California Italian Studies Journal

Peer Reviewed

Title:

Reading Machiavelli Rhetorically: The Prince as Covert Critique of the Renaissance Prince

Journal Issue:

California Italian Studies, 2(2)

Author:

Ward, James O., Independent scholar

Publication Date:

2011

Permalink:

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4sc5s550

Acknowledgements:

I would like to give special thanks to Professors Maura Bergonzoni and Silvia Boero, formerly of Purdue University, for their enthusiastic interest in my studies in the theory and practice of innuendo, and also to Professor Robert Connor of Princeton University, who years ago introduced me to the writings of Tacitus, the gran maestro of this type of discourse. I would also like to thank Professors Gustavo Costa, Louise Clubb and Charles Greenewalt of UC Berkeley, for their unstinting encouragement of my academic efforts over the years, and also Professors Randolph Starn and Mary Dietz for their generous and encouraging comments on an earlier version of this essay. Professors James Monroe and Daniel Melia's seminars on Arabic literature and Medieval irony were truly inspiring. Sincere thanks are also due to the anonymous readers of this essay, without whose incisive comments and criticisms the article would never have appeared in this form, and also to the editors of this journal and its managing editor, Marisa Escolar, for their patience and very helpful comments on the essay. Special thanks are also owed to Professor Albert Ascoli, in whose workshop on Italy during the summer of 1993 I first learned to appreciate the value of an approach to literary studies which takes account of the complex and fascinating interdependence of literary text and cultural context. The author welcomes comments on this paper at jamesoliver037@gmail.com.

Author Bio:

James Ward is an independent scholar, living and working in Berkeley, California. He has particular interests in classical art, literature, and rhetoric and the intersection of politics and culture in Renaissance Italy, with particular attention to challenges to ecclesiastical and secular authorities during the period. He is currently completing a book on criticism of the Medici in Renaissance Florence.

Keywords:

Machiavelli, Prince, rhetoric, Medici, Florence, History, Italian Literature, Political Science and Government, Rhetoric

Local Identifier:

ismrg_cisj_8931