Sociology of the Renaissance [Paperback]

This classic work marks the culmination of a definite stage in the socio-economic historiography from the late Middle Ages to the rise of the haute bourgeoisiein the early Renaissance. Here Alfred von Martin attempts to discover and define the spirit or essence of the Renaissance, and with it the spirit of early capitalism as it arose in Florence.

His analysis focuses on the capitalist haute bourgeoiswho represented the economically, politically, and culturally dominant class of the Renaissance. As he shows, eventually its decline brings about a new stasis in the aristocratization of the great bourgeoisie as well as the rise of despotism in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

The shift from an agricultural to a commercial economy was unquestionably one of the essential elements in the transition from medieval to Renaissance civilization. This book's republication is a welcome development and will make this classic accessible again to scholars of the Renaissance and Renaissance humanism. In addition to its new introduction, it also includes a bibliography of von Martin's extensive writings.

Under the Sign of Humanity:
Alfred von Martin (18821979) In Memoriam
Introduction to the Transaction Edition by Gertrud Lenzer

Author's Preface

Introduction

1 The New Dynamic
(a) Changes in Social Structure
(b) The New Individualist Entrepreneur
(c) New Modes of Thought
(d) The Birth of Practical Learning and the Expert
(e) New Ways in Art
(f) Functions of Erudition and Learning
(g) The Propertied Classes and the Intelligentsia

2 The Curve of Development
(a) Risk and the Spirit of Enterprise
(b) The Culture of the New RulingClasses; the New Static and Bourgeois Conservatism
(c) Humanism: Romanticism and Restoration
(d) The Art of the Full RenalSÍ