In his account of the revival of antiquity, Jacob Burckhardt was not interested in Renaissance humanism in itself. Instead, he focused on the reception of antiquity as an element of cultural history. Writing cultural history requires a special methodology. On different levels, Burckhardt tried to cope with the need for a non-linear narrative which was compatible with the composite structure of cultural phenomena. The scientific basis of The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy is an extensive study of sources, to which Burckhardt gives references in his footnotes. Thanks to the new critical edition of this text, we can now connect these references to the unpublished excerpts Burckhardt made while preparing his book. They are as revealing for the background of his research as for his technique of writing the book. Many parts of the text are in fact rewritten sources—a skilled synthesis of paraphrase, translation, combination with other sources, commentary, and conclusion.
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