Howell A. Lloyd – författare

Jean Bodin was a figure of great importance in European intellectual history, known as a jurist, associate of kings and courtiers in sixteenth-century France, and author of influential works in the fields of constitutional and social thought, historical writing, witchcraft, and a great deal else besides. Best known for his contribution to formulating the modern doctrine of sovereignty, Bodin was a scholar of exceptional range, whose works provoked controversy in his own time and have continued to do so down the centuries. Hugh Trevor-Roper described him as 'the Aristotle, the Montesquieu of the sixteenth century, the prophet of comparative history, of political theory, of the philosophy of law, of the quantitative theory of money, and of so much else'. Much has been written on Bodin and his ideas, but in this new intellectual biography, Howell A. Lloyd presents the first rounded treatment of the thinker and his times, his writings (major and minor), and his ideas in their contemporary context, as well as in that of broader intellectual traditions.

This was the first English edition of a treatise which influenced French thinkers from its publication in 1610 until the end of the ancien regime. Charles Loyseau's Treatise of Orders and Plain Dignities is the third of three major works in which he sets out to harmonise with law his fellow citizens' values and behaviour in the crucial sphere of possession and exercise of public power. Howell A. Lloyd's introduction outlines Loyseau's political thesis on the basis of all three of the author's treatises, and examines in relation to the Treatises of Orders Loyseau's use of literary, historical and legal materials within the philosophical framework that governed his approach. This edition thus not only makes available an important text, but also casts light upon the intellectual milieu of those who administered early-modern France.

This was the first English edition of a treatise which influenced French thinkers from its publication in 1610 until the end of the ancien regime. Charles Loyseau's Treatise of Orders and Plain Dignities is the third of three major works in which he sets out to harmonise with law his fellow citizens' values and behaviour in the crucial sphere of possession and exercise of public power. Howell A. Lloyd's introduction outlines Loyseau's political thesis on the basis of all three of the author's treatises, and examines in relation to the Treatises of Orders Loyseau's use of literary, historical and legal materials within the philosophical framework that governed his approach. This edition thus not only makes available an important text, but also casts light upon the intellectual milieu of those who administered early-modern France.

Originally published in 1983, this book discusses an important ideological development: the emergence of a new concept of the state as a substantive entity and the source of the ruler’s authority over his subjects. It maintains that such a concept emerged in French political thought of the sixteenth century and was promptly assimilated into existing systems of ideas. The book re-interprets numerous aspects of the French kingdom’s social composition, means of government, economic condition and religious experience, both prior to and during the sixteenth century itself. Examining these aspects in the light of modern research, the book provides an original contribution towards understanding political consciousness in a past society: for it adopts a far broader contextual approach than is normally to be found in the works of specialist historians of ideas.