Renaissance in Italy

In part three of Jacob Burckhardt’s book, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, he writes that the Italian Renaissance was shaped by “..not the revival of antiquity alone, but its union with the spirit of the people…” The spirit of the Italian people refers to the way Italians as a group, shared the enthusiasm for antiquity. Burckhardt formulates that this enthusiasm was because the Italians viewed antiquity as a symbol of past greatness. …

…of this period of time, but it is not all encompassing. The fact that the Christian church was such a strong influence at this time, meant that any revival would have definite Christian overtones and would be skewed into the Church’s beliefs. Thus, although there was a revival of past thought and practice, the people of the day took from it what they could relate to Christianity and the beliefs of their own time.