Burckhardt's Renaissance, 150 Years Later

To each eye, perhaps, the outlines of a given civilization present a different picture; and in treating of a civilization which is the mother of our own, and whose influence is still at work among us, it is unavoidable that individual judgement and feeling should tell every moment both on the writer and on the reader.

150 years after the publication of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt’s ‘essay’ remains unavoidable. How to explain this book’s unlikely longevity? Now that so many of his conclusions have been questioned, to what is the continued vitality of Burckhardt’s personal vision of history due? Why do we – and why should we – keep going back to Burckhardt?

On 19 April 2010, the Oxford Centre for Medieval History hosted an interdisciplinary symposium at Jesus College to mark the 150th anniversary of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt. Now the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature is making the proceedings of this symposium available online.

These papers by Oxford academics use Burckhardt’s six chapter titles as prompts. They show how the time has come not just to read, but to rediscover Burckhardt’s book, the influence of which is still at work among us.

To assist readers, we are also making available on these pages links to relevant material. We hope that you find this website to be a useful and thought-provoking resource for your own studies of Burckhardt and his most famous book.

Oren J Margolis, editor
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Vienna