A. De Benedictis, True and False Liberty. Instructions for a Sovereign Pope. Camillo Paleotti’s De Republica bononiensi, in A. De Benedictis (ed), Libertas and Republicanism in Renaissance Bologna, published December 19th 2012 (original) (raw)
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During the Medicean ascendancy in Renaissance Florence, the city's Dominican Archbishop, Sant' Antonino Pierozzi, used the power of the pulpit to ensure that deeds undertaken by citizens were motivated not by self-interest (bonum particulare), but rather for the honour of God and the good of the republic – the common good of all (bonum commune). This article considers a range of texts from which he derived a language to express his particular vision of the city and its governance. I argue that preachers kept the idea of libertas alive in the consciousness of the city's inhabitants by drawing on sets of words that had both historical and contemporary resonance. Indeed, in the case of Florence and Archbishop Antonino, direct verbal borrowings served, at least implicitly, to link particular utterances to a long tradition and to shared ideals originating in the city's past. The article concludes with an examination of his hitherto unrecognized borrowings from the treatise on the cardinal virtues by Henry of Rimini OP, addressed to the citizens of Venice of the late 1290s, and with a reflection on how these words, envisaged for the polity of another time and place, had potency and authority within contemporary circumstances.
The rise of liberal constitutionalism in Italy: Pietro Verri and the French Revolution
Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2012
In the 1780s and 1790s, Pietro Verri (1728-97) wrote a large number of autobiographical and political texts, which have only recently been collected and printed in two volumes of the Edizione Nazionale of Verri's works. These writings are examined in this essay as documents of a turn from enlightened absolutism to liberalism and democracy in Italy towards the end of the eighteenth century. Verri's acceptance of the principles of liberty and equality proclaimed by the French revolutionaries was made easier by his dissatisfaction with the authoritarian and bureaucratic nature of many of Joseph II's reforms. He also came to realize that the transition of sovereignty from the prince to the people was a necessary step in the way to the unification of the Italian peninsula, which became a political and not only a cultural goal in the same years. He was aware, however, of the difficulty of spreading these views among an ignorant, backward and priest-ridden populace and thought that their education was the most important task facing Italian literati. This explains why he firmly opposed the ultra-radical propaganda of Italian jacobins in the early stages of the French occupation of Lombardy.
Italian Constitutionalism and Its Origins
Steven G. Calabresi and Matteo Godi, 2020
Focusing on the evolution of constitutional thought in Italy is key to understand not only Italy's current legal order, but also constitutionalism more generally. In Italy, there has not been a true rupture point between the pre-unitary legal systems and the new constitutional order; a comprehensive study of Italian constitutional law, then, cannot do away with the preceding legal orders as modern textbooks do. And a study of modern constitutionalism cannot ignore Italy's contribution: centuries of attempts at constitutionalizing, detached from any meaningful revolutionary vacuum. This Article sets out to fill that gap by focusing on the little known, three-centuries-long history of Italian constitutionalism, and it does so by offering many previously unpublished English translations of Italian constitutions. Part II
I quaderni del m.ae.s, 2020
Despite Giuseppe Pardi's judgment that Borso d'Este lacked the ability to connect single parts of statecraft into a stable foundation, this study suggests that Borso conducted a coherent and successful foreign policy of peace, heightened prestige, and greater freedom to dispose. As a result, he was an active participant in the Quattrocento state system (Grande Politico Quadro) solidified by the Peace of Lodi (1454), and one of the most successful rulers of a smaller principality among stronger competitive states. He conducted his foreign policy based on four foundational principles. The first was stability. Borso anchored his statecraft by aligning Ferrara with Venice and the papacy. The second was display or the politics of splendor. The third was development of stored knowledge, based on the reputation and antiquity of Estense rule, both worldly and religious. The fourth was the politics of personality, based on Borso's affability, popularity, and other virtues. The culmination of Borso's successful statecraft was his investiture as Duke of Ferrara by Pope Paul II. His success contrasted with the disaster of the War of Ferrara, when Ercole I abandoned Borso's formula for rule. Ultimately, the memory of Borso's successful reputation was preserved for more than a century.
A Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Bologna
A Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Bologna, 2018
Bankers, Financial Institutions, and Politics 185 Massimo Giansante 8 Civic Institutions (12th-early 15th Centuries) 211 Giorgio Tamba 9 From One Conflict to Another (13th-14th Centuries) 239 Giuliano Milani 10 Libertas, Oligarchy, Papacy: Government in the Quattrocento 260 Tommaso Duranti vi Contents