(Un)masking the realities of power: Justus Lipsius and the dynamics of political writing in early modern Europe

Contents......Page 6
About the Editors......Page 8
About the Contributors......Page 10
Introduction......Page 14
Introduction: Towards a More Balanced View of Justus Lipsius’s Political Writings and Their Influence......Page 16
Part I General Tendencies......Page 36
Exempla, Prudence and Casuistry in Renaissance Political Discourse......Page 38
History and Exemplarity in the Work of Lipsius......Page 56
Stoicism in Political Humanism and Natural Law......Page 86
Part II Rhetorics, History and Exemplarity......Page 108
Monita et exempla politica as Example of a Genre......Page 110
Rhetoric and Exemplarity in Justus Lipsius’s Monita et exempla politica......Page 128
Justus Lipsius and the Challenge of Historical Exemplarity......Page 148
Justus Lipsius and the Cento Form......Page 176
Part III Virtues and Politics......Page 206
Fate and Rule, Destiny and Dynasty: Lipsius’s Final Views on Superstition, Fate and Divination in the Monita et exempla politica (1605)......Page 208
The Clementia Lipsiana: Political Analysis, Autobiography and Panegyric......Page 220
Prudence in Lipsius’s Monita et exempla politica: Stoic Virtue, Aristotelian Virtue or not a Virtue at All?......Page 246
Secret Compensation: A Friendly and Lawful Alternative to Lipsius’s Political Thought......Page 276
Part IV Lipsius's Heritage......Page 294
Carolus Scribani and the Lipsian Legacy. The Politico-Christianus and Lipsius’s Image of the Good Prince......Page 296
A Lipsian Legacy? Neo-Absolutism, Natural Law and the Decline of Reason of State in France 1660–1760......Page 320
Bibliography......Page 338
Index Nominum......Page 356