The Politica of Justus Lipsius and the Commonplace-Book

Journal of the History of Ideas

Volumn 59, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 421-436

  Moss, Ann ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0346337248     PISSN: 00225037     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3653895     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. See F. Goyet, Le Sublime du "lieu commun": l'invention rhétorique dans l'Antiquité et à la Renaissance (Paris, 1996); A. Moss, Printed Commonplace-books and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought (Oxford, 1996); and also, Ann Blair, The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science (Princeton, 1997).
2. See F. Goyet, Le Sublime du "lieu commun": l'invention rhétorique dans l'Antiquité et à la Renaissance (Paris, 1996); A. Moss, Printed Commonplace-books and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought (Oxford, 1996); and also, Ann Blair, The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science (Princeton, 1997).
3. See F. Goyet, Le Sublime du "lieu commun": l'invention rhétorique dans l'Antiquité et à la Renaissance (Paris, 1996); A. Moss, Printed Commonplace-books and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought (Oxford, 1996); and also, Ann Blair, The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science (Princeton, 1997).
4. Among its most discriminating readers, Montaigne calls it approvingly "ce docte et laborieux tissu" (Essais, I, xxvi, "De l'institution des enfants," ed. A. Thibaudet [Paris, 1950], 180). Charles Sorel, rather later, is on the whole ambivalent about the status of quotation collections, but makes an exception for the Politica: "Les Politiques de Juste Lipse sont des Sentences qu'il a recueillies de tous les bons Autheurs de l'antiquité, tellement qu'il n'y a de lui que l'ordre et la contexture, mais il y a parfaitement reüssi, et c'est le plus beau Recueil du Monde" (La Bibliothèque française [Paris, 1664], 60).
5. Among its most discriminating readers, Montaigne calls it approvingly "ce docte et laborieux tissu" (Essais, I, xxvi, "De l'institution des enfants," ed. A. Thibaudet [Paris, 1950], 180). Charles Sorel, rather later, is on the whole ambivalent about the status of quotation collections, but makes an exception for the Politica: "Les Politiques de Juste Lipse sont des Sentences qu'il a recueillies de tous les bons Autheurs de l'antiquité, tellement qu'il n'y a de lui que l'ordre et la contexture, mais il y a parfaitement reüssi, et c'est le plus beau Recueil du Monde" (La Bibliothèque française [Paris, 1664], 60).
6. v).
7. E.g., R. Tuck, Philosophy and Government 1572-1651 (Cambridge, 1993), 45-62.
8. E.g., J. Lafond, "Le centon et son usage dans la littérature morale et politique," in J. Lafond and A. Stegmannn (eds.), L'Automne de la Renaissance 1580-1630 (Paris, 1981), 117-28.
9. The best short account of the Politica in relation to other aspects of Lipsius's works is probably M. Morford, "Tacitean Prudentia and the Doctrines of Justus Lipsius," in T. J. Luce and A. J. Woodman (eds.), Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition (Princeton, 1993), 129-51, and Stoics and the Neostoics: Rubens and the Circle of Lipsius (Princeton, 1991). For a fuller review of the political theories contained in the Politico, see G. Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State, B. Oestreich and H. G. Koenigsberger (eds.), D. McLintock (trs.) (Cambridge, 1982), esp. ch. 3; also J. Jehasse, La Renaissance de la critique: L'essor de l'humanisme érudit de 1560 à 1614 (Saint-Etienne, 1976), and C. Mouchel, Cicéron et Sénèque dans la rhétorique de la Renaissance (Marburg, 1990). For an application to Lipsius of ideas contained in this paper, see J. Waszink, "Inventio in the Politica: Commonplace Books and the Shape of Political Theory," K. Enenkel and C. Heesakkers (eds.), Lipsius in Leiden (Voorthuizen, 1997), 141-62.
10. The best short account of the Politica in relation to other aspects of Lipsius's works is probably M. Morford, "Tacitean Prudentia and the Doctrines of Justus Lipsius," in T. J. Luce and A. J. Woodman (eds.), Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition (Princeton, 1993), 129-51, and Stoics and the Neostoics: Rubens and the Circle of Lipsius (Princeton, 1991). For a fuller review of the political theories contained in the Politico, see G. Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State, B. Oestreich and H. G. Koenigsberger (eds.), D. McLintock (trs.) (Cambridge, 1982), esp. ch. 3; also J. Jehasse, La Renaissance de la critique: L'essor de l'humanisme érudit de 1560 à 1614 (Saint-Etienne, 1976), and C. Mouchel, Cicéron et Sénèque dans la rhétorique de la Renaissance (Marburg, 1990). For an application to Lipsius of ideas contained in this paper, see J. Waszink, "Inventio in the Politica: Commonplace Books and the Shape of Political Theory," K. Enenkel and C. Heesakkers (eds.), Lipsius in Leiden (Voorthuizen, 1997), 141-62.
