"In reality, then, it was the Swiss historian, Jakob Burckhardt, who in 1860 established the concept that has been current in our time—the idea of a Renaissance as a general movement, particularly associated with the fifteenth century, coming to its climax around the year 1500, and primarily taking place in Italy. It was Burckhardt who conceived of the term Renaissance as descriptive of a whole historical period, as a great chapter in Italian history, and as a decisive stage or turning-point in the development of an entire civilisation, so that things which had hitherto been considered separate—the development of the modern state, for example—had now become enveloped by the concept too. And Burckhardt was one of the founders of what we call Kulturgeschichte, coming to this particular subject, indeed, with many of the prepossessions of the art-historian."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Herbert Butterfield, Man on His Past: The Study of the History of Historical Scholarship (1955), pp. 132-133
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacob_Burckhardt
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Jacob Burckhardt
1818 – 1897
Schweizer Philosoph, Kunst- und Kulturhistoriker
27 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Jacob Burckhardt →
Related Quotes
"Their knowledge and their faculty of observation were extraordinary. By their study of the world the Greeks illuminat…"
"All subsequent objective perception of the world is only elaboration on the framework the Greeks began. We see with t…"
"Burckhardt's Cultur der Renaissance in Italien is the most penetrating and subtle treatise on the history of civilisa…"
"In the life of the mind they [the Greeks] reached frontiers which the rest of mankind cannot permit themselves to fal…"
"Zu Alberti verhielt sich Leonardo da Vinci wie zum Anfänger der Vollender."
"Wir sind aber nicht eingeweiht in die Zwecke der ewigen Weisheit und kennen sie nicht. Dieses kecke Antizipieren eine…"
"Wenn der Geist sich einmal seiner selbst bewusst geworden, bildet er von sich aus seine Welt weiter."
"Sprichwörtlich heißt es: Kein Mensch ist unersetzlich. Aber die wenigen, die es eben doch sind, sind groß."
"Nur in der Bewegung, so schmerzlich sie sei, ist Leben."
"Nicht jede Zeit findet ihren großen Mann, und nicht jede große Fähigkeit findet ihre Zeit."