The reason of state
By: Botero ; edited by Robert Bireley
Contributors: Bireley, Robert, editor
Series: Cambridge texts in the history of political thought; Cambridge texts in the history of political thought
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9781107141827; 9781316506721
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Early works to 1800; The State; Political science; Reason of state
Work titles: Della ragion di stato
Description: Niccolò Machiavelli's seminal work, The Prince, argued that a ruler could not govern morally and be successful. Giovanni Botero disputed this argument and proposed a system for the maintenance and expansion of a state that remained moral in character. Founding an anti-Machiavellian tradition that aimed to refute Machiavelli in practice, Botero is an important figure in early modern political thought, though he remains relatively unknown. His most notable work, Della ragion di Stato, first popularised the term 'reason of state' and made a significant contribution to a major political debate of the time--the perennial issue of the relationship between politics and morality--and the book became a political 'bestseller' in the late sixteenth and the seventeenth century. This translation of the 1589 volume introduces Botero to a wider Anglophone readership and extends this influential text to a modern audience of students and scholars of political thought--
Notes: Translation of: Della ragion di stato.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Translated from the Italian.