Table of Contents
BOOK I: THE ENGLISH ECSTASY: 1558–1648
Chapter I. THE GREAT QUEEN: 1558–1603
I. The Uses of Adversity
II. Elizabethan Government
III. The Amorous Virgin
IV. Elizabeth and Her Court
V. Elizabeth and Religion
VI. Elizabeth and the Catholics
VII. Elizabeth and the Puritans
VIII. Elizabeth and Ireland
IX. Elizabeth and Spain
X. Raleigh and Essex
XI. The Magic Fades
Chapter II. MERRIE ENGLAND: 1558–1625
I. At Work
II. In the Schools
III. Virtue and Vice
IV. Justice and the Law
V. In the Home
VI. English Music
VII. English Art
VIII. Elizabethan Man
Chapter III. ON THE SLOPES OF PARNASSUS: 1558–1603
I. Books
II. The War of the Wits
III. Philip Sidney
IV. Edmund Spenser
V. The Stage
VI. Christopher Marlowe
Chapter IV. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: 1564–1616
I. Youth
II. Development
III. Mastery
IV. Artistry
V. Philosophy
VI. Reconciliation
VII. Post-Mortem
Chapter V. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS: 1542–87
I. The Fairy Queen
II. Scotland
III. Mary and Knox
IV. The Queen in Love
V. Expiation
Chapter VI. JAMES VI AND I: 1567–1625
I. James VI of Scotland
II. James I of England
III. The Gunpowder Plot
IV. The Jacobean Stage
V. Ben Jonson
VI. John Donne
VII. James Sows the Whirlwind
Chapter VII. THE SUMMONS TO REASON: 1558–1649
I. Superstition
II. Science
III. The Rise and Fall of Francis Bacon
IV. The Great Renewal
V. A Statesman’s Philosophy
VI. The Chanticleer of Reason
Chapter VIII. THE GREAT REBELLION: 1625–49
I. The Changing Economy
II. The Religious Caldron
III. The Puritans and the Theater
IV. Caroline Prose
V. Caroline Poetry
VI. Charles I versus Parliament
VII. Charles Absolute
VIII. The Long Parliament
IX. The First Civil War
X. The Radicals
XI. Finis
BOOK II: THE FAITHS FIGHT FOR POWER: 1556–1648
Chapter IX. ALMA MATER ITALIA: 1564–1648
I. The Magic Boot
1. In the Foothills of the Alps
2. Venice
3. From Padua to Bologna
4. Naples
II. Rome and the Popes
III. The Jesuits
1. In Europe
2. In Partibus Infidelium
IV. Italian Days and Nights
V. The Birth of the Opera
VI. Letters
VII. Tasso
VIII. The Coming of Baroque
IX. The Arts in Rome
X. Bernini
Chapter X. GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE OF SPAIN: 1556–1665
I. Spanish Life
II. Philip II
III. Philip III
IV. Philip IV
V. Portugal
Chapter XI. THE GOLDEN AGE OF SPANISH LITERATURE: 1556–1665
I. El Siglo de Oro
II. Cervantes
III. The Poets
IV. Lope de Vega V. Calderón
Chapter XII. THE GOLDEN AGE OF SPANISH ART: 1556–1682
I. Ars Una, Species Mille
II. El Greco
III. Zurbarán
IV. Velázquez
V. Murillo
Chapter XIII. THE DUEL FOR FRANCE: 1559–74
I. The Rival Forces
II. Catherine de Médicis
III. Arbitrament of Blood
IV. Massacre
Chapter XIV. HENRY IV: 1553–1610
I. Love and Marriage
II. Henry III
III. The Road to Paris
IV. The Creative King
V. The Satyr
VI. Assassination
Chapter XV. RICHELIEU: 1585–1642
I. Between Two Kings
II. Louis XIII
III. The Cardinal and the Huguenots
IV. The Cardinal and the Nobles
V. The Cardinal Supreme
VI. Epitaph
Chapter XVI. FRANCE BENEATH THE WARS: 1559–1643
I. Morals
II. Manners
III. Michel de Montaigne
1. Education
2. Friendship and Marriage
3. The Essays
4. The Philosopher
5. The Rolling Stone
IV. Immortals for a Day
V. Pierre Corneille
VI. Architecture
VII. Many Arts
VIII. Poussin and the Painters
Chapter XVII. THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS: 1558–1648
I. Mise-en-Scène
