~~s,or~ofEuropeon Ideos.Vol. Ih,No. 4-6. PP. 599-605. '993 0191-6599/93 $6.00+0.00

Printed in Great Britarn 0 1993 Pergamon Press Ltd

THE UTOPIA OF A PERFECT PRINCE: RECURRENCES IN MODERN EUROPE’S ‘MIRRORS FOR THE PRINCE’

ANA ISABEL BUESCU

In a text dealing with the relations between the building of the modern state and cultural manifestations, Roger Chartier states that the development of that kind of state, between the 13th and the 17th centuries, follows three different but convergent strategies: the order of discourse, the order of signs, the order of ceremonies. More than convergent, they are twined together in a complex texture the aim of which is ‘rGt&er sa ltgitimitt, r&affirmer son ordre, rep&enter sa puissance’. ’

Although it may be difficult, in conceptual terms, to dissociate these three orders, as Chartier stresses,2 it becomes neverthless instrumental to understand the contours of each one. The development of the modern State, its legitimation and the way such a legitimation is represented imply, among several other factors the image of the prince as head of the state. The building of that image is perhaps the best example of the conceptual impossibility of disarticulating the orders referred by Chartier. In fact, it is made up of multiple strategies which may be found either in the order of discourse, of signs, or of ceremonies, bringing about a ‘grammar’ which generating symbolic implications about the prince, make him a symbol and gradually an ‘antonomasia’ of the state.)

This paper has mainly to do with the order of discourse, particularly, the discourse about the image of the perfect prince. This discourse about the ideal prince mainly manifests itself in the existence of a vast political, moral, pedagogic and normative literature written for the prince which, tracing its roots back to Antiquity and being shaped during the Middle Ages, still plays an important part in the 16th and 17th century Europe, while naturally showing its own specificities.

We are here dealing with the so-called ad usum delphini literature, the aim of which is to build the image of the ideal prince, a paragon of moral virtue and good government. Implying a political, juridical and philosophical type of discourse, sometimes difficult to circumscribe,4 the mirrors for the prince render not only a pedagogic dimension but mainly a representation of the royal office such as it is being formulated and understood. Although written for and addressed to a particular prince, they become normative and doctrinal texts, as Lester Born5 stresses, while the presence and specificity of a particular addressee is frequently toned down in them.

Referring to the Middle Ages (omitting a more specific reference to this literary genre in Classical Antiquity, where one can find authors such as Dion, Isocrates and Xenophon), leaving aside the isolated case of St Martin of Dume (500-580), author of two works considered to be the first ‘treatises’ on the education of princes in Christian Europe: Formula Vitae Honestae,6 and Exhortatio

*Ava E.U.A. No. 20-70 Dto, 1700 Lisboa, Portugal. 599

600 Ana Isabel Buescu

Humilitatis. we can find a Grst significant moment in the formulation and definition of the genre during the Carolingian period.

In this period and in those which followed. as Dora Bell points out, ‘la conduite des princes formait la substance d’innombrables trait& de morale’,’ we have several works by Smaragdus of Verdun, Sedulius of Liege, Jonas of Orleans and Hincmar of Reims8 But it is undoubtedly as from the 12th and 13th centuries that the treatises for the education of the prince thrive thus appearing works which would prove to be fundamental for the establishment of this genre. To be referred among the most significant works of this period are: the Polzcraticus ( 1159) by John of Salisbury (1150-l 180), the Erudittone Filiorum Nobilium by Vincent of Beauvais, written around 1246 for the future King Philip III of France, the Eruditio Regum et Principum by the Franciscan Gilbert of Tournai (?-1270), written in 1259 for King Louis IX of France, the De Regimine Principum by St Thomas Aquinas, composed around 1265-1266 and dedicated to the King of Cyprus, and the work with the same title by Giles of Rome (1247-1316), of about 1287, written on request of Philip the Fair, this work having become the true model for this genre of literature. This is but a brief reference to some of the most outstanding works on the subject of the education of a prince in the Middle Ages.’ Nevertheless, it will allow us a number of considerations that we think to be important.

