BIG LITERATURE FIGURES

The Renaissance

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)The Prince

Machiavelli was from FlorenceWell educated in the classicsCareer was in public service and he

eventually served as the ambassador to France

Favored republican rule over despotismMachiavelli was tortured and imprisoned

for a time when Medici rule was reinstated after a conflict with a Spanish mercenary army

He retired to the country and wrote The Prince

The Prince

Written in Italian (not Latin)Observations and commentary on political rule and

power (Medicis)Addressed the issue of effective rule

How to gain and maintain order and controlStressed the practical (pragmatic) over the ethical

or moral More secular and humanistic

Challenged the idea of a social order based on God’s will

Political science- Politics was to be governed by its own laws

“…it is safer to be feared than to be loved…”

The Courtier by Castiglione 1528

Written in ItalianTreatise on the training of young men in the

courtly ideal of a Renaissance gentlemanStressed the value of education and mannersInfluenced social mores and norms during the

period

Desiderius Erasmus –scholar and theologian

The Praise of Folly Criticism of the abuses

and worldliness of the Church and papacy

Dutch Renaissance humanist

Sir Thomas More

Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of Henry VIII- highest political office in England

Lawyer and scholarWrote Utopia – explored the idea of a

“perfect” societyEventually executed by Henry VIII for

refusing to agree to the king and Parliament’s Act of Supremacy

Utopia

Martin Luther

Associated with the Protestant Reformation

Critical of Church corruption and abuses

Sought reform Wrote the first

translation of the Bible in German

95 theses