II. Margaret of Parma
III. Alva in the Netherlands
IV. Requeséns and Don Juan
V. Parma and Orange
VI. Triumph
Chapter XVIII. FROM RUBENS TO REMBRANDT: 1555–1660
I. The Flemings
II. Flemish Art
III. Rubens
IV. Vandyck
V. The Dutch Economy
VI. Dutch Life and Letters
VII. Dutch Arts
VIII. Frans Hals
IX. Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
Chapter XIX. THE RISE OF THE NORTH: 1559–1648
I. Denmark as a Great Power
II. Sweden
1. The Rival Faiths
2. Gustavus Adolphus
3. Queen Christina
III. Poland Goes to Canossa
1. The State
2. The Civilization
IV. Holy Russia
1. The People
2. Boris Godunov
3. “Time of Troubles”
Chapter XX. THE ISLAMIC CHALLENGE: 1566–1648
I. The Turks
II. Lepanto
III. Decline of the Sultans
IV. Shah Abbas the Great
V. Safavid Persia
Chapter XXI. IMPERIAL ARMAGEDDON: 1564–1648
I. The Emperors
II. The Empire
III. Morals and Manners
IV. Letters and Arts
V. The Hostile Creeds
VI. The Thirty Years’ War
1. The Bohemian Phase
2. Wallenstein
3. Gustavus’ Saga
4. Degradation
VII. The Peace of Westphalia
BOOK III: THE TENTATIVES OF REASON: 1558–1648
Chapter XXII. SCIENCE IN THE AGE OF GALILEO: 1558–1648
I. Superstition
II. The Transmission of Knowledge
III. The Tools and Methods of Science
IV. Science and Matter
V. Science and Life
VI. Science and Health
VII. From Copernicus to Kepler
VIII. Kepler
IX. Galileo
1. The Physicist
2. The Astronomer
3. On Trial
&
nbsp; 4. The Patriarch
Chapter XXIII. PHILOSOPHY REBORN: 1564–1648
I. Skeptics
II. Giordano Bruno
III. Vanini and Campanella
IV. Philosophy and Politics
1. Juan de Mariana
2. Jean Bodin
3. Hugo Grotius
V. The Epicurean Priest
VI. René Descartes
PHOTOGRAPHS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDE
INDEX
TO OUR BELOVED DAUGHTER
ETHEL
To the Reader
I HAD hoped to conclude my sketch of the history of civilization with a seventh volume to be called The Age of Reason, which was to cover the cultural development of Europe from the accession of Elizabeth I to the outbreak of the French Revolution. But as the story came closer to our own times and interests it presented an ever greater number of personalities and events still vitally influential today; and these demanded no mere lifeless chronicle, but a humanizing visualization which in turn demanded space. Hence these reams. What had begun as a final volume has swollen into three, and one of the present authors, at an unseemly age, becomes a prima donna making a succession of farewell tours.
Two of these three volumes have been completed in their first draft; one has been rewritten, and it here ventures into print. It proposes to cover the history of economic life, statesmanship, religion, morals, manners, music, art, literature, science, and philosophy in all the countries of Europe, and in the Islam of Turkey and Persia, from the accession of Elizabeth I (1558) and the births of Bacon (1561) and Shakespeare (1564) to the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) and the deaths of Galileo (1642) and Descartes (1650). In this period the basic developments were the rise of murderous nationalisms and the decline of murderous theologies.
Barring some lethal surprise to the authors or to civilization, Volume VIII, The Age of Louis XIV, should be ready in 1963; and if decay permits, a final volume, The Age of Voltaire, will appear in 1965. The unifying theme of all three volumes will be the growth of reason.
