Worldliness

As Jacob Burckhardt said in his book "The civilization of the Renaissance in Italy", the worldliness of the Renaissance contrasts with the Middle Ages. But where he saw " the flood of new thoughts, purposes, and views, which transformed the mediaeval conception of nature and man", I see it as a way the recycling the ancient knowledge of past generations (Greek, Byzantine, etc.) that at that moment began to be available to everyone thanks to the "invention" of printing. Printed books, which later were more accessible to more people, allowed the distribution of renewed translations of the classics, taking that from a selected group of people to a majority that received an influence which furthered not only the arts, with the advancements of techniques and styles, but also creating the base for further technological advancement. Until the finishing blow dealt by the Counter-Reformation, with its censorship to protect itself against criticism, the Renaissance more than new thoughts, and more than the "rediscovery of the Greeks" is, as George Clarke Sellery called on his essay " The Renaissance: Its nature and Origins", the greatest Revival of Learning, and "its concomimitants, but an evolution, based on the same forces, generally speaking, that are are work in the world today".

If history teaches us something, everything that happened during those centuries that shaped Europe explains what is going on today with the EU.

This blog is about all that.