11. The best short account of the Politica in relation to other aspects of Lipsius's works is probably M. Morford, "Tacitean Prudentia and the Doctrines of Justus Lipsius," in T. J. Luce and A. J. Woodman (eds.), Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition (Princeton, 1993), 129-51, and Stoics and the Neostoics: Rubens and the Circle of Lipsius (Princeton, 1991). For a fuller review of the political theories contained in the Politico, see G. Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State, B. Oestreich and H. G. Koenigsberger (eds.), D. McLintock (trs.) (Cambridge, 1982), esp. ch. 3; also J. Jehasse, La Renaissance de la critique: L'essor de l'humanisme érudit de 1560 à 1614 (Saint-Etienne, 1976), and C. Mouchel, Cicéron et Sénèque dans la rhétorique de la Renaissance (Marburg, 1990). For an application to Lipsius of ideas contained in this paper, see J. Waszink, "Inventio in the Politica: Commonplace Books and the Shape of Political Theory," K. Enenkel and C. Heesakkers (eds.), Lipsius in Leiden (Voorthuizen, 1997), 141-62.
12. The best short account of the Politica in relation to other aspects of Lipsius's works is probably M. Morford, "Tacitean Prudentia and the Doctrines of Justus Lipsius," in T. J. Luce and A. J. Woodman (eds.), Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition (Princeton, 1993), 129-51, and Stoics and the Neostoics: Rubens and the Circle of Lipsius (Princeton, 1991). For a fuller review of the political theories contained in the Politico, see G. Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State, B. Oestreich and H. G. Koenigsberger (eds.), D. McLintock (trs.) (Cambridge, 1982), esp. ch. 3; also J. Jehasse, La Renaissance de la critique: L'essor de l'humanisme érudit de 1560 à 1614 (Saint-Etienne, 1976), and C. Mouchel, Cicéron et Sénèque dans la rhétorique de la Renaissance (Marburg, 1990). For an application to Lipsius of ideas contained in this paper, see J. Waszink, "Inventio in the Politica: Commonplace Books and the Shape of Political Theory," K. Enenkel and C. Heesakkers (eds.), Lipsius in Leiden (Voorthuizen, 1997), 141-62.
13. The best short account of the Politica in relation to other aspects of Lipsius's works is probably M. Morford, "Tacitean Prudentia and the Doctrines of Justus Lipsius," in T. J. Luce and A. J. Woodman (eds.), Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition (Princeton, 1993), 129-51, and Stoics and the Neostoics: Rubens and the Circle of Lipsius (Princeton, 1991). For a fuller review of the political theories contained in the Politico, see G. Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State, B. Oestreich and H. G. Koenigsberger (eds.), D. McLintock (trs.) (Cambridge, 1982), esp. ch. 3; also J. Jehasse, La Renaissance de la critique: L'essor de l'humanisme érudit de 1560 à 1614 (Saint-Etienne, 1976), and C. Mouchel, Cicéron et Sénèque dans la rhétorique de la Renaissance (Marburg, 1990). For an application to Lipsius of ideas contained in this paper, see J. Waszink, "Inventio in the Politica: Commonplace Books and the Shape of Political Theory," K. Enenkel and C. Heesakkers (eds.), Lipsius in Leiden (Voorthuizen, 1997), 141-62.
14. The best short account of the Politica in relation to other aspects of Lipsius's works is probably M. Morford, "Tacitean Prudentia and the Doctrines of Justus Lipsius," in T. J. Luce and A. J. Woodman (eds.), Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition (Princeton, 1993), 129-51, and Stoics and the Neostoics: Rubens and the Circle of Lipsius (Princeton, 1991). For a fuller review of the political theories contained in the Politico, see G. Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State, B. Oestreich and H. G. Koenigsberger (eds.), D. McLintock (trs.) (Cambridge, 1982), esp. ch. 3; also J. Jehasse, La Renaissance de la critique: L'essor de l'humanisme érudit de 1560 à 1614 (Saint-Etienne, 1976), and C. Mouchel, Cicéron et Sénèque dans la rhétorique de la Renaissance (Marburg, 1990). For an application to Lipsius of ideas contained in this paper, see J. Waszink, "Inventio in the Politica: Commonplace Books and the Shape of Political Theory," K. Enenkel and C. Heesakkers (eds.), Lipsius in Leiden (Voorthuizen, 1997), 141-62.
