Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) - Swiss cultural historian. His talent was fully revealed in the work “The Culture of the Renaissance in Italy.” The classic work of J. Burckhardt did not turn into some kind of academic value over time; it still has a living impact on new generations of readers. A new translation with an extensive commentary allows us to return this book to the modern reader and make it available to the wider scientific community.

Notice for the second edition of 1869

The changes that this book has undergone in the new edition are limited only a few lines in the text and additions in the notes, while a complete revision of the entire text as a whole would be desirable. However, to carry out a task of this kind, the author lacks both the leisure necessary for this and the opportunity to settle again for a long time in Italy, and instead of making changes to some parts of the book and inserting new sections into it, he takes the liberty of giving the opportunity for the work to appear again, in the same form in which it once found a response. It is possible, however, that many views and judgments, which already seem youthfully immature to the author, would have met with a much less approving reception in the case of such a contrasting reworking. May we be allowed to once again recommend this work to friends of the history of culture, which is now at a stage of such rapid development.