He also wrote about how a leader must conform to the times in which he lives, something he did when he graciously stepped down from his position as a civil servant of Soderini despite his desires to maintain the reformed republic. 10 Situating Machiavelli 270 Machiavelli is the “heir… to civic humanism” because he is keenly aware that any advice towards the ruling elite may be seen as a threat, and so he must validate his opinions through the use of examples from romanticized ancient Rome and Greece to show that his opinions were not an issue, but the truth behind them which would remain true even at his death or expulsion threatened the stability of any … Although humanism in northern Europe and England sprang largely from Italian sources, it did not emerge exclusively as an outgrowth of later Italian humanism. Like Salutati, though perhaps with greater self-awareness, Machiavelli was ambiguous as to the relative merits of republics and monarchies. Yet insofar as the humanist movement had a scheme of values which it promoted (as it clearly did), it was moral and social values that lay at the heart of that scheme, not ae… Machiavelli’s civic education is central to his originality as a political thinker, but scholars of Renaissance political thought and civic republicanism too often interpret his advice to princes as merely a more effective means of achieving the same end desired by his humanist contemporaries and not a radical departure. Critical scrutiny and concern with detail, The emergence of the individual and the idea of human dignity, Idealism and the Platonic Academy of Florence, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Like earlier humanists, Machiavelli saw history as a source of power, but, unlike them, he saw neither history nor power itself within a moral context. • H. Baron, In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism, vol. Ostensibly a treatise on the model courtier, The Book of the Courtier is more seriously a philosophically organized pattern of conflicting viewpoints in which various positions—Platonist and Aristotelian, idealist and cynic, monarchist and republican, traditional and revolutionary—are given eloquent expression. The term originated in the work of twentieth-century historian Hans Baron and described the focus on the active life, republican political forms, and acceptance of vernacular writings that developed in Florence, Italy after 1402. After all, he wasn’t trying to get back into a republican government, he was trying to serve the new…, In Machiavelli’s The Prince, Machiavelli is viewed as a callous and resourceful leader who emphasizes the pursuit of power and longevity, even if it advocates the use of violence preceding one’s own morals. His views are not necessarily cynical, but a product of the reality of his…, The major conclusions Suetonius wants his readers to draw are that the personal life and character of the Caseare are as important to their reign as their political decisions. In constructing his epic poem, Tasso was strongly influenced by Aristotle’s views regarding the philosophical dimension of poetry. This may have been an open attempt to show that he was not a threat to the new government. This entry examines the origins, key characteristics, and changing use of the concept of “civic humanism” by historians. By laying the foundations of modern social science, he created a discipline that, though true to humanistic methodology, had not the slightest regard for humanistic morality. ... (Machiavelli) "Prince is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli." For Vergara, Machiavelli is, by leaps and bounds, the most important theorist of the bunch. 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