15. "Quid enim aliud ista, quam velut tabulae quaedam dispositae, et LOCI COMMUNES sunt?" (Politica [1589], p. 3 of the Breves notae paginated separately at the end of the book).
16. v.
17. See M. Morford, "Tacitean Prudential," 134.
18. "Sermonis Latini bene peritus ... rerum etiam peritus" (Politica [1589], sig. ** 3 + 2). The chapters from the Epistolica institutio are in Justus Lipsius, The Principles of Letter Writing: A Bilingual Text of Justi Upsii "Epistolica Institutio," ed. and tr. R. V. Young and M. T. Hester (Carbondale, 1996), 34-51.
19. "Sermonis Latini bene peritus ... rerum etiam peritus" (Politica [1589], sig. ** 3 + 2). The chapters from the Epistolica institutio are in Justus Lipsius, The Principles of Letter Writing: A Bilingual Text of Justi Upsii "Epistolica Institutio," ed. and tr. R. V. Young and M. T. Hester (Carbondale, 1996), 34-51.
20. "Nec aranearum sane textus ideo melior, quia ex se fila gignunt: nee noster vilior, quia ex alienis libamus, ut apes" (Politica [1589], Breves notae, 4).
21. v).
22. The reproductions are taken from the Antwerp edition of 1623, and precisely replicate the typographical lay-out as well as the wording of the original 1589 edition. The pages are the recto and the verso of a single leaf. For convenience, they are here laid out as a single opening, which means that the margins are reversed. This does not materially affect the points made about the disposition of the text.
23. "Quid utilius potui, quam tot sententias in unum conducere: pulchras, acres, et, ita me Salus amet, ad salutem natas generis humani?... Ut in uno aliquo telo aut gladio multum interest, a qua manu veniat: sic in sententia, ut penetret, valde facit robustae alicuius et receptae Auctoritatis pondus" (Politica [1589], sig. ** 2). Mouchel, Cicéron et Sénèque is particularly informative about arguta dictio and prose style; Moss, Printed Commonplace-books, explains the connection between commonplace-books and dialectical stratagems.
24. "Quid utilius potui, quam tot sententias in unum conducere: pulchras, acres, et, ita me Salus amet, ad salutem natas generis humani?... Ut in uno aliquo telo aut gladio multum interest, a qua manu veniat: sic in sententia, ut penetret, valde facit robustae alicuius et receptae Auctoritatis pondus" (Politica [1589], sig. ** 2). Mouchel, Cicéron et Sénèque is particularly informative about arguta dictio and prose style; Moss, Printed Commonplace-books, explains the connection between commonplace-books and dialectical stratagems.
25. "Quid utilius potui, quam tot sententias in unum conducere: pulchras, acres, et, ita me Salus amet, ad salutem natas generis humani?... Ut in uno aliquo telo aut gladio multum interest, a qua manu veniat: sic in sententia, ut penetret, valde facit robustae alicuius et receptae Auctoritatis pondus" (Politica [1589], sig. ** 2). Mouchel, Cicéron et Sénèque is particularly informative about arguta dictio and prose style; Moss, Printed Commonplace-books, explains the connection between commonplace-books and dialectical stratagems.
26. "Eas [sententias] inter se haud indecenter vinximus, aut interdum velut caemento quodam commisimus nostrorum verborum" (Politica [1589], sig. ** 2); "Lapides et ligna ab aliis accipio ... architectus ego sum, sed materiam varie undique conduxi" (ibid., Breves notae, 3-4).
27. "Eas [sententias] inter se haud indecenter vinximus, aut interdum velut caemento quodam commisimus nostrorum verborum" (Politica [1589], sig. ** 2); "Lapides et ligna ab aliis accipio ... architectus ego sum, sed materiam varie undique conduxi" (ibid., Breves notae, 3-4).
28. "Quid enim aliud ista, quam tabulae quaedam dispositae, et LOCI COMMUNES sunt [upper case in the original], ad quos commode referas lecta tibi in hoc argumente aut legenda? Vide, et imitare" (Politica [1589], Breves notae, 3).
