The writing of Renaissance politics: Sharing, appropriating, and asserting authorship in the letters of Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (1522–1535)

Abstract

AbstractIn recent years, the scrutiny of the concept of ‘authorship’ has involved many medieval and early modern texts, literary and non‐literary. However, princely letters generated in the context of the rising central chanceries of the Renaissance have escaped such scrutiny, as if the writing of politics was considered too ‘institutional’ (and therefore too regulated) to share the dynamic textual practices highlighted in studies of manuscript culture and scribal publication. This article challenges this tacit assumption. It does so by analysing the materiality of the letters of (or ascribed to) Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (1522–1535), and showing the remarkable extent to which his authorship could be shared among the members of his entourage, or even appropriated by institutions that he did not control directly. The sharing and appropriating of ducal authorship made it essential for Francesco to assert his actual, personal authorship when needed, which he did through a nuanced array of epistolary practices, centred on the micro‐management of his autography. The fact that the ‘epistolary prince’ could be constructed from below, and disconnected from the person of the prince, opens a new, participatory perspective not only on Renaissance written political culture, but also on Renaissance political culture tout‐court.