A Renaissance Reclaimed reconsiders an 'essay' (Versuch) seen by many as the greatest work of cultural history ever written: the Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) by the Swiss Jacob Burckhardt. The contributors also investigate the ways in which this work was also a product of its time and place.

Stefan Bauer is a lecturer in early modern world history at King's College London. He is a fellow and council member of the Royal Historical Society and has taught at the universities of York, Warwick and Royal Holloway as well as in Switzerland and Italy.
Simon Ditchfield is professor of early modern history at the University of York, where he has taught for over thirty years. His research interests encompass religious history and the history of history writing. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Accademia Ambrosiana, Milan.

• List of Figures


• Notes on Contributors


• Acknowledgements


• Introduction: A Renaissance Reclaimed: Burckhardt's Civilisation of the Renaissance Reconsidered, STEFAN BAUER AND SIMON DITCHFIELD


• Prologue: The Making of a Text


• 1: A Renaissance from Scraps: The Material Evidence for a New Critical Edition of Burckhardt's Book, MIKKEL MANGOLD


• 2: 'A Centaur at the Edge of the Forest': Jacob Burckhardt as Cultural Historian, MARTIN A. RUEHL


• Part 1: The State as a Work of Art


• 3: 'The State as a Work of Art': State and Politics in Burckhardt and in Italian Renaissance Political Thought, ROBERT BLACK


• Part 2: The Development of the Individual


• 4: The Performance of Identity in Renaissance Italy, VIRGINIA COX


• 5: Expressions of the Self in Burckhardt's Renaissance, WIETSE DE BOER


• Part 3: The Revival of Antiquity


• 6: The Colours of Antiquity in Burckhardt's Portrait of the Renaissance in Italy, BARBARA VON REIBNITZ


• 7: Burckhardt, Humanists, and the Remains of Antiquity, WILLIAM STENHOUSE


• Part 4: The Discovery of the World and of Man


• 8: What is Left of the Renaissance? The Discovery of the World and of Man from a Cosmopolitan Perspective, JOAN-PAU RUBIÉS


• 9: Burckhardt's (New) World and Ours: Rethinking the Renaissance in the Age of Global History, GIUSEPPE MARCOCCI


• Part 5: Society and Festivals


• 10: 'A heightened moment in the life of the people'? Festivals in their Social Context and Burckhardt's Legacy to Modern Festival Research, HELEN WATANABE-O'KELLY FBA


• Part 6: Morality and Religion


• 11: Burckhardt's Beliefs and Renaissance Religions, NICHOLAS TERPSTRA


• 12: Burckhardt, Religion, and the 'Principle of Correction': From Renaissance to Reformation, STEFAN BAUER


• Afterword, PETER BURKE FBAIndex