Introduction.The paper brings the analysis of the history of the theory of “civic humanism”. In his early works (1930–1940) H. Baron proposed a new vision of humanistic political philosophy as a republican worldview linked to contemporary political and social life of Italian citystates. This vision gained a wide popularity as well as his monographs of 1950s. At the same time the so-called “Baron thesis” was accepted as a new paradigm of the Renaissance studies and – on the other hand – was exposed to a detailed scrutiny and critics.
