Princely Piety and Political Philosophy in Italy, ca. 1430–1530

Abstract

Whilst it has become commonplace to acknowledge the political and public role of a prince’s investments in the religious sphere, little attention has been paid to contemporary theories of statecraft that discuss and throw light upon such activities, beyond the extensive treatment of magnificence within art history. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to describe two distinct but related strands visible in contemporary writings on princehood and rulership-one concerned with piety as a princely virtue, its instrumentalization and display; the other with the divine sanction of rule and its implications for the image and duties of the prince-which together amount to an illuminating theorization of princely piety. These two strands, extending our roster of contemporary terms and concepts beyond the now-traditional focus on magnificence, amount to a useful framework for any understanding of the practical deployment of princely piety, and of its reception in the encomiastic literature.