Description

Book Synopsis
This is the first translation into English of Guicciardini's Dialogue on the Government of Florence. Written in the early 1520s by the author of the famous History of Italy, as well as a History of Florence and Political Maxims and Reflections, this dialogue presents what is arguably the most searching and comprehensive analysis of the politics of his times. Like Machiavelli, his contemporary and friend, Guicciardini rejects classical republican arguments in the name of the new political realism and acknowledges the important role of patronage and graft in contemporary politics and the illegitimacy of nearly all forms of political power. In this Dialogue he provides one of the clearest expositions of the term 'reason of state', which he was one of the first to employ and which he uses to justify the priority of state interest over private morality and religion.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements; Introduction; Principal events in Guicciardini's life; Bibliographical note; Dialogue on the government of Florence; Preface; Book I; Book II; Appendix: selected maxims; Biographical notes; Glossary; Index of names; Index of subjects.

Guicciardini Dialogue Government Dialogue on the Government of Florence Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought

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    A Paperback by Francesco Guicciardini, Alison Brown

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      View other formats and editions of Guicciardini Dialogue Government Dialogue on the Government of Florence Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought by Francesco Guicciardini

      Book details

      Publisher Cambridge University Press
      Published 6 September 1994
      ISBN-13 9780521456234
      978-0521456234
      ISBN-10 0521456231
      Also in:
      History of ideas Political science and theory

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      This is the first translation into English of Guicciardini's Dialogue on the Government of Florence. Written in the early 1520s by the author of the famous History of Italy, as well as a History of Florence and Political Maxims and Reflections, this dialogue presents what is arguably the most searching and comprehensive analysis of the politics of his times. Like Machiavelli, his contemporary and friend, Guicciardini rejects classical republican arguments in the name of the new political realism and acknowledges the important role of patronage and graft in contemporary politics and the illegitimacy of nearly all forms of political power. In this Dialogue he provides one of the clearest expositions of the term 'reason of state', which he was one of the first to employ and which he uses to justify the priority of state interest over private morality and religion.

      Table of Contents
      Acknowledgements; Introduction; Principal events in Guicciardini's life; Bibliographical note; Dialogue on the government of Florence; Preface; Book I; Book II; Appendix: selected maxims; Biographical notes; Glossary; Index of names; Index of subjects.

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