...arts and of general refinement. ... Of ignorance, however, and defective civilization, it is scarcely possible to accuse an age wherein the Mediterranean...by commercial cities as prosperous and powerful, as the most nourishing epoch of Greece ... an age wherein architecture soared with a new flight and painting...

...says : " This period, which extends from Rudolph to Maxmillian may, as regards state of manners and constitution, be called turbulent. Of ignorance, however,...flourishing epoch of Greece ; and such was the case not only in the Mediterranean, but likewise in the Baltic Sea, to the ancients a north almost unknown,...