The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy

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Jacob Burckhardt. The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy

PREFACE

PART I. THE STATE AS A WORK OF ART

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER II. THE TYRANNY OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER III. THE TYRANNY OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER IV. THE PETTY TYRANNIES

CHAPTER V. THE GREATER DYNASTIES

CHAPTER VI. THE OPPONENTS OF TYRANNY

CHAPTER VII. THE REPUBLICS: VENICE AND FLORENCE

CHAPTER VIII. THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE ITALIAN STATES

CHAPTER IX. WAR AS A WORK OF ART

CHAPTER X. THE PAPACY AND ITS DANGERS

PART II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL

CHAPTER I. THE ITALIAN STATE AND THE INDIVIDUAL

CHAPTER II. THE PERFECTING OF THE INDIVIDUAL

CHAPTER III. THE MODERN IDEA OF FAME

CHAPTER IV. MODERN WIT AND SATIRE

PART III. THE REVIVAL OF ANTIQUITY

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

CHAPTER II. ROME, THE CITY OF RUINS

CHAPTER III. THE OLD AUTHORS

CHAPTER IV. HUMANISM IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER V. THE UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS

CHAPTER VI. THE FURTHERERS OF HUMANISM

CHAPTER VII. THE REPRODUCTION OF ANTIQUITY: LATIN CORRESPONDENCE AND ORATIONS

CHAPTER VIII. LATIN TREATISES AND HISTORY

CHAPTER IX. GENERAL LATINISATION OF CULTURE

CHAPTER X. MODERN LATIN POETRY

CHAPTER XI. FALL OF THE HUMANISTS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

PART IV. THE DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN

CHAPTER I. JOURNEYS OF THE ITALIANS

CHAPTER II. NATURAL SCIENCE IN ITALY

CHAPTER III. THE DISCOVERY OF NATURAL BEAUTY

CHAPTER IV. THE DISCOVERY OF MAN. SPIRITUAL DESCRIPTION IN POETRY

CHAPTER V. BIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER VI. THE DESCRIPTION OF NATIONS AND CITIES

CHAPTER VII. DESCRIPTION OF THE OUTWARD MAN

CHAPTER VIII. DESCRIPTIONS OF LIFE IN MOVEMENT

PART V. SOCIETY AND FESTIVALS

CHAPTER I. THE EQUALISATION OF CLASSES

CHAPTER II. THE OUTWARD REFINEMENT OF LIFE

CHAPTER III. LANGUAGE AS THE BASIS OF SOCIAL INTERCOURSE

CHAPTER IV. THE HIGHER FORMS OF SOCIETY

CHAPTER V. THE PERFECT MAN OF SOCIETY

CHAPTER VI. THE POSITION OF WOMEN

CHAPTER VII. DOMESTIC ECONOMY

CHAPTER VIII. THE FESTIVALS

PART VI. MORALITY AND RELIGION

CHAPTER I. MORALITY

CHAPTER II. RELIGION IN DAILY LIFE

CHAPTER III. RELIGION AND THE SPIRIT OF THE RENAISSANCE

CHAPTER IV. MIXTURE OF ANCIENT AND MODERN SUPERSTITION

CHAPTER V. GENERAL DISINTEGRATION OF BELIEF

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THIS work bears the title of an essay in the strictest sense of the word. No one is more conscious than the writer with what limited means and strength he has addressed himself to a task so arduous. And even if he could look with greater confidence upon his own researches, he would hardly thereby feel more assured of the approval of competent judges. To each eye, perhaps, the outlines of a given civilisation present a different picture; and in treating of a civilisation which is the mother of our own, and whose influence is still at work among us, it is unavoidable that individual judgment and feeling should tell every moment both on the writer and on the reader. 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 also to essentially different conclusions. Such indeed is the importance of the subject, that it still calls for fresh investigation, and may be studied with advantage from the most varied points of view. Meanwhile we are content if a patient hearing be granted us, and if this book be taken and judged as a whole. It is the most serious difficulty of the history of civilisation that a great intellectual process must be broken up into single, and often into what seem arbitrary categories, in order to be in any way intelligible. It was formerly our intention to fill up the gaps in this book by a special work on the ‘Art of the Renaissance,’—an intention, however, which we have been able only to fulfil1 in part.