There is no attempt, in these volumes or their predecessors, to rely predominantly upon contemporary sources and documents for political or economic or military history; to do this for all the nations of Asia and Europe through all their generations and all their activities would have been physically impossible in one lifetime. But in cultural history, which is the primary concern of this record, there has been an almost complete resort to the original sources: every major religion has been studied in its main habitat, every major work of literature has been read or reread, every major work of art has been visited, every important contribution to philosophy has been explored.
Since the great debate between religion and science is the main current in the stream of modern thought, it will be recorded in these pages more frankly than may seem wise to men of the world. These have long since concluded that religious beliefs fill too vital a function in sustaining individual morality and morale, and social order and control, to justify their disturbance by public discussion. Much can be said for this point of view, and we shall find some of our dramatis personae expressing it; but obviously it cannot release the historian from his obligation to find and describe the fundamental processes in the cultural history of modern Europe. It can, however, obligate him to impartiality in selecting and presenting the facts and personalities according to their influence in shaping events and results. We shall hear Pascal and Bossuet as well as Spinoza and Voltaire.
Grateful acknowledgment is due to our daughter Ethel, who typed with patient care and skill the hardly legible second draft and corrected some of my errors; to Dr. C. Edward Hopkin, and to Flora, Sarah, Mary, and Harry Kaufman, for help in classifying the material.
Mrs. Durant’s part in these concluding volumes has been so substantial that our names must be united on the title page.
WILL DURANT
Los Angeles, May 1961
NOTES ON THE USE OF THIS BOOK
1. Dates of birth and death are usually omitted from the narrative, but will be found in the Index.
2. Monetary equivalents as between past and present are guesswork, made doubly hazardous by periodic inflation. We note that an able seaman’s pay per day in the England of 1540 was sixpence, and in 1880 six shillings—a twelvefold increase (Froude, The Reign of Elizabeth, V, 385). Hume calculated that prices had risen threefold in England between 1492 and 1740 (Essays, 175); we may conservatively reckon prices to have risen another threefold between 1740 and 1960, and therefore nine times since 1492. We may in general assume that coins had, in seventeenth-century Europe, approximately ten times their present purchasing power. The reader may use the following rough equivalents, as between 1600 and 1960, in terms of the currency of the United States of America:
crown, $12.50
gulden, $10.50
pound, $50.00
ducat, $12.50
livre, $12.50
reale, $.50
écu, $8.00l
louis gold, $50.00
ruble, $10.00
florin, $12.50
maravedi, $.015
scudo, $1.16
franc, $2.50
mark, $33.33
shilling, $2.50
guilder, $10.50
penny, $.20
thaler, $10.00
guinea, $52.50
3. The location of works of art, when not indicated in the text, will usually be found in the Notes. In allocating such works, the name of the city will imply its leading gallery, as follows:
Amsterdam—Rijksmuseum
Ferrara—Galleria Estense
Berlin—Staatsmuseum
Frankfurt—Städelsches Kunstinstitut
Bologna—Accademia di Belle Arti
Geneva—Musée d’Art et d’Histoire
Brussels—Museum
Haarlem—Frans Hals Museum
Budapest—Museum of Fine Arts
The Hague—Mauritshuis
Cassel—Museum
Chantilly—Musée Condé
Leningrad—Hermitage
Chatsworth—Duke of Devonshire Collection
Lisbon—National Museum
London—National Gallery
Chicago—Art Institute
Madrid—Prado
Cincinnati—Art Institute
Milan—Brera
Cleveland—Museum of Art
Minneapolis—Institute of Arts
Detroit—Institute of Art
Munich—Haus der Kunst
Dresden—Gemälde-Galerie
Naples—Museo Nazionale
Dulwich—College Gallery
New York—Metropolitan Museum of Art
Edinburgh—National Gallery
Nuremberg—Germanisches Nationalmuseum
Philadelphia—Johnson Collection
Sarasota, Fla.—Ringling Museum of Art
Seville—Art Museum
Rouen—Musée Municipale
Stockholm—National Museum
St. Louis—Art Museum
Vienna—Kunsthistorisches Museum
San Diego—Fine Arts Gallery
Washington—National Gallery
San Francisco—De Young Museum
4. Passages in reduced type are especially dull and recondite, and are not essential to the general picture of the age.
List of Illustrations
THE page numbers in the captions refer to a discussion in the text of the subject or the artist, sometimes both.
