCE: PART 57
I
Alfred von Martin
SOCIOLOGY OF THE RENAISSANCE 63
Robert S. Lopez
HARD TIMES AND INVESTMENT IN CULTURE 82
Wallace K. Ferguson
RECENT TRENDS IN THE ECONOMIC HISTORIOGRAPHY
OF THE RENAISSANCE 101
Marie Boas
THE SCIENTIFIC RENAISSANCE: 1450-1630 112
Hans Baron
TOWARD A MORE POSITIVE EVALUATION OF THE
FIFTEENTH-CENTURY RENAISSANCE: PART 123
II
Paul Oskar Kristeller
THE PLACE OF CLASSICAL HUMANISM IN RENAISSANCE
THOUGHT 141
Lynn Thorndike
RENAISSANCE OR PRENAISSANCE? 148
vi Contents
Rudolf Wittkower
INDIVIDUALISM IN ART AND ARTISTS: A RENAISSANCE
PROBLEM 159
Edward E. Lowinsky
MUSIC IN THE CULTURE OF THE RENAISSANCE 172
Douglas Bush
THE RENAISSANCE AND ENGLISH HUMANISM: MODERN
THEORIES OF THE RENAISSANCE 175
Charles Homer Hasklns
THE RENAISSANCE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 184
Johan Huizlnga
THE WANING OF THE MIDDLE AGES 192
Wallace K. Ferguson
THE REINTERPRETATIONS OF THE RENAISSANCE 200
SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READING 215
INTRODUCTION
In 1860 in the introduction to his work on The Civilization of the
Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt predicted the present "prob-
lem of the Renaissance" when he wrote, "To each eye, perhaps, the
outlines of a great civilization present a different picture. ... In the
wide ocean upon which we venture, the possible ways and directions
are many; and the same studies which have served for this work might
easily, in other hands, not only receive a wholly different treatment
and application, but lead to essentially different conclusions."
To the writers of the Italian Renaissance itself, there was no
serious problem. Their views of the age in which they were living
furnished the basis for a long-held concept, namely, that after a
period of about a thousand years of cultural darkness and ignorance,
there arose a new age with a great revival in classical literature,
learning, and the arts.
The humanists of the northern Renaissance continued this con-
cept "Out of the thick Gothic night our eyes are opened to the
glorious torch of the sun," wrote Rabelais. Moreover, there was also
now introduced a reforming religious element, further emphasizing
the medieval barbarization of religion and culture. Protestant writers
joined in this condemnation of the dark medieval period, an attack
little circumscribed by the defense of the medieval church by
Catholic apologists.
The system of classical education and the standards of classical
art employed in the subsequent centuries meant a continuation of
the concept established by the humanists. Indeed, the historical
philosophy current in the Age of Reason, for purposes of its own,
supported the earlier view. Rationalists like Voltaire, Condorcet,
Bolingbroke, and Hume saw nothing but barbarism, ignorance, super-
vii
viii Introduction
stition, violence, irrationality, and priestly tyranny in the period of
Western history between the fall of Rome and the beginning of the
modern era, the Renaissance. They also gave currency to the con-
cept of the Italian Renaissance as a period of brilliant culture and
irreligion.
It was only In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century,
with the development of the intellectual revolution known as Roman-
ticism, that a reaction took place. A new spirit led the Romanticists
to see much in the past to understand and admire. There was a
lively interest in historical growth and evolution, including that which
took place in the Middle Ages. Human history was enthusiastically
approached; the folk origins of art, language, literature, and music
were patriotically idealized; and the irrational, the simple, and the
emotional sympathetically sought out. The Age of Faith was dis-
covered and peopled with chivalrous knights, beautiful ladies, pious
clergy, and industrious peasants. The unity of medieval Christianity
and the corporatism of medieval society was admired. Rescuing the
Middle Ages from the oblivion to which the classicists and rational-
ists had relegated It, the Romantic writers found the Renaissance
—
pagan, sensuous, villainous, and shocking yet attractive.
The astonishing growth of historical research in the nineteenth
century produced a great number of works influenced by such vary-
ing movements as nationalism, liberalism. Romanticism, neoclassi-
cism, and Hegelian philosophy. The spirit expressed in the art and
humanism of the Renaissance received especial consideration. A
tendency toward periodization is also characteristic. In the seventh
volume (1855) of his History of France (1833-1862), Jules Michelet,
the liberal historian, examined the Renaissance of the sixteenth
century in his own country. He saw in medieval civilization the
destruction of freedom and the debasement of the human spirit
while in the Renaissance came "the discovery of the world and the
discovery of man" and the spontaneous rebirth of art and antiquity.
Michelet applied the term "Renaissance" to the entire heroic period
and not just to art and the classical revival as had been customary.
His Renaissance was a distinct epoch, sharply contrasting in spirit
with the preceding age.
Five years after Michelet's analysis Jacob Burckhardt formulated
the modern traditional Interpretation of the Italian Renaissance.
Burckhardt's claim to fame Is not due to the originality of his ideas
