The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny

Marvelous book, actually. Although it was academic, and at times its prose could be described as serpentine, I found myself reading fairly quickly and making good progress. I was actually trying to use the book as an introduction to the Italian Renaissance. In that, it was helpful in that it introduced me to historical figures such as Leonardo Bruni (and others) that I had never heard of. For the early Renaissance, especially, it seemed a good intro, and a treatise on why this period around 1402 was so critical for the development of humanism, as well as for political ideas. Those two strains, humanism and the new political ideas, grew together in tandem and combined in what the author called “civic humanism.” In some ways, the book show more didn’t act well as an introduction to the Renaissance, though, too. Very little is here about art or literature, as the main emphasis is on political writings. It’s a great introduction to those, however, and I should be thinking a lot about this book as I continue to read books on European political thought. show less

This is a landmark text in its field. Published in 1955, it represented a major and then-fresh reinterpretation of standard scholarly views of the politics and society of Italy--and particularly Florence and northern Italy--of the late 14th and early 15th ceturies. By this time, neither Hans Baron nor his major work stands in need of any reader's praise--least of all one who comes to his work as a beginner. Read this book; it is its own reward for the effort expended on it, Its author's clarity and insight are things we rarely find in scholarship today.