Visions of Politics: Volume 2, Renaissance Virtues

The second of three volumes of essays by Quentin Skinner, one of the world’s leading intellectual historians. This collection includes some of his most important essays on the political thought of the Italian renaissance, each of which has been carefully revised for publication in this form. All of Professor Skinner’s work is characterised by philosophical power, limpid clarity, and elegance of exposition; these essays, many of which are now recognised classics, provide a fascinating and convenient digest of the development of his thought. Professer Skinner has been awarded the Balzan Prize Life Time Achievement Award for Political Thought, History and Theory. Full details of this award can be found at http://www.balzan.it/News_eng.aspx?ID=2474

• The major statements of one of the world’s leading intellectual historians, on the political thought of the Renaissance • Each essay revised and reset, with apparatus presented in consistent form • Numerous classic pieces, collected together for the first time

1. Introduction; 2. The rediscovery of republican values; 3. Ambrogio Lorenzetti and the portrayal of virtuous government; 4. Ambrogio Lorenzetti on the power and glory of republics; 5. Republican virtues in an age of princes; 6. Machiavelli on virtu and the maintenance of liberty; 7. The idea of negative liberty: Machiavelli and modern perspectives; 8. Thomas More’s Utopia and the virtue of true nobility; 9. Was there a Calvinist theory of revolution? 10. Moral ambiguity and the renaissance art of eloquence; 11. John Milton and the politics of slavery; 12. Classical liberty, Renaissance translation and the English civil war; 13. From the state of princes to the modern state; 14. Augustan party politics and Renaissance constitutional thought.

David Easton Award - Foundation of Political Theory Section of the American Political Science Association 2007

‘As a retrospective showcase of the work of a major scholar, this is impressive. Skinner’s ability to combine political and philosophical insight with minute knowledge of several centuries of political literature is awe inspiring.’ Robert Sugden, Times Higher Education Supplement

\' … this is a deeply impressive collection which displays Skinner\'s exceptional range.\' The New York Review