A civilization in crisis: a new "paideuma" and the birth of the humanities
the causes of the crisis
the reform of Christian culture
the humanist movement takes shape
Virtue politics: obedience and legitimacy
virtue politics
classical sources of virtue politics
how not to reform a republic
eloquence and the "virtuous environment"
a new way of thinking about politics
What was a republic in the Renaissance?: the Renaissance concept of the state
what is the meaning of respublica in the Italian Renaissance?
Respublica Romana
respublica in medieval scholasticism
Leonardo Bruni and respublica in the fifteenth century
respublica: an idealization of ancient government
is civic humanism found only in non-monarchical republics?
Taming the tyrant: tyranny in Greek philosophy
Cicero's understanding of Caesar's tyranny as violation of ius
Bartolus of Sassoferrato and Baldo degli Ubaldi
Petrarch on living with tyrants
was Caesar a tyrant? Petrarch, Salutati, Guarino, Poggio
Poggio on tyranny and the "problem of counsel"
Pier Candido Decembrio on the virtues of a tyrant
the recovery of ancient Greek sources on tyranny
The triumph of virtue
Petrarch's political thought: Petrarch's politics of virtue
Cola di Rienzo: populism and its limits
Petrarch's new realism
Should a good man participate in a corrupt government?: Petrarch on the solitary life
the De vita solitaria: an ideal of private life for literary men
the defense of private life
Seneca versus Augustine: political obligation and political autonomy
Boccaccio on the perils of wealth and status: Boccaccio's political experience
the need to reform the materia prima of politics: human nature
virtue, education, and tyranny
Boccaccio and the humanist debate about private wealth and economic injustice
Boccaccio and virtue politics
Leonardo Bruni and the virtuous hegemon: why Florence deserves to be the heir of Rome: the Panegyric of the city of Florence
political liberty as a source of virtue
the Etruscan model: leadership in a federal republic
Dante and Bruni on the legitimation of empire
War and military service in the virtuous republic: late medieval civic knighthood and the context of Leonardo Bruni's De militia
excursus: the humanists and partisan politics
Bruni's De militia: a new interpretation
excursus on the "virtuous environment": Donatello and the representation of classical military virtue
do humanist teachings on warfare anticipate Machiavelli?
virtue in military life
Roberto Valturio on the education of soldiers
A mirror for statesmen: Leonardo Bruni's history of the Florentine people
history as political theory
virtue in the service of the republic's glory
the primacy of the popolo and the suppression of factions
moderation in politics as the key to social concord
Biondo Flavio: what made the Romans great: the roma Triumphans and the revival of Roman civilization
what was the Respublica Romana for Biondo?
Biondo's virtue politics, republicanism, and the greatness of Rome
a cosmopolitan papalist
Cyriac of Ancona on democracy and empire: a short history of the term democratia
Cyriac of Ancona's attempted rehabilitation of the term democratia
Cyriac the Caesarian
Leon Battista Alberti on corrupt princes and virtuous oligarchs: why virtue is incompatible with court life
who should constitute the political elite?
The De iciarchia and the regime of virtuous "house-princes"
George of Trebizond on cosmopolitanism and liberty: George's attack on nativism and defense of cosmopolitanism
a Renaissance libertarian?
Francesco Filelfo and the Spartan Republic: Filelfo and the recovery of the Spartan tradition
Filelfo and humanist adaptations of the myth of Sparta
Greek constitutional theory in the quattrocento: the "second wave" of Greek constitutional theory
legitimation and the republican regime
Francesco Patrizi on republican constitutions
delegitimation: Bruni and the chivalric ideal
substitution: platonizing Venice's constitution
Mario Salamonio compares Florence to Athens
Francesco Patrizi and humanist absolutism: the recovery of ancient Greek monarchical theory
Patrizi and his project in the De regno
virtuous royal legitimacy and humanist absolutism
the argument for monarchy
can monarchical power be virtuous?
how the king may become virtuous
Machiavelli: reviving the military republic: the calamità d'Italia
Machiavelli and humanist literary culture
Machiavelli's political education and the art of war
why princes and republics should follow the ancient way of warfare
Machiavelli: from virtue to virtù: Machiavelli's Prince and renaissance concepts of tyranny
the Machiavellian revolution in political thought
Machiavelli's virtù
Two cures for hyperpartisanship: Bruni versus Machiavelli: two competing narratives of Florentine history
the ordinances of justice
Walter of Brienne and the instability of tyranny
the restoration of popular institutions in 1343
two cures for hyperpartisanship
Conclusion: Ex Oriente Lux.