RENAISSANCE HISTORIOGRAPHY

RENAISSANCE HISTORIOGRAPHY

• Resurgence of learning based on classical

sources

• Intensified study of Greek and Roman literature

• and the renewal of rhetorical education that

characterized intellectual life in 15th-century Italy

– had an effect on historical study

• encouraged a secular and realistic approach to political

history,

• both ancient and modern.

Re-Birth of Classical History

• Leonardo Bruni of Florence (15th century)

– rediscovered the works of Tacitus

– used them to write a history Republican and imperial

Rome

• to argue that his native Florence was the heir to the Roman

Tradition

• NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI (16th century)

– wrote works/histories that described political history

as taking place in a world bounded by human laws

and human ambitions (not by God or the Church)

• Separation of ecclesiastical from secular

materials of history evident wherever

Renaissance learning had influence in Europe.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)

• Florentine political philosopher, musician,

poet, historian, and romantic comedic

playwright.

• Machiavelli was also a key figure in realist

political theory,

– crucial to European statecraft during the

Renaissance.

– (and today: Realpolitik draws from The

Prince)

Machiavelli’s prehistory

• Born in Florence,

– second son of Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli

and his wife Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli.

• His father was a lawyer of some repute

– and belonged to an impoverished branch of

an influential old Florentine family.

Machiavelli’s Career

• Machiavelli served the Republic of Florence as a

diplomat

– after the expulsion of the Medici in 1494,

• Travelled to European courts in France,

Germany, and other Italian city-states on

diplomatic missions.

– Experience led to The Prince (most famous work)

• "The ends justify the means."

• Description of Florence in the age of the Medicis and the

Borgias

– as well as Louis XII of France (the occupier-king who

committed the five capital errors in statecraft summarized in

The Prince and as a result was expelled from Italy)

Machiavelli’s Career

• BUT Pope Julius II restored the Medicis to

power in 1512

– Machiavelli was imprisoned, tortured, and

accused of plotting against Medici rule.

• Pope Leo X became pontiff in 1513 (also a

Medici family)

– freed Machiavelli and sent him into exile.

– but he was later allowed to return to Florence

out of the public eye.

• M. died there in 1527, buried in an

unmarked grave.

Machiavelli’s historiographical

Contributions

• Politics are not the province of god’s will, but of

human action

• Effective leaders are not necessarily moral

leaders

– in fact, statecraft often requires abandoning Christian

morality

• Secularization of history

– as the explicit study of human actions

– the absence of god is not paganism; it is reality.

• The explicit contemporary use of history

– Mach.’s goal of uniting Italy under a strong central

leader is the reason for his historical studies

.

JEAN BODIN (1530-1596)

• French jurist,

• Member of the Parliament of Paris and

• Professor of Law in Toulouse.

– Considered by many to be the father of

political science (because of his theory on

sovereignty)

• Most famous work:

– Six Livres de la République (Six Bookes of

the Commonweale) (1576)

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Jean Bodin (1530-1596)

• During the last half of the 16th cent., France

experiencing severe disorders

– caused by religious disagreements between Roman

Catholics and Huguenots.

• Dismayed by this chaos,

– Bodin believed that a restoration of order could only

be accomplished by

• religious toleration and

• the establishment of a fully sovereign monarch.

• Bodin advocated a transition from the feudal

state to the modern nation-state

– and drew from history to argue for this:

• pre-feudal societies like Rome had been nation-states.

• and an absolutely sovereign monarch was necessary for a

well-ordered state

Jean Bodin (1530-1596)

• Six Livres de la République

– described the sovereign as a ruler beyond

human law

– and subject only to the divine or natural law.

• "Sovereignty is a Republic's absolute and

perpetual power.“

• Climate shapes a people's character

– so those not blessed with the Mediterranean

climate just have to work harder at having

successful states.