A Critical Companion to the 'Mirrors for Princes' Literature

Noëlle-Laetitia Perret is Professor in Medieval History at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and Associate Researcher at the École Pratique des Hautes Études – PSL, Paris. She has published studies on social, cultural and diplomatic history of late medieval Europe, including Les traductions françaises du « De regimine principum » de Gilles de Rome(Brill, 2011). Stéphane Péquignot is Research Professor of History at the École Pratique des Hautes Études – PSL, Paris, and Associate Researcher at the Universidade Nova of Lisbon. His main research fields are the history of diplomacy, the Crown of Aragon, the history of historiography and archives. His publications include Au nom du roi. Pratique diplomatique et pouvoir durant le règne de Jacques II d’Aragon (1291-1327) (Casa de Velázquez, 2009).

Notes on Contributors



Introduction

 Stéphane Péquignot and Noëlle-Laetitia Perret



PART 1: Mapping the Mirrors of Princes’ Traditions



1 Ideal Models and Anti-Models of Kingship in Ancient Greek Literature: Mirror of Princes from Homer to Marcus Aurelius

 John R. Lenz

2 Greek and Roman Writers on the Virtues of Good Rulers: Praise, Instruction, and Constraint

 Tom Stevenson

3 Carolingian Mirrors for Princes: Texts, Contents, Impact

 Karl Ubl

4 Byzantine Mirrors for Princes: An Overview

 Günter Prinzing

5 The Conception of Power in Islam: Persian Mirrors of Princes and Sunni Theories (11th–14th Centuries)

 Denise Aigle

6 Western Medieval Specula, c. 1150–c. 1450

 Charles F. Briggs and Cary J. Nederman

7 Refutation, Parody, Annihilation: The End of the Mirror for Princes in Machiavelli, Vettori and Guicciardini

 Volker Reinhardt

8 Specula Principum and the Wise Governor in the Renaissance

 Sylvène Édouard



PART 2: The “Making of”, the Circulation and Uses of the Mirrors of Princes – A Thought in Motion



9 The Influence of Aristotle’s Thought on Arab Political-Philosophical Ideas

 Makram Abbès

10 The Arabic Mirrors for Princes as Witnesses to the Evolution of Political Thought

 Makram Abbès

11 Royal Power and Its Regulations: Narratives of Hārūn al-Rashīd in Three Mirrors for Princes

 Louise Marlow

12 The Pseudo-Aristotelian Secret of Secrets as a Mirror of Princes: A Cautionary Tale

 Steven J. Williams

13 The Castilian Versions of the Pseudo-Aristotle’s Secretum secretorum and French Versions of Giles of Rome’s De regimine principum (13th–16th Centuries)

 A Comparative Perspective

 Hugo Bizzarri and Noëlle-Laetitia Perret

14 The Relation between Wisdom Literature, Law, and the Mirrors of Princes: Castile and Sweden

 Olivier Biaggini and Corinne Péneau

15 The Use of Mirrors of Princes

 Hans-Joachim Schmidt

Conclusion: Mirrors for Princes and the Development of Reflections on the State

 Jean-Philippe Genet



Index