The struggle between the Popes and the Hohenstaufen left Italy in a political condition which differed essentially from that of other countries of the West. While in France, Spain and England the feudal system was so organised that, at the close of its existence, it was naturally transformed into a unified monarchy, and while in Germany it helped to maintain, at least outwardly, the unity of the empire, Italy had shaken it off almost entirely. The Emperors of the fourteenth century, even in the most favourable case, were no longer received and respected as feudal lords, but as possible leaders and supporters of powers already in existence; while the Papacy,2 with its creatures and allies, was strong enough to hinder national unity in the future, not strong enough itself to bring about that unity. Between the two lay a multitude of political units—republics and despots—in part of long standing, in part of recent origin, whose existence was founded simply on their power to maintain it.3 In them for the first time we detect the modern political spirit of Europe, surrendered freely to its own instincts, often displaying the worst features of an unbridled egoism, outraging every right, and killing every germ of a healthier culture. But, wherever this vicious tendency is overcome or in any way compensated, a new fact appears in history—the state as the outcome of reflection and calculation, the state as a work of art. This new life displays itself in a hundred forms, both in the republican and in the despotic states, and determines their inward constitution, no less than their foreign policy. We shall limit ourselves to the consideration of the completer and more clearly defined type, which is offered by the despotic states.

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The conduct of the Venetian government to the Condottieri in its pay has been spoken of already. The only further guarantee of their fidelity which could be obtained lay in their great number, by which treachery was made as difficult as its discovery was easy. In looking at the Venetian army list, one is only surprised that among forces of such miscellaneous composition any common action was possible. In the catalogue for the campaign of 1495 we find 15,526 horsemen, broken up into a number of small divisions.136 Gonzaga of Mantua alone had as many as 1,200, and Gioffredo Borgia 740; then follow six officers with a contingent of 600 to 700, ten with 400, twelve with 400 to 200, fourteen or thereabouts with 200 to 100, nine with 80, six with 50 to 60, and so forth. These forces were partly composed of old Venetian troops, partly of veterans led by Venetian city or country nobles; the majority of the leaders were, however, princes and rulers of cities or their relatives. To these forces must be added 24,000 infantry—we are not told how they were raised or commanded—with 3,300 additional troops, who probably belonged to the special services. In time of peace the cities of the mainland were wholly unprotected or occupied by insignificant garrisons. Venice relied, if not exactly on the loyalty, at least on the good sense of its subjects; in the war of the League of Cambray (1509) it absolved them, as is well known, from their oath of allegiance, and let them compare the amenities of a foreign occupation with the mild government to which they had been accustomed. As there had been no treason in their desertion of St. Mark, and consequently no punishment was to be feared, they returned to their old masters with the utmost eagerness. This war, we may remark parenthetically, was the result of a century’s outcry against the Venetian desire for aggrandisement. The Venetians, in fact, were not free from the mistake of those over-clever people who will credit their opponents with no irrational and inconsiderate conduct.137 Misled by this optimism, which is, perhaps, a peculiar weakness of aristocracies, they had utterly ignored not only the preparations of Mohammed II. for the capture of Constantinople, but even the armaments of Charles VIII., till the unexpected blow fell at last.138 The League of Cambray was an event of the same character, in so far as it was clearly opposed to the interest of the two chief members, Louis XII. and Julius II. The hatred of all Italy against the victorious city seemed to be concentrated in the mind of the Pope, and to have blinded him to the evils of foreign intervention; and as to the policy of Cardinal Amboise and his king, Venice ought long before to have recognised it as a piece of malicious imbecility, and to have been thoroughly on its guard. The other members of the League took part in it from that envy which may be a salutary corrective to great wealth and power, but which in itself is a beggarly sentiment. Venice came out of the conflict with honour, but not without lasting damage.

A power, whose foundations were so complicated, whose activity and interests filled so wide a stage, cannot be imagined without a systematic oversight of the whole, without a regular estimate of means and burdens, of profits and losses. Venice can fairly make good its claim to be the birthplace of statistical science, together, perhaps, with Florence, and followed by the more enlightened despotisms. The feudal state of the Middle Ages knew of nothing more than catalogues of signorial rights and possessions (Urbaria); it looked on production as a fixed quantity, which it approximately is, so long as we have to do with landed property only. The towns, on the other hand, throughout the West must from very early times have treated production, which with them depended on industry and commerce, as exceedingly variable; but, even in the most flourishing times of the Hanseatic League, they never got beyond a simple commercial balance-sheet. Fleets, armies, political power and influence fall under the debit and credit of a trader’s ledger. In the Italian States a clear political consciousness, the pattern of Mohammedan administration, and the long and active exercise of trade and commerce, combined to produce for the first time a true science of statistics.139 The absolute monarchy of Frederick II. in Lower Italy was organised with the sole object of securing a concentrated power for the death-struggle in which he was engaged. In Venice, on the contrary, the supreme objects were the enjoyment of life and power, the increase of inherited advantages, the creation of the most lucrative forms of industry, and the opening of new channels for commerce.

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