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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

‘The Renaissance was the discovery of the world and of man.’ Comment.

  • UPSC 2002
  • Enlightenment and Modern Ideas

The phrase belongs to the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, whose The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860) first framed the period as a decisive break from medieval consciousness.

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What the full answer covers

  • The "Discovery of Man": Humanism and Individualism
  • The "Discovery of the World": Naturalism, Science and Exploration
  • A Secular, Anti-Clerical Reorientation
  • Historiographical Qualifications: How Clean Was the Break?

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