The Italian Renaissance in German Thought (1742-1859)

Speaking about the German reception of the Italian Renaissance usually means dealing with, or at least touching upon, Jacob Burckhardt’s influential 'Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien' (1860), justifiably the point of departure for Renaissance Studies worldwide. Current views about the role played by the Italian Renaissance in shaping modern identity are deeply indebted to this crucial piece of scholarship, which has inevitably ended up overshadowing other important chapters of the German fascination with the Italian Renaissance. Burckhardt’s predecessors have had to endure a deplorable lack of attention as a result, but now this seems no longer to be the case. The present 'Monographica' covers the time span running from Johann Jakob Brucker’s 'Historia critica philosophiae' to Georg Voigt’s 'Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums oder das erste Jahrhundert des Humanismus', providing case studies of particular relevance, whether due to the stature of the authors involved (Herder, Goethe, Schleiermacher) or to their being representative of wider trends (Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz). The focus on single figures such as Petrarch and Savonarola, as well as on the influence exerted by Renaissance texts, both translations and commentaries on Ancient sources, will enable a deepening understanding of the extent to which fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italian culture contributed key ideas to the German thought from the Enlightenment onwards.