Plutarch's Prism
Classical Reception and Public Humanism in France and England, 1500–1800

Explores the reception of Plutarch in early modern French and English political thought, with a focus on the theme of public service.

Rebecca Kingston (Author)

9781009243483, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 September 2022

400 pages
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.8 cm, 0.816 kg

Throughout the early modern period, political theorists in France and England drew on the works of Plutarch to offer advice to kings and princes. Elizabeth I herself translated Plutarch in her later years, while Jacques Amyot's famous translations of Plutarch's The Parallel Lives led to the wide distribution of his work and served as a key resource for Shakespeare in the writing of his Roman plays, through Sir Thomas North's English translations. Rebecca Kingston's new study explores how Plutarch was translated into French and English during the Renaissance and how his works were invoked in political argument from the early modern period into the 18th century, contributing to a tradition she calls 'public humanism'. This book then traces the shifting uses of Plutarch in the Enlightenment, leading to the decline of this tradition of 'public humanism'. Throughout, the importance of Plutarch's work is highlighted as a key cultural reference and for its insight into important aspects of public service.

List of figures
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Setting the Stage: 1. A brief introduction to Plutarch and a comparison of Cicero and Plutarch on public ethics
2. The secret history of Plutarch (and the history of Pseudo-Plutarch) and a brief account of reception in renaissance Italy
Part II. 3. Plutarch in early French renaissance public humanism: Geoffroy Tory and Guillaume Budé
4. Plutarch in early French renaissance public humanism: Desiderius Erasmus and Claude de Seyssel
5. Tudor Plutarch
6. Plutarch in later French humanism and reformation: Georges de Selve, Jacques Amyot and Jean Bodin
7. Bernard de Girard Du Haillan and Michel de Montaigne on thinking through the public good in a time of civil discord
Part III. 8. Shedding new light on Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (1651)
9. Plutarch on stage: Shakespeare, Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine
10. Plutarch in the long eighteenth century with a focus on British and Irish political thought
11. Plutarch in French enlightenment thought: the Abbé de Saint-Pierre, the Abbé Mably and Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Social & political philosophy [HPS], European history [HBJD], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]