The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Modern Library Classics)

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.

Peter Gay is Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University and director of the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. His many books include the three-volume The Enlightenment: An Interpretation; Schnitzler’s Century: The Making of Middle-Class Culture, 1815–1914; and Freud: A Life for Our Time.