Scipione Ammirato | |
|---|---|
,_RP-P-1909-4607.jpg) Portrait of Scipione Ammirato engraved by Francesco Allegrini after Giuseppe Zocchi (1763) | |
| Born | 7 October 1531 |
| Died | 11 January 1601 (aged 69) |
| Resting place | Florence Cathedral |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Occupation(s) | Historian and philosopher |
| Notable work | Discorsi sopra Cornelio Tacito Istorie Fiorentine |
| Era | Renaissance philosophy |
| Region | |
Main interests | Politics and political philosophy, military theory, history |
Scipione Ammirato (Italian: [ʃiˈpjoːne ammiˈraːto]; 7 October 1531 – 11 January 1601) was an Italian author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. He is regarded as an important figure in the history of political thought.
Ammirato's best-known work is the political treatise Discorsi sopra Cornelio Tacito (Discourses on Tacitus), published in 1594. The book soon became “an international classic” with numerous translations.[1] In his Discorsi Ammirato presents himself as an anti-Machiavellian from the start, leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to confute the main theses of Il Principe. Unlike Botero and Lipsius, Ammirato did not see Tacitism as a surrogate form of Machiavellianism. On the contrary, his Discorsi present the works of the Roman historian as an antidote to Il Principe, and this approach was to prove widely popular during the long Tacitus revival.[2]
Moreover, Ammirato's doctrine of reason of state defined such “reason” as violating neither natural nor divine law; it was the reason of the greater public good (such as public safety) and thus, in departing from the ordinary moral order in extraordinary circumstances, the modern prince did not come into conflict with Christianity.[3]
- ^ Tuck 1993, p. 69.
- ^ Jürgen Von Stackelberg, Tacitus in der Romania: Studien zur literarischen Rezeption des Tacitus in Italian und Frankreich 120–128.
- ^ “Ragion di Stato altro non essere che contravvenzione di legge ordinaria, per rispetto di pubblico beneficio, ovvero per rispetto di maggiore e più universale ragione.” See Rodolfo De Mattei, “Scipione Ammirato,” Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 3 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1961) 1-4; De Mattei, Il pensiero politico di Scipione Ammirato, con discorsi inediti (Milan: A. Giuffrè, 1963) 121-151 (the above citation appears on 124).