Main entry:

Bouwsma, William J. (William James), 1923-2004.

Title & Author:

The waning of the Renaissance, ca. 1550-1640 / William J. Bouwsma.

Publication:

New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, 2000.

Description:

xi, 288 pages : illustrations, facsimiles ; 25 cm.

Series:

The Yale intellectual history of the West

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The cultural community of Europe -- The liberation of the self -- The liberation of knowing -- The liberation of time -- The liberation of space -- The liberation of politics -- The liberation of religion -- The worst of times -- Renaissance theater and the crisis of the self -- Toward a culture of order -- The reordered self -- The quest for certainty: from skepticism to science -- The decline of historical consciousness -- Order in society and government -- Order in religion -- Order in the arts.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

"Historians have viewed intellectual and artistic achievement as a seamless progression in a single direction, with the Renaissance, as identified by Jacob Burckhardt, as the root and foundation of modern culture. But in this new analysis William Bouwsma rethinks the accepted view, arguing that while the Renaissance had a beginning and, unquestionably, a climax, it also had an ending." "Examining the careers of the greatest figures of the age - Montaigne, Galileo, Jonson, Descartes, Hooker, Shakespeare, and Cervantes among many others - Bouwsma perceives in their work a growing sense of doubt and anxiety about the modern world. He considers first those features of modern European culture generally associated with the traditional Renaissance, features which reached their climax in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. But even as the movements of the Renaissance gathered strength, simultaneous impulses operated in a contrary direction. Bouwsma identifies a growing concern with personal identity, shifts in the interests of major thinkers, a decline in confidence about the future, and a heightening of anxiety." "Exploring the fluctuating and sometimes contradictory atmosphere in which Renaissance artists and thinkers operated, Bouwsma shows how the very liberation from old boundaries and modes of expression that characterised the Renaissance itself became increasingly stifling and destructive. By drawing attention to the waning of the Renaissance culture of freedom and creativity, Bouwsma offers a wholly new and intriguing interpretation of the place of the European Renaissance in modern culture."--Jacket.

Biographical note:

William J. Bouwsma was Sather Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.

ISBN:

0300085370 (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780300085372 (cloth ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Renaissance.
Science and civilization.
Astronomy, Renaissance.
Humanism.
Sciences et civilisation.
Astronomie de la Renaissance.
Humanisme.
humanism.
Intellectual life.
Europe Intellectual life 16th century.
Europe Intellectual life 17th century.
Europe Vie intellectuelle 16e siècle.
Europe Vie intellectuelle 17e siècle.
Europe.

Added entries:

Yale intellectual history of the West.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 214444
Call No.: CB401 .B6 2000
Status: Available