Edited With An Introduction BY Karl H. Dannenfeldt.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “In 1860 in the introduction to his work on The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt predicted the present "Problem of the Renaissance” when he wrote "To each eye, perhaps, the out¬lines of a great civilization present a differ¬ent picture. ... In the wide ocean upon which we venture, the possible ways and directions are many; and the same studies which have served for this work might easily, in other hands, not only receive a wholly different treatment and application, but lead to essentially different conclusions.” To the writers of the Italian Renaissance itself, there was no serious problem. Their views of the age in which they were living furnished the basis for a long-held concept, namely, that after a period of about a thousand years of cultural darkness and igno-rance, there arose a new age with a great revival in classical literature, learning, and the arts. The humanists of the Northern Renaissance continued this concept. "Out of the thick Gothic night our eyes are opened to the glorious torch of the sun,” wrote Rabelais. Moreover, there was also now introduced a reforming religious element, further emphasizing the medieval barbarization of religion and culture. Protestant writers joined in this condemnation of the dark medieval period, an attack little circumscribed by the defense of the medieval Church by Catholic apologists…”

Boston. D. C. Heath. Problems In European Civilization. 1959. 129p.