Firstly, the importance of the 13th century in the development of the genre, not only in what concerns the number of works which were written, but also their value. But another approach can be attempted. This increase or even, according to J.P. Genet, the creation of the genuine genre of the mirror for the prince in the second half of the 13th century occurs in the Capetingian court.‘” The close link between the writing of these treatises and the French court is quite evident. Written on request of the prince himself or for his education, bearing in mind hrs future royal functions, these works are integrated and are conditioned by the atmosphere of a court in which the concern for the affirmation of the royal function is evident.

If the relation with the court is undoubtedly important m what concerns the flourishing of this literature in France as from the 13th century, another conclusion is clear: with the exception of the Enseignements by Louis IX (ca. 1267). a series of thirty-three advices written for his son Philip, the future monarch, all these works are most likely written by clergymen,” who wrotefbr the king and about the king; from this we can infer the dimension of the interactions between court culture and church culture, and the fundamental role played by the church in what concerns the normative discourse upon the royal

function. Finally. we must refer to the mutation which occurred in the literature adusum

&lphlhini precisely m the 13th century, when the presence of Aristotelic philosophy becomes quite evident. As a matter of fact, the works of St Thomas Aquinas and, especially, of his disciple Giles of Rome whose De Regimrne Principum, as we have already stated. would from now on be the model of the mirrors for the prince, establish the triumph of the Aristotelic paradigm in the doctrinal literature for the education of princes.”

The existence of such a pedagogic and normative literature meant for princes was also important in Portugal, although it only appeared rather late. The

The Utopia of a Perfect Prince 601

presence of this type of literature was influenced by the Aristotelic philosophy although in an indirect way, and it would play an important role in Portugal until late.

The first treatise by a Portuguese author, the Speculum Regum, written between 1341 and 1344 by Alvaro Pais, bishop of Silves and dedicated to Alphonse XI of Castile, one of the winners of the battle of Salado (fought against the Moors in 1340), reflects the teachings of Aristotles through St Thomas Aquinas, namely in what concerns the forms of government.i3 Divided into two parts, the first handles the duties and the rights of the kings and the second is mainly an exposition of the four virtues-prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance- which are a constant feature of these treatises.

But the most outstanding reflection upon the education and duties of the prince is no doubt the one given through a didactic literature in the court of the princes of Avis. I’ Apart from the treatise on horseback hunting Livro da ~~nt~ria, by King John I, written between 1415 and 1433, his son and successor King Duarte is the author of two of the most important and original works of the Portuguese culture: the Lea1 Conselheiro, a book which reveals a great deal of modernity through its intimist tone, in which psychological situations, feelings and moods are analysed, and the Livro da Ensinanca de Bern Cavalgar Toda Sela, considered by Joseph Pie1 to be ‘the first treatise on horseback riding of European literature’.” It was written more than a century before the art of horseback riding was created by Giovanni Battista Pignatelli and his disciple Federico Grisone, who in 1550 published his famous treatise Gli ordini di cavalcare. ‘6

Prince Peter (1392-1449), King Duarte’s brother, should also be mentioned. He was better known as the ‘traveller to the seven corners of the world’, due to the trips he undertook between 1425 and 1428 in Europe, visiting Spain, France, Flanders, England and reaching Hungary, Moldavia and Walachia. He was a man of superior intellectual value and the author of a moral treatise, dedicated to his brother the king, called Livro da Virtuosa Benfeitoria.‘l

All these works, although written for different purposes, were aimed at a highly cultivated court in which the concern for pedagogical matters is evident, mainly in what concerns the king and the noblemen. If in his work, King John stresses the harmony of the body and the spirit, through the leisure and ‘divertissement’ that hunting can produce as a sport intended for kings and noblemen, in Lea1 Conselheiro by King Duarte and in Livro da Virtuosa Benfeitoria by Prince Peter we can find in a more explicit form this pedagogical mtention.

