Jacob Burckhardt's THE CIVILIZATION OF THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY

                                    Cover page of Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy,                                                translated by S. G. C. Middlemore in 1878. [i]

For those who love to read and are interested in the development of knowledge and ideas in general, and in Renaissance culture in particular, a copy of the second edition of Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), translated by S. G. C. Middlemore in 1878, is avaible through the Gutenberg Project here. 

The second edition is of special interest for, as the redactor's note states, although there are many print runs after the latter, this one is the last edition that contains material, ideas or data entered by Burckhardt. 

There is another 'copy' of the same edition available on the Web which has an interesting and accurate introduction by Melissa Snell; it can be found here. As Sneel proposes,[iii] although many of the ideas presented by Burckhardt have been fittingly challenged, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy remains a very valuable source for those who want to explore Renaissance and Italian culture.

[i] Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Die_Kultur_der_Renaissance_in_Italien_.jpg                             (Captured: 01/21/2014) According its source, "This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its                    copyright has expired."
[ii] Source: Adobe Digital Editions: Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, translated by S. G. C.         Middlemore in 1878, p. 5. at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2074 (Consulted: 01/16/2014)
[iii] Source: http://historymedren.about.com/od/burckhardt/a/cri_main.htm (Consulted: 01/21/2014)