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Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) The Age of the Despots by John Addington Symonds CHAPTER I. THE SPIRIT OF THE RENAISSANCE. Difficulty of fixing Date-Meaning of Word Renaissance-The Emancipation of the Reason-Relation of Feudalism to the Renaissance-Mediaeval Warnings of the Renaissance-Abelard, Bacon, Joachim of Flora, the Provencals, the Heretics, Frederick II.-Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio-Physical Energy of the Italians-The Revival of Learning-The Double Discovery of the World and of Man-Exploration of the Universe and of the Globe-Science-The Fine Arts and Scholarship-Art Humanizes the Conceptions of the Church-Three Stages in the History of Scholarship-The Age of Desire-The Age of Acquisition-The Legend of Julia's Corpse-The Age of the Printers and Critics-The Emancipation of the Conscience-The Reformation and the Modern Critical Spirit-Mechanical Inventions-The Place of Italy in the Renaissance. The word Renaissance has of late years received a more extended significance than that which is implied in our English equivalent-the Revival of Learning. We use it to denote the whole transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern World; and though it is possible to assign certain limits to the period during which this transition took place, we cannot fix on any dates so positively as to say-between this year and that the movement was accomplished. To do so would be like trying to name the days on which spring in any particular season began and ended Yet we speak of spring as different from winter and from summer. The truth is, that in many senses we are still in mid-Renaissance. The evolution has not been completed. The new life is our own and is progressive. As in the transformation scene of some great Masque, so here the waning and the waxing shapes are mingled; the new forms, at first shadowy and filmy, gain upon the old; and now both blend; and now the old scene fades into the background; still, who shall say whether the new scene be finally set up? We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience

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