In what concerns the didactic intention in relation with the prince and good ruling which can be found in these works. we should stress the knowledge and the importance of De Regimine Principum by Giles of Rome, which is referred to eight times in King Duarte’s Lea1 Conselheiro, and was part of King Duarte’s library as well as of his father’s, King John I. The De Regimine Principum has already been considered to be ‘the most direct and lively source of political theory as well as of government norms of the two first monarchs of the dinasty of Avis’. I8

The presence in the culture of the court of this genre of literature and the importance of the classical tradition can also be considered in the concern in

602 Ana Isabel Buescu

translating into Portuguese a series of significative texts. Prince Peter played an outstanding role contributing with important books; his Livro da Virtuosa 3enfeiioriu was inspired by De ~e~e~ei~s by Seneca, he translated the Livro dos Oficios by Cicero and the I)e Re ~il~~ari by Vegecio. With the purpose of guiding King Alphonse V’s political formation he asked Vasco Fernandes de Lucenaig to translate the IngenuisMoribus by P. Vergerio ( 1370-1444),20 whom he had met on his trip to Hungary, as well as the Panegirico from Pliny to Trajan. We probably also owe to Prince Peter, the regent during King Alphonse V’s minority, the initiative of asking Vasco Fernandes de Lucena to write the Tratado das Virtudes que ao rei pertencem, also intended for the education of the king, and of which only the Prologue still exists.2’

Although the importance of this genre attains its peak during the mediaeval period, its importance remains but, of course, it assumes characteristics which are specific of the Modern Ages. We can, in fact, say that we encounter the mediaeval model both in what concerns the style as well as certain themes- monarchy as the ideal political regime, the dignity and duties of the prince, the observance of virtues, namely the four cardinal virtues and the concomitant vices to avoid-which the literature for the education of the prince still conveys.

This feature has to do with the Aristotelic paradigm established, as we have already referred, in the 13th century, with the treatises of Aquinas and Giles of RI tme, and which then established the fundamental parameters of the genre. It is, thus, and under this precise perspective, a genre which is by nature conservative, whose aim, rather than innovating, is to adequate to the models which rose as its paradigms.

The maintenance of the vitality of this genre and the ambiguities of the conscience of a rupture with the mediaeval universe are widely displayed in Erasmus, who in 15 16 wrote his I~s~~~u~io Principis C~r~s~ian~, dedicated to the future emperor Charles V, in which this inheritance is quite clear, as well as in the Institution du Prince (1516-1519) by Guillaume Bud&, dedicated to Francis I. This compromise with the mediaeval inheritance of the mirrors for princes is quite evident in the Portuguese treatises of this time, as in the case of the book by Diogo Lopes Rebelo, De Republica Gu~ernanda per Regem (1496) dedicated to King Manuel I, or in the Condi@es e partes, que hade ter urn born Principe by Lourenco de Caceres (ca 1490-1531), dedicated to Prince Louis, King John III’s brother.

This fact is also clear in works which also reflect the influence of Italian humanism, as in the treatises by Frei Antonio de Beja (1493-?), the Breve Dou~rina e Ens~nan~a de Principes ( 1525) dedicated to King John III, and by the great humanist D. Jeronimo Osorio (1506-1580?), f>e Regis Insti~utione et Disciplina (1571), dedicated to King Sebastian. The presence of the mediaeval paradigm in these works has mainly to do with the normative dimension of the ideal image of the prince as a model of virtues. In this sense, and to a certain extent, one can speak of a ‘utopic’ dimension which is common to the political literature ad usum de~p~jni in portraying the perfect Christian prince, which the European political scene in the 16th century would deny in a, sometimes, pungent way.

There are, however, different moments which we can detect in the develop- ment of these treatises during the 16th and 17th centuries. In the first place, we

The Utopia of a Perfect Prince 603

should mention the appearance of The Prince (1513) by Machiavelli and the ruptures he introduced with his work: from the idealdimension of the prince and government to the realism in politics- that is, the dissolution of the normative dimension, which was a fundamental feature of the traditional conception of this type of literature. One might consider that with the appearance of political realism of Machiavellian inspiration, there is a clear decline in the utopic and ideal aspiration of the perfect prince.

