Machiavelli's God

Maurizio Viroli is professor of politics at Princeton University and professor of political communication at the University of Italian Switzerland in Lugano. His many books include Niccolo's Smile and The Liberty of Servants (Princeton).

• Foreword ix Preface xi INTRODUCTION 1 1. The Republican Religion 2 2. Machiavelli the Puritan 11 3. Machiavelli's Prophecy 20 Chapter One: HIS GOD 27 1. The Soul and the Fatherland 27 2. Republican Christianity 43 3. Machiavelli and the Religion of Virtue 61 4. Moral and Religious Reform 75 Chapter Two: THE POWER OF WORDS 89 1. Rhetoric and Civil Religion 89 2. Machiavelli, Orator 99 3. Creator of Myths 109 4. His Finest Piece of Oratory 122 5. Republican Eloquence and Wisdom 134 Chapter Three: THE REPUBLIC AND ITS RELIGION 154 1. Republican Government and Religion 154 2. The Religion of Liberty 170 3. Customs and Religion 177 4. Religion, War, and Social Confl ict 185 5. The Reform of Orders and the Reform of Customs 198 Chapter Four: MACHIAVELLI AND THE RELIGIOUS AND MORAL REFORMATION OF ITALY 208 1. Heresy and Aspirations for Religious Reform 211 2. The Difficulties of Survival in Counter-Reformation Italy 232 3. The Redemption of Italy and the Idea of Moral Reform in the Writers of the Eighteenth Century 247 4. The Risorgimento and the Religion of Liberty 263 Index 295

"Viroli displays an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject and does so in a way that is not tedious but truly fascinating. His is an indispensible book for anyone who wishes to write about Machiavelli and religion or Machiavelli and republicanism."--Laurie M. Johnson Bagby, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "Lively and wide-ranging."--Victoria Kahn, Times Literary Supplement "A welcome antidote to the cliched image of self-interested knavery for which [Machiavelli] has become known... Viroli succeeds ... in offering a fascinating portrait."--Alexander Stille, New York Times Book Review "Elegant and accessible."--Mark Lilla, Washington Post Book World "Anthony Shugaar's translation of Viroli's Italian text is ... superb and includes useful references to the English translations of Machiavelli's corpus... [T]his title can serve as a concise source book for Italian political philosophy--providing lists of prominent thinkers and succinctly explaining their basic intellectual positions. This book, therefore, is recommended both to the specialists in the intellectual history of Italian political philosophy as well as to those who have read Il Principe and struggled over its true meaning. Upon reading this book, therefore, all readers should be able to realize the perennial significance of the works of Niccolo Machiavelli within and beyond the history of Italian political philosophy."--Takeshi Morisato, Bibliographica "Viroli is one of our leading experts on Machiavelli, and the book under review is a worthy addition to his corpus. It has a good story to tell, and the scholarship is exemplary."--Joseph V. Femia, European Legacy