29. The most notorious subtelty of this kind was, of course, the potentially ambiguous "ure, seca" (burn, lance) applied to religious dissenters in Book IV. In his Adversus Dialogislam, Lipsius disdainfully implied to his vernacular critic, Dirck Coornhert, that only the non-Latinate would take this literally, because they would fail to recognize the Ciceronian medical metaphor.
30. "Nonne enim Centonem quendam concinno (tale omnino nostrum opus) in quo liberi semper et laudati a sententia isti flexus? Consulant poetas, qui olim et nunc sic luserunt" (Politica [1589], sig ** 3 + 1).
31. "Je ne dis les autres, sinon pour d'autant plus me dire. Cecy [his criticism of works which are strung together from quotations] ne touche pas des centons qui se publient pour centons: et j'en ay veu de tres-ingenieux en mon temps,., outre les anciens. Ce sont des esprits qui se font voir et par ailleurs et par là, comme Lipsius en ce docte et laborieux tissu de ses Politiques" (Essais, I. xxvi, ed. cit., 179-80). See F. Goyet, "A propos de 'ces pastissages de lieux communs,'" Bulletin de la Société des Amis de Montaigne, 5-6 (Jul-Dec., 1986), 11-26; "Le rôle des notes de lecture dans la genèse des Essais," ibid., 7-8 (Jan.-July, 1987), 9-30; "The Word 'Commonplaces' in Montaigne," in L. Hunter (ed.), Toward a Definition of Topos (London, 1991), 66-77.
32. "Je ne dis les autres, sinon pour d'autant plus me dire. Cecy [his criticism of works which are strung together from quotations] ne touche pas des centons qui se publient pour centons: et j'en ay veu de tres-ingenieux en mon temps,., outre les anciens. Ce sont des esprits qui se font voir et par ailleurs et par là, comme Lipsius en ce docte et laborieux tissu de ses Politiques" (Essais, I. xxvi, ed. cit., 179-80). See F. Goyet, "A propos de 'ces pastissages de lieux communs,'" Bulletin de la Société des Amis de Montaigne, 5-6 (Jul-Dec., 1986), 11-26; "Le rôle des notes de lecture dans la genèse des Essais," ibid., 7-8 (Jan.-July, 1987), 9-30; "The Word 'Commonplaces' in Montaigne," in L. Hunter (ed.), Toward a Definition of Topos (London, 1991), 66-77.
33. "Je ne dis les autres, sinon pour d'autant plus me dire. Cecy [his criticism of works which are strung together from quotations] ne touche pas des centons qui se publient pour centons: et j'en ay veu de tres-ingenieux en mon temps,., outre les anciens. Ce sont des esprits qui se font voir et par ailleurs et par là, comme Lipsius en ce docte et laborieux tissu de ses Politiques" (Essais, I. xxvi, ed. cit., 179-80). See F. Goyet, "A propos de 'ces pastissages de lieux communs,'" Bulletin de la Société des Amis de Montaigne, 5-6 (Jul-Dec., 1986), 11-26; "Le rôle des notes de lecture dans la genèse des Essais," ibid., 7-8 (Jan.-July, 1987), 9-30; "The Word 'Commonplaces' in Montaigne," in L. Hunter (ed.), Toward a Definition of Topos (London, 1991), 66-77.
34. "Je ne dis les autres, sinon pour d'autant plus me dire. Cecy [his criticism of works which are strung together from quotations] ne touche pas des centons qui se publient pour centons: et j'en ay veu de tres-ingenieux en mon temps,., outre les anciens. Ce sont des esprits qui se font voir et par ailleurs et par là, comme Lipsius en ce docte et laborieux tissu de ses Politiques" (Essais, I. xxvi, ed. cit., 179-80). See F. Goyet, "A propos de 'ces pastissages de lieux communs,'" Bulletin de la Société des Amis de Montaigne, 5-6 (Jul-Dec., 1986), 11-26; "Le rôle des notes de lecture dans la genèse des Essais," ibid., 7-8 (Jan.-July, 1987), 9-30; "The Word 'Commonplaces' in Montaigne," in L. Hunter (ed.), Toward a Definition of Topos (London, 1991), 66-77.
35. Lipsius calls his novel concatenation of borrowed words a "inopinatum quoddam stili genus" (Politica [1589], sig. ** v).
36. See Jehasse and Tuck; and for the effect of ideological disarray on writing-paradigms, see T. Hampton, Writing from History: The Rhetoric of Exemplarity in Renaissance Literature (Ithaca, 1990).