The political and ideological resonance of the ruptures formulated by Machiavelli will have a decisive importance in the redefinition of the treatises for the education of the prince which will, in contrast, stress the ethicaldimension of the exercise of power. This orientation will have an unusual relevance in the Hispanic world. Indeed, this reorientation of the treatises for the education of the prince is clearly in opposition to the principles established by Machiavelli, and it is particularly noticeable in Spain, where the most outstanding, among several titles, are the works by P. Pedro de Rivadeneira, Tratado de la religidn y virtudes que debe tener el Principe cristiano para gobernar y conservar sus estados, contra lo que Nicolcis Maquiavelo y lospoliticos deste tiempo ensetian (1597), and by Diogo de Saavedra Fajardo, Idea de un Principepolitico cristiano representada en cien empresas ( 1640).22

‘Lato sensu’ states Vergilio Taborda, the author of a pioneer essay in Portugal, ‘all the Portuguese and Spanish politics of the time is anti-Machiavellian, in that sense that it gives religion and moral the first plan’.23 This axiom will guide more recent works, in which we can include the essays by Martim de Albuquerque on the traditional Portuguese ethics, which he considers to be systematically hostile to Machiavelli. The works by D. Jerdnimo Osbrio, De Nobilitate civile et christiana (1542), and by Pedro Barbosa Homem, Discursos de la juridica y verdadera razo’n de Estado formados sobre la vida y acciones del-rey D. Juan II de buena memoria, rey de Portugal (1626) are the most significant examples.24

This issue is clearly linked with the problem of the Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation which will stress the question of the spirituality of the Christian-and Catholic-prince, and the notion of the ‘true reason of state’, by antinomy with Machiavelli, stressing the need of Christian virtues for a good ruling, against Machiavelli and the heresies. 25 These developments will reflect in a decisive way upon the political literature in general and, consequently, also through treatises for the prince, in the representation of the prince in the Modern Ages; thus completely disappearing a somewhat Unitarian concept which was inherited from mediaeval times and, until then, characterised the image of the perfect prince.

Universidade Nova de Lisboa Ana Isabel Buescu

NOTES

1. Roger Chartier, ‘Construction de I’Etat Moderne et formes culturelles: perspectives et questions’, Culture et idkologie dans la genkse de I’Etat Moderne, Actes de la table ronde org. par le CNRS et 1’Ecole FranCaise de Rome (1984) (Rome, 1985), p. 497.

604 Ana Isabel Buescu

2. Idem. tbidem, p. 499. 3. Thus the importance, for instance, ofessays on the royal entrances (Bernard Guente),

the ceremonies. namely the coronation (Ralph Giesey, R.A. Jackson) and the king’s death (R. Giesey), or the symbolic attributes of the royalty (P. Schramm, A.-M. Lecoq).

4. Jean-Philippe Genet. ‘General Introduction’, in Four Political Tracts of the Later Middle Ages, Camden Fourth Series, vol. 18 (Univ. College, London, 1977). pp. IX-XI.

5. Lester K. Born, ‘The perfect prince: a study in thirteenth and fourteenth ideals’, Speculum. A Journal of Medieval Studies, vol. III, no. 21 (January 1928). pp. 470-471.

6. For a long time imputed to Seneca, in spite of the doubts which have started to arise since the 14th century; see Rosamund Tuve, ‘Notes on the virtues and vices’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauid Instrtutes, t. 26 (1963), p. 265. The definitive authorship of this work was established by Claude W. Barlow in Martin1 Episc Bracarensis Opera

Omma, 1950. 7. Dora Bell, L’IdealEthigue de la Royaute en France au Moyen Age (Paris. 1962), p. 9. 8. Idem, ibzdem, pp. 17-28. 9. W. Berges, Dte Fiirstenspiegeldes hohen undspdten Mittelalters (1938); Dora Bell, op.

cit.; Lester Born, op.cit.; J.-P. Genet, op.cit.

10. J.-P. Genet, op.cit., p. XII. 11. Dora Bell, op.cit., p. 9; J.-P. Genet, op.ctt.. p. XIII; Nicholas Orme, From Childhood

to Chivalry. The Education of the English Kmgs andAristocracy (1066-1530) (London, 1984), p. 90.

12. Lester Born, in his classical essay (see above note 5), does not hesitate in separating the pre-Aristotelic treatises and those of Aristotelic influence. Op. cit., pp. 502-503.

