The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance

by Hans Baron

Hans Baron was one of the many great German scholars whose work Princeton brought into the Anglo-American world. His Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance has provoked more discussion and inspired more research than any other twentieth-century study of the Italian Renaissance.

Baron's book was the first historical synthesis of politics and humanism at that momentous critical juncture when Italy passed from medievalism to the thought of the Renaissance. Baron, unlike his peers, married culture and politics; he contended that to truly understand the Renaissance one must understand the rise of humanism within the political context of the day. This marked a significant departure for the field and one that changed the direction of Renaissance studies. Moreover, Baron's book was one of the first major attempts of any sort to ground intellectual history in a fully realized historical context and thus stands at the very origins of the interdisciplinary approach that is now the core of Renaissance studies.

Baron's analysis of the forces that changed life and thought in fifteenth-century Italy was widely reviewed domestically and internationally, and scholars quickly noted that the book will henceforth be the starting point for any general discussion of the early Renaissance. The Times Literary Supplement called it a model of the kind of intensive study on which all understanding of cultural process must rest. First published in 1955 in two volumes, the work was reissued in a one-volume Princeton edition in 1966.

Genres: History, Renaissance, Italy, Nonfiction

700 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1966

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always hard to rate old history books. I think most scholars of renaissance humanism disagree with most of Baron's main thesis here (or only accept it with some substantial reservations). But it's a really imaginative and interesting idea, and people are still talking about it decades later.

Hans Baron argued that Renaissance humanism took on a markedly different character over the years 1390-1402, when Florence faced the threat of annexation from the increasingly powerful Milan, led by Giangaleazzo Visconti. Baron depicts Florence as a little island of republicanism being slowly surrounded by a sea of tyranny, and suggests that the crisis this inspired forced traditional humanism - textual, intellectual, often detached - to take on a much more civic orientation. He sees Leonardo Bruni as a key figure in this.

It's a really compelling idea, and I think Baron is right that this period marked a shift in humanist rhetoric. The causes he attributes it to, though, are a little narrow. Ideas of republicanism and civic liberty had been stewing for a long time (in both humanist and scholastic circles), and it seems just as easy to attribute the humanistic shift to countless other things as well. Also, the depiction of Florence as a bastion of republicanism is a bit misleading, since Florence was pretty solidly oligarchical by this point and did not hesitate to go around annexing its smaller neighbors like Pisa. On a stylistic note, it's also probably just too long. It's a fairly clear and simple idea but Baron often takes a very long time to getting around to actually articulating it.

Despite the weaknesses though, it's a still a very thought-provoking book.

[Paul O'Leary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baron's Crisis was an influential text in its day. It's easy to understand why. The author's impressive erudition and command of Florentine Renaissance texts of the humanists and their debates remain worthy of respect to this day. His methodology has drawn many disciples who garnered even more academic laurels than did their master. Skinner, Pocock, and even Wood owe much to Baron, I think. Baron describes the concrete "crisis" of Florence at the turn into the fifteenth century. Giangaleazzo of Milan is poised to conquer the world; or, well, much of Italy anyway. Cajoling, duplicity, threatening, and eventually military invasion have generally served his goal well, except as to Florence. She alone would stand against the all-encompassing tyranny of "Universal Monarchy". The odds were against her. Logistics were against her. Her friends were secretly against her. And Fortune in battle sadly seemed against her. However, Giangaleazzo suddenly dies. Florence and its learned class are elated, to say the least. The eventual change of humanist political philosophy from one side of this historical event to the other constitutes the contents of this book. Baron traces the changes undergone in humanist philosophy from one deeply colored by a medieval attachment to political quietism, monarchy, and a studious withdrawal from worldly things over to an invigorated humanism steeped in the virtues of local political engagement, civic liberty, and the citizen militia. Ideas have consequences, it seems, but Baron appears to insist that we need the great man(or men) of history to illustrate this. Leonardo Bruni and Caluccio Salutati step onstage for this specific purpose. Much of this work concerns itself with close readings of their numerous texts. Baron digs deep. The details examined aren't insignificant, but could put off the casual reader If you aren't particularly interested whether Bruni wrote the second half of his Dialogues in 1402 but rather 1405 you may feel a drag affect. Other lesser humanists are trotted out, usually as foils to the above two. This is an interesting history of urbane gentlemen dealing with an age of political tumult and their intellectual turn toward an understanding of the importance of civic liberty. Their journey of debate rewards careful scrutiny, as Baron shows. Freedom of participation as well as the ability to serve in public office find roots in Florence in the fifteenth century for the first time according to Baron. Though concrete events may have pushed these political changes upon the republic, the Florentine humanists sold them to a much wider European public, who would In turn consume them and begin the process of making these core principles locally their own.

[Bob Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very scholarly book that is geared more towards those who have a sound basis in the topic to start with. Without that basis it becomes a challenge to read and grasp.
Fortunately there is an epilogue that provides a very readable summary.

[Eleanor Hutman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a love letter to Leonardo Bruni. Defines Milanese-Florentine standoff of late 14th c. as essential in the establishment of florentine renaissance which Baron sees as synonymous with the establishment of THE Renaissance… interesting but dense as dense vets