Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) THE CIVILISATION OF THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY By JACOB BURCKHARDT AUTHORISED TRANSLATION BY S. G. C. MIDDLEMORE LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY PREFACE. Dr. BURCKHARDT’S work on the Renaissance in Italy is too well known, not only to students of the period, but now to a wider circle of readers, for any introduction to be necessary. The increased interest which has of late years, in England, been taken in this and kindred subjects, and the welcome which has been given to the works of other writers upon them, encourage me to hope that in publishing this translation I am meeting a want felt by some who are either unable to read German at all, or to whom an English version will save a good deal of time and trouble. The translation is made from the third edition of the original, recently published in Germany, with slight additions to the text, and large additions to the notes, by Dr. LUDWIG GEIGER, of Berlin. It also contains some fresh matter communicated by Dr. BURCKHARDT to Professor DIEGO VALBUSA of Mantua, the Italian translator of the book. To all three gentlemen my thanks are due for courtesy shown, or help given to me in the course of my work. In a few cases, where Dr. GEIGER’S view differs from that taken by Dr. BURCKHARDT, I have called attention to the fact by bracketing Dr. GEIGER’S opinion and adding his initials. THE TRANSLATOR. CONTENTS. PART I. _THE STATE AS A WORK OF ART_ CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. PAGE Political condition of Italy in the thirteenth century 4 The Norman State under Frederick II. 5 Ezzelino da Romano 7 CHAPTER II. THE TYRANNY OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. Finance and its relation to culture 8 The ideal of the absolute ruler 9 Inward and outward dangers 10 Florentine estimate of the tyrants 11 The Visconti 12 CHAPTER III. THE TYRANNY OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Intervention and visits of the emperors 18 Want of a fixed law of succession. Illegitimacy 20 Founding of States by Condottieri 22 Relations of Condottieri to their employers 23