Why devote a Companion to the "mirrors for princes", whose very existence is debated? These texts offer key insights into political thoughts of the past. Their ambiguous, problematic status further enhances their interest. And although recent research has fundamentally challenged established views of these texts, until now there has been no critical introduction to the genre.
This volume therefore fills this important gap, while promoting a global historical perspective of different “mirrors for princes” traditions from antiquity to humanism, via Byzantium, Persia, Islam, and the medieval West. This Companion also proposes new avenues of reflection on the anchoring of these texts in their historical realities.

Contributors are Makram Abbès, Denise Aigle, Olivier Biaggini, Hugo Bizzarri, Charles F. Briggs, Sylvène Edouard, Jean-Philippe Genet, John R. Lenz, Louise Marlow, Cary J. Nederman, Corinne Peneau, Stéphane Péquignot, Noëlle-Laetitia Perret, Günter Prinzing, Volker Reinhardt, Hans-Joachim Schmidt, Tom Stevenson, Karl Ubl, and Steven J. Williams.

Table des matières

Front Matter
Preliminary Material

Editors: Noëlle-Laetitia Perret and Stéphane Péquignot
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Copyright page

Editors: Noëlle-Laetitia Perret and Stéphane Péquignot
Notes on Contributors

Editors: Noëlle-Laetitia Perret and Stéphane Péquignot
Open Access
Introduction

Authors: Stéphane Péquignot and Noëlle-Laetitia Perret
Pages: 1–17
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Part 1 Mapping the Mirrors for Princes’ Traditions
Chapter 1 Ideal Models and Anti-Models of Kingship in Ancient Greek Literature: Mirror of Princes from Homer to Marcus Aurelius

Author: John R. Lenz
Pages: 21–43
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Chapter 2 Greek and Roman Writers on the Virtues of Good Rulers: Praise, Instruction, and Constraint

Author: Tom Stevenson
Pages: 44–73
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Chapter 3 Carolingian Mirrors for Princes: Texts, Contents, Impact

Author: Karl Ubl
Pages: 74–107
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Chapter 4 Byzantine Mirrors for Princes: An Overview

Author: Günter Prinzing
Pages: 108–135
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Chapter 5 The Conception of Power in Islam: Persian Mirrors of Princes and Sunni Theories (11th–14th Centuries)

Author: Denise Aigle
Pages: 136–159
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Chapter 6 Western Medieval Specula, c. 1150–c. 1450

Authors: Charles F. Briggs and Cary J. Nederman
Pages: 160–196
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Chapter 7 Refutation, Parody, Annihilation: The End of the Mirror for Princes in Machiavelli, Vettori and Guicciardini

Author: Volker Reinhardt
Pages: 197–226
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Chapter 8 Specula Principum and the Wise Governor in the Renaissance

Author: Sylvène Édouard
Pages: 227–259
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Part 2 Thoughts in Motion: The Circulation and the Uses of the Mirrors for Princes
Chapter 9 The Influence of Aristotle’s Thought on Arab Political-Philosophical Ideas

Author: Makram Abbès
Pages: 263–313
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Chapter 10 The Arabic Mirrors for Princes as Witnesses to the Evolution of Political Thought

Author: Makram Abbès
Pages: 314–342
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Chapter 11 Royal Power and Its Regulations: Narratives of Hārūn al-Rashīd in Three Mirrors for Princes

Author: Louise Marlow
Pages: 343–375
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Chapter 12 The Pseudo-Aristotelian Secret of Secrets as a Mirror of Princes: A Cautionary Tale

Author: Steven J. Williams
Pages: 376–402
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Chapter 13 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 Perspective

Authors: Hugo O. Bizzarri and Noëlle-Laetitia Perret
Pages: 403–434
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Chapter 14 The Relation between Wisdom Literature, Law, and the Mirrors of Princes: Castile and Sweden

Authors: Olivier Biaggini and Corinne Péneau
Pages: 435–472
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Chapter 15 The Use of Mirrors of Princes

Author: Hans-Joachim Schmidt
Pages: 473–513
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Open Access
Conclusion: Mirrors for Princes and the Development of Reflections on the State

Author: Jean-Philippe Genet
Pages: 514–542
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Back Matter
Index of Names

Editors: Noëlle-Laetitia Perret and Stéphane Péquignot
Index of Ancient Sources

Editors: Noëlle-Laetitia Perret and Stéphane Péquignot

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).