Critical Companion to the 'Mirrors for Princes' Literature

Noëlle-Laetitia Perret is Professor in Medieval History at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and Associate Researcher at the École Pratique des Hautes Études – PSL, Paris. She has published studies on social, cultural and diplomatic history of late medieval Europe, including Les traductions françaises du « De regimine principum » de Gilles de Rome(Brill, 2011).Stéphane Péquignot is Research Professor of History at the École Pratique des Hautes Études – PSL, Paris, and Associate Researcher at the Universidade Nova of Lisbon. His main research fields are the history of diplomacy, the Crown of Aragon, the history of historiography and archives. His publications include Au nom du roi. Pratique diplomatique et pouvoir durant le règne de Jacques II d’Aragon (1291-1327) (Casa de Velázquez, 2009).

• Notes on ContributorsIntroductionStéphane Péquignot and Noëlle-Laetitia PerretPART 1: Mapping the Mirrors of Princes’ Traditions1 Ideal Models and Anti-Models of Kingship in Ancient Greek Literature: Mirror of Princes from Homer to Marcus AureliusJohn R. Lenz2 Greek and Roman Writers on the Virtues of Good Rulers: Praise, Instruction, and ConstraintTom Stevenson3 Carolingian Mirrors for Princes: Texts, Contents, ImpactKarl Ubl4 Byzantine Mirrors for Princes: An OverviewGünter Prinzing5 The Conception of Power in Islam: Persian Mirrors of Princes and Sunni Theories (11th–14th Centuries)Denise Aigle6 Western Medieval Specula, c. 1150–c. 1450Charles F. Briggs and Cary J. Nederman7 Refutation, Parody, Annihilation: The End of the Mirror for Princes in Machiavelli, Vettori and GuicciardiniVolker Reinhardt8 Specula Principum and the Wise Governor in the RenaissanceSylvène ÉdouardPART 2: The “Making of”, the Circulation and Uses of the Mirrors of Princes – A Thought in Motion9 The Influence of Aristotle’s Thought on Arab Political-Philosophical IdeasMakram Abbès10 The Arabic Mirrors for Princes as Witnesses to the Evolution of Political ThoughtMakram Abbès11 Royal Power and Its Regulations: Narratives of Hārūn al-Rashīd in Three Mirrors for PrincesLouise Marlow 12 The Pseudo-Aristotelian Secret of Secrets as a Mirror of Princes: A Cautionary TaleSteven J. Williams13 The Castilian Versions of the Pseudo-Aristotle’s Secretum secretorum and French Versions of Giles of Rome’s De regimine principum (13th–16th Centuries)A Comparative PerspectiveHugo Bizzarri and Noëlle-Laetitia Perret14 The Relation between Wisdom Literature, Law, and the Mirrors of Princes: Castile and SwedenOlivier Biaggini and Corinne Péneau 15 The Use of Mirrors of PrincesHans-Joachim SchmidtConclusion: Mirrors for Princes and the Development of Reflections on the StateJean-Philippe GenetIndex