England and the Italian Renaissance: The Growth of Interest in its History and Art

England and the Italian Renaissance was first published in 1954 and pioneered a new approach to comparative cultural history. It was Sir John Hale’s first major book and provided the foundation for his distinguished career as a historian of Italian history, art and culture. Since England and the Italian Renaissance is based on an analysis of primary materials and focuses on perennial themes, it endures as an important contribution to historical scholarship. The clear, chronological narrative is beautifully written and illuminates both British and Italian cultural history. This fourth edition includes a new introduction by Edward Chaney who is an expert on Anglo–Italian cultural relations, the Grand Tour and the history of collecting. As well as providing an introduction to the writings of John Hale and this book in particular, Professor Chaney surveys the scholarship of the past 50 years and supplies the reader with an up–to–date bibliography. This revision will enable a new generation of readers to enjoy Hale’s classic history.

Table of Contents. Introduction to the Third Edition: Edward Chaney. Preface to the First Edition. 1. The Beginnings of Interest: mid–Sixteenth to mid–Seventeenth Centuries. 2. From Description to Speculation: mid–Seventeenth to Late Eighteenth centuries. 3. Taste for Italian Paintings: I Sixteenth to Late Eighteenth Centuries. 4. The Medici and William Roscoe: Late Eighteenth to Early Nineteenth Centuries. 5. Taste for Italian Paintings: II Late Eighteenth to Early Nineteenth Centuries. 6. Prejudice and the Term Renaissance: Early to mid–Nineteenth Century. 7. Taste for Italian Paintings: III Early Nineteenth Century to Ruskin. 8. John Addington Symonds. Notes. Bibliographical Note. Index

John Hale was formerly Professor of Italian History at University College London. He had been a Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford; the founding Professor of History at the University of Warwick; a visiting fellow at the Harvard Centre for Renaissance Studies, I Tatti, Florence; and Professor of Italian at University College London. He was a fellow of the British Academy, a former chairman of the Trustees of the National Gallery and was knighted for ‘services to learning and the arts’ in 1984. His books include England and the Italian Renaissance (1954), Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy (1961), Renaissance Exploration (1968), Renaissance War Studies (1983), War and Society in Renaissance Europe 1450–1620 (1985) and The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance (1993). Professor Hale died in 1999. Edward Chaney is Professor of Fine and Decorative Arts and founding Chair of the History of Collecting Research Centre at the Southampton Solent University. He is the author or editor of several book on Anglo–Italian relations, including The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo–Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance (1998) and The Evolution of English Collecting: Receptions of Italian Art in the Tudor and Stuart Periods (2003).