Quote
"The accusation that is not wrongly levelled at the Italian humanistic culture, of having alienated letters from reality, of having diminished their original power, of having subtracted so many forces from life, including political life, exhausting them in vain retching of aestheticism and literary mimicry, this accusation does not affect Venice except to a small extent. What was the rule elsewhere was the exception here. The new studies that in other regions aroused fanaticism and fatal fetishisms, here were appreciated only to the extent of the benefits they could bring to the homeland. Professional humanism, which was an end in itself or a means of profit, did not exist here or was a very exceptional case. (p. 27)"
V
Vittorio Cian
