Bernd Roeck Book order

An absorbing picture of turn-of-the-century Florence and those who traveled there to experience its cultural richesBy the end of the nineteenth century, Florence was a key destination for cultured travelers from Europe and America. Writers such as Wilde, Rilke, and Mann; painters such as Degas and Klee; and not least, the young art historian Aby Warburg and his wife, Mary, flocked to Florence to escape the encroachments of modern life at home and to revel in the city’s rich artistic and cultural past. This beguiling book fuses narrative and ideas to consider how the encounter between modernism and Renaissance culture was experienced by both visitors to Florence and its inhabitants. Based on Aby Warburg’s letters, diaries, and notebooks; on Italian and German archives; and on conversations with E. H. Gombrich (director of the famous Institute that Warburg founded), the book is an intimate guide to life in Florence and the theaters, restaurants, galleries, and salons frequented by visiting cultural exiles. At the same time, the book paints an evocative picture of a city at the cusp of the modern age, adjusting to electricity and the motor car on one hand and to social unrest and a clash of cultures on the other.

This book offers an overview of bourgeois culture and aspects of everyday life in the German cultural area from the Renaissance to the end of the 18th century. At the same time the reader is introduced to fundamental research problems.The spectrum of topics ranges from life styles to clothing and eating habits, from consciousness of time to rites de passage , birth, marriage and death. Special attention is paid to the role of female and male citizens in music, literature and fine arts. This is a concise introduction for history and art history students, scholars and everyone interested in the pre-history of the modern world. References from important sources define the text; together they are useful resources for teaching.