Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy

Description

A bold, revisionist account of the political thought of the Italian Renaissance—from Petrarch to Machiavelli—that reveals the all-important role of character in shaping society, both in citizens and in their leaders. Convulsed by a civilizational crisis, the great thinkers of the Renaissance set out to reconceive the nature of society. Everywhere they saw problems. Corrupt and reckless tyrants sowing discord and ruling through fear; elites who prized wealth and status over the common good; military leaders waging endless wars. Their solution was at once simple and radical. "Men, not walls, make a city," as Thucydides so memorably said. They would rebuild their city, and their civilization, by transforming the moral character of its citizens. Soulcraft, they believed, was a precondition of successful statecraft. A dazzlingly ambitious reappraisal of Renaissance political thought by one of our generation's foremost intellectual historians, Virtue Politics challenges the traditional narrative that looks to the Renaissance as the seedbed of modern republicanism and sees Machiavelli as its exemplary thinker. James Hankins reveals that what most concerned the humanists was not reforming laws or institutions so much as shaping citizens. If character mattered more than constitutions, it would have to be nurtured through a new program of education they called the studia humanitatis the humanities. We owe liberal arts education and much else besides to the bold experiment of these passionate and principled thinkers. The questions they asked—Should a good man serve a corrupt regime? What virtues are necessary in a leader? What is the source of political legitimacy? Is wealth concentration detrimental to social cohesion? Should citizens be expected to fight for their country?—would have a profound impact on later debates about good government and seem as vital today as they did then. Dedication Contents Preface 1 A Civilization in Crisis 2 Virtue Politics 3 What Was a Republic in the Renaissance? 4 Taming the Tyrant 5 The Triumph of Virtue: Petrarch’s PoliticalThought 6 Should a Good Man Participate in a Corrupt Government? Petrarch on the Solitary Life 7 Boccaccio on the Perils of Wealth and Status 8 Leonardo Bruni and the Virtuous Hegemon 9 War and Military Servicein the Virtuous Republic 10 A Mirror for Statesmen: Leonardo Bruni’s History of the Florentine People 11 Biondo Flavio: What Made the Romans Great 12 Cyriac of Ancona on Democracy and Empire 13 Leon Battista Alberti on Corrupt Princes and Virtuous Oligarchs 14 George of Trebizond on Cosmopolitanism and Liberty 15 Francesco Filelfo and the Spartan Republic 16 Greek Constitutional Theory in the Quattrocento 17 Francesco Patrizi and Humanist Absolutism 18 Machiavelli: Reviving the Military Republic 19 Machiavelli: From Virtue to Virtù 20 Two Cures for Hyperpartisanship: Bruni versus Machiavelli 21 Conclusion: Ex Oriente Lux Appendixes Appendix A. Petrarch on Political Obligations: De vita solitaria 2.9.19–22 (Chapter 6) Appendix B. Speech of Rinaldo Gianfigliazzi before the Florentine Priors, 1399, from Leonardo Bruni’s History of the Florentine People, 11.75–78 (Chapter 10) Appendix C. Renaissance Editions, Translations, and Compendia of Francesco Patrizi of Siena’s Political Works (Chapter 16) Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index of Manuscripts and Archival Documents General Index