Political Thought of the Renaissance and Reformation

Abstract

ly formulated, shows at least that his realistic attitude presents a very complex intellectual problem-his realism cannot be explained merely by personal ambition and opportunism, despite the attempt, in the last century, of two famous and, unfortunately, very influential articles by Ranke4 and De Sanctis.46 Although Donato Giannotti, in contrast to this recent emphasis on has been somewhat neglected by recent scholarship, some new material on his career has been brought to light by Ridolfi.47 In attempting to define the significance of the political ideas of Italian humanism, it was obviously necessary to demonstrate the existence of a definite contact between the school of realism and the humanists; and the studies by Baron,'8 Cantimori,49 and E Gilbert' point in that direction. There has also been a general attempt at a new evaluation of humanist political thought as a whole. The studies by Curcio and Brunelli survey the entire field of humanist political thought, and emphasize the view that the political writings of the humanists are something more than mere rhetorical exercises, and in fact reflect the ideas and interests of the rising bourgeoisie. Other scholars, searching the works of the humanists for indications of definite political purposes or new political trends, have investigated their use of classical authors for stock illustrations. The abandonment of one set of classical writers in favor of another has been discussed in articles by Baron' concerning Cicero's influence on 44 P. Treves, ll realismo politico di Francesco Guicciardini (Firenze, 1931). 45 See n. 21. 48 F. de Sanctis, L'uomo del Guicciardini, in Nuovi saggi critici (Napoli, 1879). 47 Donato Giannotti, Lettere a Piero Vettori, pubblicate sopra gli originali del British Museum da Roberto Ridolfi e Cecil Roth. Con un saggio illustrativo a cura di R. Ridolfi (Firenze, 1932). 48 H. Baron, Das Erwachen des historischen Denkens im Humanismus des Quattrocento, Historische Zeitschrift, CXLVII (1932), 5-20. 49 D. Cantimori, Rhetoric and Politics in Italian Humanism, Journal of the Warburg Institute, I, 83-102. 5 See n. 28. 51 C. Curcio, La politica italiana del '400; contributo alla storia delle origini del pensiero borghese (Firenze, 1932). 52 V. B. Brunelli, Il rinnovamento della politica nel pensiero del secolo XV in Italia (Torino, 1927). 53 H. Baron, Cicero and the Roman Civic Spirit in the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, John Rylands Library Bultetin, XXII, 72-97. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.35 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:59:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY Florentine political thought, and by Gothein5d on the political ideas of Florentine Platonism. For a later period, Toffanin's5' stimulating and brilliant book on Machiavelli e il Tacitismo shows how the replacement of Livy by Tacitus in the favor of political and historical writers goes hand in hand with the change from republicanism to