IT324, Topics in Renaissance Thought and Culture (Dr David A. Lines, Dr Sara Miglietti; reading group led by Mr Giacomo Comiati) [Last updated 29.09.13] IN THE STEPS OF MACHIAVELLI: THE EUROPEAN RECEPTION c.1520-­‐c.1680 Required texts: •
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Niccolò Machiavelli, Il principe, ed. by Giorgio Inglese, Einaudi, Torino, 2013 (1995)1 COPIES ON ORDER @BOOKSHOP + 3 COPIES @LIBRARY Niccolò Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, ed. by Giorgio Inglese, BUR, Milano, 2000 (1984)2 COPIES ON ORDER @BOOKSHOP Quentin Skinner, Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford UP 2000 (1981) Selected bibliography (all books are, or will shortly be, available at the Library): •
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Sydney Anglo, Machiavelli: The First Century, Oxford 2005 1 COPY ON ORDER @LIBRARY Gisela Bock, Quentin Skinner, Maurizio Viroli (eds), Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge UP, 1990 Davide Canfora, Prima di Machiavelli: politica e cultura in età umanistica, Laterza, 2005 Janet Coleman, A History of Political Thought, vol. 2, ‘From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance’, Oxford, Wiley-­‐Blackwell, 2000 Martin Coyle (ed.), Niccolo Machiavelli's "The prince" : new interdisciplinary essays, Manchester UP, 1995 Allan H. Gilbert, Machiavelli's Prince and its forerunners; The prince as a typical book de regimine principum, Duke UP, 1938 Felix Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-­‐Century Florence, Princeton UP, 1965 Jill Kraye (ed.), Cambridge Translations of Renaissance Philosophical Texts, vol. 2: Political Philosophy, Cambridge UP 1997 John M. Najemy, Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli, Cambridge UP 2010 Felix Raab, The English face of Machiavelli : a changing interpretation, 1500-­‐1700, Routledge, 1964 Charles B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner, Eckhard Kessler, Jill Kraye (eds), Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, Cambridge UP 1988 Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol. 1, ‘The Renaissance’, Cambridge UP, 2009 (1978) Jacob Soll, Publishing the Prince: History, Reading, and the Birth of Political Criticism, Ann Arbor 2009 3 COPIES ON ORDER @LIBRARY Maurizio Viroli, Machiavelli, Oxford UP, 1998 Corrado Vivanti, Niccolò Machiavelli: An Intellectual Biography, Princeton UP 2013 5 COPIES ON ORDER @LIBRARY 1
Recommended translation: The Prince, trans. G. Bull, intro by A. Grafton, Penguin Classics, 2003 (1961) OR A. H. Gilbert, Machiavelli: The Chief Works and Others, Duke UP, 1989 (ebook+several copies @library ) 2
Recommended translation: The Discourses, ed. by B. Crick, trans. by L. J. Walker (revised by B. Richardson), Penguin Classics, 2005 (1970) OR A. H. Gilbert, Machiavelli: The Chief Works and Others, Duke UP, 1989 (ebook+ several copies @library ) 1 Week 1, 30.09.2013 – Intro (bio, context, basic facts, other works). The tradition of specula principis and princely humanism before Machiavelli (and his use of classical sources). •
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Eric Nelson, ‘The Problem of the Prince’, in James Hankins (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy, Cambridge 2007 Quentin Skinner, Machiavelli, cit., chapter 1 (‘The Diplomat’) Week 2, 07.10.2013 – Il Principe / 1 •
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Machiavelli, Principe, from Dedication to chapter 11 Quentin Skinner, Machiavelli, cit., chapter 2 (‘The Adviser to Princes’) Week 3, 14.10.2013 – Il Principe / 2 •
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Machiavelli, Principe, from chapter 12 to chapter 26 Virginia Cox, ‘Rhetoric and Ethics in Machiavelli’, in Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli Week 4, 21.10.2013 – I Discorsi / 1. •
Selections from the Discorsi: -­‐ Book I: Proemio; 1.1-­‐1.18; 1.25-­‐1.26 -­‐ Quentin Skinner, Machiavelli, cit., chapter 3 (‘The Theorist of Liberty’) Week 5, 28.10.2013 – I Discorsi / 2. •
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Selections from the Discorsi: -­‐ Book I: 1.33-­‐1.35; 1.40-­‐1.43; 1.47; 1.49; 1.53; 1.55; 1.57-­‐1.58 -­‐ Book II: Proemio; 2.1-­‐2.2; 2.5; 2.13; 2.29 -­‐ Book III: 3.1; 3.3; 3.8-­‐3.9; 3.25; 3.28; 3.35; 3.41 J.G.A. Pocock, ‘Machiavelli and Rome: The Republic as Ideal and as History’, in Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli Week 6 – Reading week Week 7, 11.11.2013 – Machiavelli, European reception / 1. General introduction (geographically oriented + overview of prints and translations) plus seminar on the utility of history, the use of classical sources, and the Roman model (Bodin, Bacon) •
Primary readings: 2 -­‐
