When conflicting worldviews kindle partisan emotions, setting members of a society at each other’s throats, the social fabric inexorably crumbles; but when those views hold a balance within a single individual—when, instead of destroying each other, they fertilize each other and expand the whole range of the personality —then they are powers that lead to the noblest achievements of civilization.
—Aby Warburg, 1902

What does it mean when representatives of a previous generation’s art historical scholarship are published and offered to the public anew? This has become an increasingly important question because a number of academic publishers here and abroad are risking precious capital on bringing out such works, many of which were originally undertaken well over a century ago. In the last half-decade alone there have appeared two major works by Alois Riegl (in both fresh German editions and in English translations); ...

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