13. Martim de Albuquerque. 0 poder politico no Renascimento PortuguCs (Lisboa, 1968), pp. 51-52.

14. This dynasty, the second m the Portuguese history, started with King John I (who reigned between 1385 and 1433), an illegitimate child of King Peter 1(1357-367). The name ‘Avis’ derives from the fact that its founder was the Master ofthe military order which had its siege in this town of Alentejo, the Portuguese branch of the Hispanic Order of Calatrava. King John I married Philippa of Lancaster, sister of the English King Henry IV; the so-called Avis princes were born of this wedlock, among which Duarte (who reigned between 1433 and 1438), Peter (regent during the minority of his nephew, Alphonse V, between 1438 and 1446), and Henry, the Navigator.

15. Joseph Piel, critical edition of the Lzvro da Ensinanca de Bern Cavalgar Toda Sela (Lisboa, 1944), ‘Prefacio’, p. VIII.

16. Idem, ibidem, p. IX. 17. Among the considerable number of essays on Prince Peter, see Robert Ricard,

‘L’Enfant Pedro de Portugal et 0 Livro da Virtuosa Benfeitoria’, Bulletin des Etudes Portugarses, Lisboa, 17, 1953, pp. l-65; F. Elias Tejada, ‘Ideologia e utopia no Livro da Virtuosa Benfeitorta’, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, Braga, 3, 1947, pp. 5-19; Francis Rogers, The Travels of the Infante Dom Pedro of Portuga/(Cambridge, 1961).

18. Joaquim de Carvalho, ‘Sobre a erudicao de Gomes Eanes de Zurara’, Estudossobrea Cultura Portuguesa do secuio XV, vol. I (Coimbra, 1949), p. 99.

19. Vasco Fernandes de Lucena (?-1499), historian, responsible for the Torre do Tombo (royal archives which date back to the beginning of the Portuguese monarchy), ambassador and a remarkable Latin scalar.

20. This work of Paulo Vergerio is considered to be the first humanist treatise on education: it was very popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. On Vergerio, see among others the excellent article by David Robey, ‘Humanism and education in the early Quattrocento: The Ingenuis Moribus of P.P. Vergerio’, Bibliotheque dHumanisme et

Renaissance, t. 42 (1980), pp. 27-58.

The Utopia of a Perfect Prince 605

21. On all this matter, see Joseph Piel, critical edition of the Portuguese translation of the Livro dos Oficios (Coimbra, 1948) ‘Introducao’, p. 17.

22. Jose Maria Castro y Calvo, EI Arte de Gobernar en la obras de Don Juan Manuel (Barcelona, CSIC, 1945), especially ‘Tercera Parte’, Educacidn de Principes (siglos XVZy XVII) (Madrid, CSIC, 1948), pp. 57-74. This does not mean that there is not a strong Machiavellian component in the Spanish political thought, not to mention, of course, the ‘practical Machiavellism’. See Jose Antonio Maravall, ‘Maquiavelo y el Maquia-velismo en Espafia, Estudios de Historia del pensamiento espaiiol (Madrid, 1975), pp. 39-76 and H. Puigdomenech, Maquiavelo en Esparia. Presencia de sus obras en 10s siglos XVZy XVII (1988).

23. Vergilio Taborda, Maquiavel e Antimaquiavel (Coimbra, 1939). p. 123. See above, note 22.

24. Martim de Albuquerque, 0 poder politico. (see above, note 13), and by the same author A sombra de Maquiavel e a Ptica tradicionalportuguesa(Lisboa, 1974); R.O.W. Goertz, ‘Jeronimo Osbrio’s political thought’, Studia40, (Lisboa, 1978), pp. 273-277; Giacinto Manupella, ‘0 anti-maquiavelismo de D. Jeronimo Osorio’, Carnoes e D. Jerdnimo Osdrio na histdria e na cultura portuguesas. Actas do coldquio, (Lisboa,

Academia Portuguesa de Historia, 1980); Luis Reis Torgal, Zdeologia Politica e Teoria do Estado na Restauractio (Coimbra, 1978). On Barbosa Homem, see Pierre Mesnard, ‘Barbosa Homem et la conception baroque de la raison d’Etat’, Christzan- estmo e Ragion di Stato. I’Umanesimo e il Demonic0 neN’ arte. Atti de1 IV Congress0 Internazionali di Studi Umanistici a cura di Enrico Castelli (Roma-Milan, 1953).

25. See among many others the article by R. Darricau, ‘La spiritualite du prince’, XVZZe

Siecle, nos 62-63 (1964), pp. 78-111.