(Un)masking the realities of power : Justus Lipsius and the dynamics of political writing in early modern Europe

Contents......Page 6 About the Editors......Page 8 About the Contributors......Page 10 Introduction......Page 14 Introduction: Towards a More Balanced View of Justus Lipsius’s Political Writings and Their Influence......Page 16 Part I General Tendencies......Page 36 Exempla, Prudence and Casuistry in Renaissance Political Discourse......Page 38 History and Exemplarity in the Work of Lipsius......Page 56 Stoicism in Political Humanism and Natural Law......Page 86 Part II Rhetorics, History and Exemplarity......Page 108 Monita et exempla politica as Example of a Genre......Page 110 Rhetoric and Exemplarity in Justus Lipsius’s Monita et exempla politica......Page 128 Justus Lipsius and the Challenge of Historical Exemplarity......Page 148 Justus Lipsius and the Cento Form......Page 176 Part III Virtues and Politics......Page 206 Fate and Rule, Destiny and Dynasty: Lipsius’s Final Views on Superstition, Fate and Divination in the Monita et exempla politica (1605)......Page 208 The Clementia Lipsiana: Political Analysis, Autobiography and Panegyric......Page 220 Prudence in Lipsius’s Monita et exempla politica: Stoic Virtue, Aristotelian Virtue or not a Virtue at All?......Page 246 Secret Compensation: A Friendly and Lawful Alternative to Lipsius’s Political Thought......Page 276 Part IV Lipsius's Heritage......Page 294 Carolus Scribani and the Lipsian Legacy. The Politico-Christianus and Lipsius’s Image of the Good Prince......Page 296 A Lipsian Legacy? Neo-Absolutism, Natural Law and the Decline of Reason of State in France 1660–1760......Page 320 Bibliography......Page 338 Index Nominum......Page 356 If Justus Lipsius's Politica of 1589 and its importance to the history of political thought needs no introduction, Lipsius's Monita et exempla politica (1605), conceived as a sequel to the Politica , has been overlooked time and again despite the fact that it is a unique key to understand the precise character of Lipsius's political thought. For, is his widely read political dialogue a Neostoic discourse or is it Tacitean, Machiavellian, or even anti-Machiavellian in nature? Did the work play such a pivotal role in the genesis of the modern, centrally governed nation state, as some scholars tend to believe? This book collects essays by scholars from different disciplines and backgrounds. All of them endeavour to solve this apparent deadlock in scholarly research on Lipsius's political thought. All of them offer new and fascinating insights in the genesis and developments of the nature and impact of political discourses in Early Modern Europe Starting from Justus Lipsius's "Monita et exempla politica"(1605), this book offers a collection of essays dealing with the disputed Macchiavellian, Tacitean or Neostoic character of Lipsius's political thought, and its impact on the dynamics of political discourse in Early Modern Europe Starting from Justus Lipsius's Monita et exempla politica (1605), this book offers a collection of essays dealing with the disputed Macchiavellian, Tacitean or Neostoic character of Lipsius's political thought, and its impact on the dynamics of political discourse in Early Modern Europe.