The Warburg Institute of the University of London exists principally to further the study of the classical tradition, that is of those elements of European thought, literature, art and institutions which derive from the ancient world. It houses an Archive, a Library and a Photographic Collection.
The classical tradition is conceived as the theme which unifies the history of Western civilization. The bias is not towards 'classical' values in art and literature: students and scholars will find represented all the strands that link medieval and modern civilization with its origins in the ancient cultures of the Near East and the Mediterranean. It is this element of continuity that is stressed in the arrangement of the Library: the tenacity of symbols and images in European art and architecture, the persistence of motifs and forms in Western languages and literatures, the gradual transition, in Western thought, from magical beliefs to religion, science and philosophy, and the survival and transformation of ancient patterns in social customs and political institutions.
The Warburg Institute is concerned mainly with cultural history, art history and history of ideas, especially in the Renaissance. It aims to promote and conduct research on the interaction of cultures, using verbal and visual materials. It specializes in the influence of ancient Mediterranean traditions on European culture from the Middle Ages to the modern period. Its open –access library has outstanding strengths in Byzantine, Medieval and Renaissance art, Arabic, Medieval and Renaissance philosophy, the history of religion, science and magic, Italian history, the history of the classical tradition, and humanism. In several of these fields it can claim to be the most important library in the world. The photographic collection, organised by subject, documents the iconographical traditions of western art and facilitates research into these traditions as well as the identification of the subject of individual images. The archive holds the papers of Aby Warburg, Fritz Saxl and other staff members of the Institute, including both sides of their correspondence with many leading scholars of the twentieth century.
- Aby Warburg in Florence c. 1900
The Institute stems from the personal library of the Hamburg scholar Aby Warburg (1866-1929), whose research centred on the intellectual and social context of Renaissance art. In 1921 this library became a research institute in cultural history, and both its historical scope and its activities as a centre for lectures and publications expanded. In 1933 it moved from Germany to London to escape the Nazi regime, and in 1944 it was incorporated in the University of London. It is now a member-Institute of the University’s School of Advanced Study. Its first Director was Fritz Saxl followed by Henri Frankfort, Gertrud Bing, E. H. Gombrich, J. B. Trapp, Nicholas Mann and Charles Hope. The tradition drawn on by the Institute includes the work of such distinguished scholars as Warburg himself, Fritz Saxl, Ernst Cassirer, Raymond Klibansky, P. O. Kristeller, Otto Kurz, Arnaldo Momigliano, E. H. Gombrich, D. P. Walker, Frances A. Yates, Charles B. Schmitt and Michael Baxandall. It has been a tradition of new departures achieved primarily by working across the boundaries of established disciplines. The Institute continues to promote this approach through all its research activities.
The full-time members of the Institute's academic staff are engaged in maintaining and developing its Archive, Library and Photographic Collection, in teaching, in the supervision of research, and in the preparation of material for publication. The Institute's activities also include public lectures, seminars and colloquia, the publication of a Journal (jointly with the Courtauld Institute of Art), of monographs (Studies of the Warburg Institute and Oxford-Warburg Studies), of Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts, Warburg Studies and Texts, Warburg Institute Colloquia and of occasional publications.
Frances A. Yates long-term (up to 3 years) and short-term (2 – 4 months) Research Fellowships, Albin Salton, Brian Hewson Crawford, Grete Sondheimer, Henri Frankfort and Albin Salton short-term Fellowships are open to competition among those who have completed at least one year's research on their doctoral dissertation by the time they submit their application. The Fellowships are generally intended for scholars in the early stages of their careers. Information on the number and duration of Fellowships to be awarded for any given year is available in early October of the year before the academic year of tenure. The Annual Reports of the Institute can be downloaded from this page.
The Institute, which is a member Institute of the School of Advanced Study, is open to the academic staff and postgraduate students of the University, to teachers and research students from other universities and institutions. Others are admitted at the discretion of the Director. Enquiries may be made to the Institute Manager: catherine.charlon(at)sas.ac.uk
The Institute accepts postgraduate students for the MPhil and PhD degrees by dissertation only, and also offers a one-year full-time MA Course in Cultural and Intellectual History, 1300-1650 (read more).