A PSYCHEDELIC BOOK
This book is a brilliant summary of many debates regarding the Renaissance. When and where did it begin? Why was it different from previous revivals of learning and the arts? How did it manifest itself, first in Italy, then in the Netherlands and then around Europe? Why were there so many startling changes between 1350 and 1600 in art, culture, politics, religion, science and warfare (for, as Orson Welles reminded us, the Italians produced the Renaissance in time of war, while the peaceful Swiss were perfecting the cuckoo-clock). The theses and conclusions of literally hundreds of books are set out for us here, in pithy and attractive prose. The book is both compendious and mind-expanding, and it is written for both `the academy' and the lay reader.
Caferro is very modest: he does not cite his own excellent works on Siena and Sir John Hawkwood; but he puts his knowledge of late medieval history to good use. He is well aware of the `revolt of the medievalists' - those who have argued that many of the intellectual developments which we associate with the Renaissance can be traced back to the twelfth century, or even to the reigns of Otto III or Charlemagne. Whereas Caferro tends to give equal weight to all ideas - that is the nature of a book in this `Contesting' series - I must confess to a soft spot for the writings of the English medievalists. For my money, Bruce McFarlane long ago exploded the idea of the New Monarchy; Gerald Harriss got the better of Geoffrey Elton in the debate on the Tudor Revolution in Government; and Richard Southern did succeed in establishing that there was such a thing as medieval humanism.
But Caferro is quite right to say that the tradition in England - at least prior to the late sixties of the last century - was to look at these matters in a comparatively parochial light. We used to pay more attention then to Thomas Cromwell than to Nicolo Machiavelli, and to A.L.Rowse's `Elizabethan Renaissance' than we did to Italy; and we argued about whether the Middle Ages ended in 1485, and whether the world was turned upside down in 1640 or 1688, by reference to English politics. Professor Southern once remarked, in a lecture, that the Middle Ages didn't really end until 1789. Having read William Caferro, I need no convincing that this goes too far! The book demonstrates conclusively that the revival of learning in fourteenth and fifteenth century Italy was more important than previous revivals, because it affected every area of life, and proved to be enduring. In addition, as Caferro points out, the Renaissance is also an idea which has taken hold in popular culture and is important for the worldwide tourist industry.
Current events remind us of the importance of intellectual developments coupled with technological innovation. The internet is changing everything, just as the printing revolution changed the world in the late fifteenth century. For, if Petrarch (1304-1374) was the first Renaissance man, Gutenburg (c.1398-1468) made sure that there was no going back. In addition, the discovery of the New World by the Italian Cristoforo Colombo in 1492 was not unimportant. In a sense, all Americans, at least in the United States, are Renaissance men. The English colonies were not founded until the seventeenth century, which by any reckoning (see the table on page 23 of this book) post-dated the Renaissance. Perhaps this accounts for the `can-do' American attitude and the widespread belief in progress. This book is the product of a Renaissance mind, though Caferro is also a leading medievalist.
Stephen Cooper
ISBN-13: 978-1405123709
ISBN-10: 1405123702
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