Machiavelli and Mystery of State [Paperback]

This 1989 book studies the sacred and secular conceptions of kingship in the Renaissance.Six instances of the attempt to connect Machiavelli's thought to an ancient and secret tradition of political counsel, the arcana imperii, or mysteries of state, are documented in this study of the intersection of sacred and secular conceptions of kingship in the Renaissance.Six instances of the attempt to connect Machiavelli's thought to an ancient and secret tradition of political counsel, the arcana imperii, or mysteries of state, are documented in this study of the intersection of sacred and secular conceptions of kingship in the Renaissance.This book studies the intersection of sacred and secular conceptions of kingship in the Renaissance. The book documents in detail six instances of the attempt to connect Machiavelli's thought to an ancient and secret tradition of political counsel, the arcana imperii, or mysteries of state. The ways in which Renaissance writers attempted such a connection varied widely. In addition to carefully analyzing these arguments, the book documents patterns in their dissemination. Through his connection with mysteries of state, Machiavelli influenced not only Renaissance political ideas, but the transmission of these ideas. Machiavellian politics was a secret art; its vehicles, frequently secret books; and its authors and readers, sharers in a mystery.Preface; 1. Machiavelli and Antichrist: prophetic typology in Reginald Pole's De Unitate and Apologia ad Carolum Quintum; 2. Bishop Gardiner, Machiavellian; 3. John Wolfe, Machiavelli, and the republican arcana in sixteenth-century England; 4. Machiavelli and the arcana imperii; 5. Gabriel Naud?: magic and Machiavelli; 6. Biblical Machiavellism: Louis Machon's Apologie pour Machiavel; Index. I definitely recommend this book, not only to the scholarly specialist in the history of ideas, literature and political thought but to anyone who at some time has been intrigued by Machiavelli and the Machial³&