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The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy
The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy Author:Jacob Burckhardt General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1890 Original Publisher: Macmillan Subjects: Renaissance Italy Art / History / Renaissance History / Europe / Italy History / Renaissance Travel / Europe / Italy Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be... more » typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER V. THE GREATER DYNASTIES. Is treating of the chief dynasties of Italy, it is convenient to discuss the Aragonese, on account of its special character, apart from the rest. The feudal system, which from the days of the Normans had survived in the form of a territorial supremacy of the Barons, gave a distinctive colour to the political constitution of Naples; while elsewhere in Italy, excepting only in the southern part of the ecclesiastical dominion, and in a few other districts, a direct tenure of land prevailed, and no hereditary powers were permitted by the law. The great Alfonso, who reigned in Naples from 1435 onwards (d. 1458), was a man of another kind than his real or alleged descendants. Brilliant in his whole existence, fearless in mixing with his people, mild and generous towards his enemies, dignified and affable in intercourse, modest notwithstanding his legitimate royal descent, admired rather than blamed even for his old man's passion for Lucrezia d'Alagna, he had the one bad quality of extravagance,1 from which, however, the natural consequence followed. Unscrupulous financiers were long omnipotent at Court, till the bankrupt king robbed them of their spoils; a crusade was preached, as a pretext for taxing the clergy; the Jews were forced to save themselves from conversion and other oppressive measures by presents and the payment of regular taxes ; when a great earthquake happening in the Abruzzi, the survivors were co...« less