Part I. This section follows page 46
FIG. 1—ANONYMOUS:Queen Elizabeth
FIG. 2—ATTRIBUTED TO ZUCCARO:Sir Walter Raleigh
FIG. 3—ANONYMOUS:Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex
FIG. 4—ANONYMOUS:William Cecil, First Lord Burghley
FIG. 5—Burghley House, Stamford, England
FIG. 6—ANONYMOUS:Sir Philip Sidney
FIG. 7—Mi
ddle Temple Hall, London
FIG. 8—The Signatures of Shakespeare
FIG. 9—ATTRIBUTED TO P. OUDRY:Mary, Queen of Scots
FIG. 10—CORNELIS BOEL:Title Page of the King James Bible, 1611
FIG. 11—CORNELIUS JANSSEN:Sir William Harvey
FIG. 12—ANONYMOUS:Benjamin Jonson
FIG. 13—PAUL VAN SOMER:Francis Bacon
FIG. 14—SIMON VAN DE PASSE:Title Page of Bacon’s “Instauratio Magna,” 1620
FIG. 15—ANTHONY VANDYCK:King Charles I
FIG. 16—ALESSANDRO ALLORI:Torquato Tasso
FIG. 17—SASSOFERRATO:Pope Sixtus V
FIG. 18—GUIDO RENI:St. Joseph
FIG. 19—BERNINI:Tomb of Pope Urban VIII
FIG. 20—TITIAN:Philip II
FIG. 21—The Escorial, Spain
FIG. 22—JUAN DE JUAREGUI:Cervantes
FIG. 23—VELAZQUEZ:Philip IV of Spain
FIG. 24—EL GRECO:Burial of Count Orgaz
FIG. 25—EL GRECO:The Assumption of the Virgin
Part II. This section follows page 206
FIG. 26—VELÁZQUEZ: Pope Innocent X
FIG. 27—VELÁZQUEZ:Las Meninas
FIG. 28—VELÁZQUEZ: Self-portrait. Detail from Las Meninas
FIG. 29—MURILLO:A Beggar Boy
FIG. 30—AFTER CLOUET:Charles IX
FIG. 31—SCHOOL OF CLOUET:Catherine de Médicis
FIG. 32—CLOUET:Admiral Coligny
FIG. 33-Death Mask of Henry IV
FIG. 34—Michel de Montaigne
FIG. 35—POUSSIN:Et Ego in Arcadia
FIG. 36—PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAIGNE:Cardinal Richelieu
FIG. 37—ATTRIBUTED TO WILLEM KEY:Duke of Alva
FIG. 38—MICHIEL JANSZOON VAN MIEREVELT:William the Silent
FIG. 39—SCHOOL OF RUBENS:Ambrogio Spinola
FIG. 40—RUBENS:Rubens and Isabella Brandt
FIG. 41—FRANS HALS: the Laughing Cavalier
FIG. 42—FRANS HALS:The Women Regents
FIG. 43—ANTHONY VANDYCK:Self-portrait
FIG. 44—REMBRANDT:The Artist’s Father
FIG. 45—REMBRANDT:The Artist’s Mother
FIG. 46—REMBRANDT:Self-portrait
FIG. 47—REMBRANDT:Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
FIG. 48—Queen Christina of Sweden
FIG. 49—BASED ON A SKETCH BY VANDYCK:Gustavus Adolphus
Part III. This section follows page 462
FIG. 50—JAN MATEJKO:King Stephen Bathory of Poland