Will Durant (1885–1981)

The Italian Renaissance began in during the Middle Ages and with the Reformation in northern Europe ended the Middle Ages and brought about the beginnings of the Early Modern world that we live with today. The Renaissance is the fifth volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization series as he explores the history, culture, and artistic achievements of the various Italian polities from Venice and Milan in the north to Florence and Rome in the center and Naples in the south and such individuals as Petrarch, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Titian.

Taking up the historical narrative where he left off in the previous volume, Durant presents a wide-ranging survey of nearly three centuries worth of events, individuals, and artistic accomplishments while putting them all in context with one another. Not since the volume focusing on Greece has Durant’s prose brought across his excitement for covering a subject, mostly because of his meticulous descriptions on the artistic accomplishments of so many individuals that includes not only the very well-known to those we might only read about in this volume. Yet those lesser-known individuals are given such a treatment by Durant that readers could quickly search for images of their work on the Internet today to see why he is so passionate about them. Given Durant’s issues with problematic language and his seeming contempt of religion in previous volumes, those issues didn’t really come up until close to the end of the volume with the emergence of the domination of the Italian peninsula by the Spanish at the conclusion of the Italian Wars with Valois France.

The Renaissance features the best aspects of Will Durant’s prose as he lovingly gushes over the accomplishments of nearly three centuries of Italian culture even as it was politically divided which would lead to its eventual subjection to foreign rule.… (lisätietoja)