On Leaders and Tyrants

, Poggio Bracciolini, Guarino of Verona, Pietro del Monte, Hester Schadee (Edited and Translated by), Keith Sidwell (Edited and Translated by), David Rundle (As told to)

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Author
, Poggio Bracciolini, Guarino of Verona, Pietro del Monte, Hester Schadee (Edited and Translated by), Keith Sidwell (Edited and Translated by), David Rundle (As told to)
Publish Date
2024-09-17
Book Type
Hardcover
Publisher Name
Harvard University Press
Number of Pages
624
Edition
Bilingual
ISBN-10
0674297121
ISBN-13
9780674297128
SKU
9780674297128

Description

The first complete English translation of a controversial Renaissance debate centering moral questions on power and leadership.

Poggio Bracciolini was a prominent scholar-official of the early Renaissance and a leading representative of Florentine humanism. He was employed as a secretary to seven popes and ended his career as Chancellor of the Republic of Florence. On Leaders and Tyrants contains texts, the majority by Poggio, relating to a controversy on the relative merits of the lives and deeds of Scipio Africanus and Julius Caesar. The debate addressed the nature of tyranny and military glory, as well as the qualities necessary for republican leaders, such as Stoic virtue, lawfulness, and good citizenship. Poggio’s primary opponent was the educator Guarino of Verona, a humanist in the service of the duke of Ferrara. The psychology of power, the demands placed on public servants, and the dividing line between leadership and tyranny are as topical today as they were when Poggio wrote. This volume contains a fresh edition of the Latin texts and the first complete translation of the controversy into English.