The Institute stems from the personal library of the Hamburg scholar Aby Warburg 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 in 1944 it was incorporated in the University of London.  The Warburg Insitute is now a member-Institute of the University’s School of Advanced Study. The tradition drawn on by the Institute includes the work of distinguished scholars. 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.

 

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 of London, to teachers and research students from other universities and institutions.

 

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.