The Colloquium on ‘Milton and Republicanism’ which gave rise to this volume was held at the Université de Paris X-Nanterre, in April 1992. Armand Himy, in consultation with Quentin Skinner, drew up the original list of participants and issued invitations to the speakers, among whom were myself, Cedric Brown, Tony Davies, Martin Dzelzainis, Roger Lejosne, Elizabeth Tuttle and Blair Worden, as well as Armand Himy and Quentin Skinner themselves. The organizers are grateful to the speakers, as well as to the other scholars who presented papers, those who chaired sessions, and the audience in Nanterre for the effort they put into making the Colloquium such a success.

The responsibility for turning the papers from the Colloquium into the present volume has been divided between myself and Quentin Skinner. While the final organization of the volume has been my responsibility, I discussed it with Quentin Skinner at every stage. We selected the initial group of papers for inclusion in consultation with Armand Himy and representatives of the Cambridge University Press. I then approached further prospective contributors and commissioned the remaining essays. Quentin Skinner conducted the negotiations between the editors and the Press, and he and I read and commented on the completed essays before publication. We are grateful to those of our contributors who were present in Nanterre for the speed with which they undertook revisions–sometimes substantial – to their papers, as well as to those who joined the project at a later stage, for producing original and appropriate essays under the constraints of a tight deadline.