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Jean Bodin, Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem (Method for the Easy Comprehension of History, trans. Reynolds, New York 1945), Preamble and chapter 1 (pp. 9-­‐19) -­‐ Francis Bacon, ‘Of Vicissitudes of Things’, in Essays Secondary readings: choose TWO OR MORE of the following: -­‐ (*required reading*) Victoria Kahn, ‘Machiavelli’s Afterlife and Reputation to the Eighteenth Century’, in Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli online -­‐ Peter Burke, The Renaissance Sense of the Past, chapters IV. 1-­‐3 (‘The Rise of Explanation’, ‘Cycles’) and V (‘Narrative’) -­‐ Felix Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini, chapter II.5: ‘The Theory and Practice of History in the Fifteenth Century’ -­‐ Myron P. Gilmore, Humanists and Jurists, chapter 1: ‘The Renaissance conception of the lessons of history’ -­‐ Vincent Luciani, ‘Bacon and Machiavelli’, Italica, 24/1 (Mar., 1947), pp. 26-­‐40 Week 8, 18.11.2013 – Machiavelli, European reception / 2. Machiavelli at court: from the Prince to the Courtier (Castiglione, Guicciardini?) •
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Primary readings: -­‐ Baldassarre Castiglione, Libro del Cortegiano (The Courtier) [selected passages: II, 7; II, 38-­‐41; IV, 4-­‐11, pp. 367-­‐376; IV, 19-­‐24, pp. 385-­‐393] -­‐ Francesco Guicciardini, Ricordi [selected passages, TBC] Secondary readings: choose TWO of the following: -­‐ Sydney Anglo, Machiavelli: The First Century, chapter 16: ‘Systematic Immorality: The Courtier’s Art’ -­‐ Henry C. Clark, La Rochefoucauld and the Language of Unmasking in Seventeenth-­‐
Century France, part of chapter 1 (pp. 19 up to top of p. 26) + chapter 2: ‘Privatizing Courtly Unmasking’ -­‐ Piero Floriani, ‘Il ferro e la cote’, in P. Guaragnella – M. Santagata (eds), Studi di Letteratura italiana per Vitilio Masiello, Bari, Laterza, 2006, vol. I, pp. 447-­‐60 -­‐ Frank Lovett, ‘The Path of the Courtier: Castiglione, Machiavelli, and the Loss of Republican Liberty’, The Review of Politics, 74/4 (Fall 2012), pp. 589-­‐605 -­‐ Jon R. Snyder, Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy, chapter 1: ‘Not empty silence’ -­‐ Jon R. Snyder, Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy, chapter 3: ‘Confidence games. Dissimulation at court’ Week 9, 25.11.2013 – ‘Honest’ and ‘Useful’. The debate on the ‘Reason of State’ between ethics, politics and religion (Montaigne, Botero) •
Primary readings: -­‐ Michel de Montaigne, De l’utile et de l’honneste (On the Useful and the Honourable), in Essais (Essays, trans. Screech) 3 -­‐
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Giovanni Botero, Della ragion di Stato (The Reason of State) [Dedication; I, 1-­‐6, pp. 3-­‐9; I, 8-­‐12, pp. 12-­‐17; II, 6-­‐7, pp. 41-­‐49; II, 10-­‐11, pp. 52-­‐58; II, 15, pp. 63-­‐66] Secondary readings: choose TWO of the following: -­‐ Sydney Anglo, Machiavelli: The First Century, chapter 11: ‘More Machiavellian than Machiavel: The Jesuits and the Context of Donne's Conclave’ -­‐ José A. Fernández-­‐Santamaria, ‘Reason of State and Statecraft in Spain (1595-­‐1640)’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 41, 3 (Jul. -­‐ Sep., 1980), pp. 355-­‐379 -­‐ Harro Hoepfl, Jesuit Political Thought. The Society of Jesus and the State, c. 1540-­‐
1630 [ed. 2004], chapter 5: ‘The confrontation with Reason of State’ -­‐ Ullrich Langer, ‘Virtue of the Prince, Virtue of the Subject,” in David Lines, Sabrina Ebbersmeyer (eds), Rethinking Virtue, Reforming Society: New Directions in Renaissance Ethics, 1350–1600, Brepols 2013 -­‐ Felix Raab, The English Face of Machiavelli, chapter 3: 'Politick Religion (1603-­‐1640)' -­‐ G. H. R. Parkinson, ‘Ethics and Politics in Machiavelli’, The Philosophical Quarterly , 5/18 (Jan., 1955), pp. 37-­‐44 Week 10, 02.12.2013 – Counsellors of tyrants or defender of popular liberties? Machiavelli’s ambiguous legacy among early modern political thinkers (Boccalini, Spinoza). • Primary readings: -­‐
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Traiano Boccalini, Ragguagli di Parnaso (Ragguaglio LXXXIX) Baruch Spinoza, Political Treatise (Tractatus politicus), chapters 1, 5, 6 (§1-­‐10), 7 (§3-­‐
5; §25-­‐29), 10 (§1-­‐6) Secondary readings: choose TWO of the following: -­‐ Sydney Anglo, Machiavelli: The First Century, chapter 10: ‘In the Wake of Gentillet: Evolution of the “Machiavel” Stereotype in France and England’ -­‐ Marco Barducci, ‘Order, Conflict and Liberty: Machiavellianism in English Political Thought, 1649–1660’, in Machiavellian Encounters in Tudor and Stuart England -­‐ E. M. Beame, ‘The Use and Abuse of Machiavelli: The Sixteenth-­‐Century French Adaptation’, in Journal of the History of Ideas, 43/1 (Jan-­‐Mar 1982), pp. 33-­‐54 -­‐ Antonella Ciccarelli, ‘Traiano Boccalini: la ragion di stato tra satira e sinceritas. Quale accettabilità per Machiavelli ?’, Les Dossiers du Grihl [Online], Les dossiers de Jean-­‐
Pierre Cavaillé, Les limites de l'acceptable -­‐ Eco Haitsma Mulier, ‘A Controversial Republican: Dutch Views on Machiavelli in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, in Bock-­‐Skinner-­‐Viroli (eds), Machiavelli and Republicanism -­‐ Felix Raab, The English Face of Machiavelli, chapter 5: 'Innovations (1640-­‐1660)' -­‐ Stefano Visentin, ‘Acutissimus o prudentissimus? Intorno alla presenza di Machiavelli nel Trattato politico di Spinoza’, in Etica & Politica, 2004, 1 4