37. v).
38. "Ad summam, ut Phrygiones e varii coloris filo unum aliquod aulaeum formant; sic nos e mille aliquot particulis uniforme hoc et cohaerans corpus" (Politica [1589], sig. ** 2).
39. See Ann Moss, Printed Commonplace-books, ch. 6. The subject merits further research, but this paragraph gives the essentials of my conclusions so far. Commonplace-books, in so far as they mediated a common culture inherited from the Renaissance recovery of antiquity, crossed confessional boundaries and were agents for cultural unity in post-Reformation Europe, a function I believe Lipsius was promoting in the Politica.
40. Manita et exempla politica. Libri duo qui virtutes et vitia principum spectant, editions published at Louvain, Antwerp, and Paris in 1605; it was immediately translated into French, Les Conseils et exemples politiques de Juste Lipse (Paris, 1606), but there were probably no other translations until considerably later.
41. Manita et exempla politica. Libri duo qui virtutes et vitia principum spectant, editions published at Louvain, Antwerp, and Paris in 1605; it was immediately translated into French, Les Conseils et exemples politiques de Juste Lipse (Paris, 1606), but there were probably no other translations until considerably later.
42. Ercole Coti, Della politico, overo del governo di stato libri sei (Venice, 1618); see also J.-L. Fournel, "Une réception ambiguë: la diffusion de la pensée politique de Juste Lipse en langue vulgaire dans l'Italie de la première moitié du XVIIe siècle," in C. Mouchel (ed.), Juste Lipse (1547-1606) en son temps (Paris, 1996), 479-501.
43. Ercole Coti, Della politico, overo del governo di stato libri sei (Venice, 1618); see also J.-L. Fournel, "Une réception ambiguë: la diffusion de la pensée politique de Juste Lipse en langue vulgaire dans l'Italie de la première moitié du XVIIe siècle," in C. Mouchel (ed.), Juste Lipse (1547-1606) en son temps (Paris, 1996), 479-501.
44. Charles Le Ber, Les six livres des Politiques ou doctrine civile de Justus Upsius (La Rochelle, 1590); Simon Goulart, Les Politiques de Juste Lipsius (Geneva, 1594).
45. Charles Le Ber, Les six livres des Politiques ou doctrine civile de Justus Upsius (La Rochelle, 1590); Simon Goulart, Les Politiques de Juste Lipsius (Geneva, 1594).
46. Bernardino de Mendoça, Los seys libros de las Politicas o Doctrina Civil de lusto Lipsio (Madrid, 1604); I have yet to see the Dutch version of 1590, the Polish version of 1595, the German version of 1599, or the Italian version of 1604 by Antonio Numai.
47. W. Jones, Sixe Bookes of Politickes or Civil Doctrine, written by Justus Lipsius (London, 1594).
48. v.
49. Ibid., sig. A iiii.
50. For the publishing history see G. Oestreich, Antiker Geist und moderner Staat bei Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) (Göttingen, 1989) and, on its influence, his Neostoicism, ch. 6.
51. For the publishing history see G. Oestreich, Antiker Geist und moderner Staat bei Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) (Göttingen, 1989) and, on its influence, his Neostoicism, ch. 6.
52. Justi Lipsii Politicorum sive civilis doctrinae libri sex ... ex institute Matthiae Berneggeri (Frankfurt, 1674), sig. A 7 + 5v - B 3v. There are almost certainly more editions of this publication, possibly presented in different ways, than I have so far located. My 1664 edition is a "synopsis" made by J. A. Bostius for his students at Jena, and reprinted in 1667; my 1674 edition was prepared by J. H. Boecler, who succeeded Bernegger at Strasbourg in 1640, taught there until 1672, and then removed to Uppsala. See G. Oestreich, Neostoicism, ch. 6, passim. Durham University.
53. Justi Lipsii Politicorum sive civilis doctrinae libri sex ... ex institute Matthiae Berneggeri (Frankfurt, 1674), sig. A 7 + 5v - B 3v. There are almost certainly more editions of this publication, possibly presented in different ways, than I have so far located. My 1664 edition is a "synopsis" made by J. A. Bostius for his students at Jena, and reprinted in 1667; my 1674 edition was prepared by J. H. Boecler, who succeeded Bernegger at Strasbourg in 1640, taught there until 1672, and then removed to Uppsala. See G. Oestreich, Neostoicism, ch. 6, passim. Durham University.