Chapter VII: Conclusion

Retrospect--Meaning of the Renaissance--Modern Science and Democracy--The Preparation of an Intellectual Medium for Europe--The Precocity of Italy--Servitude and Corruption--Antiquity and Art--The Italian Provinces--Florence--Lombardy and Venice--The March of Ancona, Urbino, Umbria--Perugia--Rome--Sicily and Naples--Italian Ethnology--Italian Independence on the Empire and the Church--Persistence of the Old Italic Stocks--The New Nation--Its Relation to the Old--The Revival of Learning was a National Movement--Its Effect on Art--On Literature--Resumption of the Latin Language--Affinities between the Latin and Italian Genius--Renascence of Italian Literature combined with Humanism--Greek Studies comparatively Uninfluential--The Modern Italians inherited Roman Qualities--Roman Defects--Elimination of Roman Satire--Decay of Roman Vigor--Italian Realism--Positivism--Sensuousness--Want of Mystery, Suggestion, Romance--The Intellectual Atmosphere--A Literature of Form and Diversion--Absence of Commanding Genius--Lack of Earnestness--Lack of Piety--Materialism and Negation--Idyllic Beauty--The Men of the Golden Age--The Cult of Form--Italy's Gifts to Europe--The Renaissance is not to be Imitated--Its Importance in Human Development--Feudalism, Renaissance, Reformation, Revolution 488

APPENDICES.

No. I.--Italian Comic Prologues 533

No. II.--Passages Translated from Folengo and Berni, which Illustrate the Lutheran Opinions of the Burlesque Poets 536

No. III.--On Palmieri's "Citta di Vita" 548

INDEX 555

RENAISSANCE IN ITALY.