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The Last Years of Innocent Gentillet: 'Princeps Adversariorum Machiavelli'

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Antonio D'Andrea
Antonio D'Andrea*
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montreal
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Extract

Scholars directly or indirectly interested in the history of Machiavelli's reputation tend now to regard as exaggerated the importance attributed, in the nineteenth century, to Gentillet's Discours... Contre Nicolas Machiavel Florentin. Nobody, for instance, would be prepared today to share Edward Meyer's view that Gentillet was, ‘beyond a doubt, the source of all Elizabethan misunderstanding’ of Machiavelli. 'The grotesque Machiavel-figure of Elizabethan-Jacobean drama' —to quote from one of the most recent works on the subject—'is firmly within the acceptance/rejection theme of reaction to Machiavelli, and not an external phenomenon generated by Gentillet's Contre-Machiavel. Gentillet, despite Simon Patericke's translation, was never of any importance in England.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , Spring 1967 , pp. 12 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1967

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References

1 Edward, Meyer, Machiavelli and the Elizabethan Drama (Weimar, 1897), p. x.Google Scholar

2 Raab, F., The English Face of Machiavelli (London-Toronto, 1964), p. 257 Google Scholar. But see also Praz, M., Machiavelli and the Elizabethans, Annual Italian Lecture of the British Academy (London, 1928)Google Scholar; Beck, H., Machiavellismus in der Englischen Renaissance, Inaugural- Dissertation Bonn (Duisburg, 1935)Google Scholar; Kocher, P. H., Christopher Marlowe (Chapel Hill, 1946), pp. 194–202 Google Scholar; Ribner, I., ‘The significance of Gentillet'sContre-Machiavel,' Modern Language Quarterly, x (1949), 153–157 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maxwell, J. C.,‘English Anti-Machiavellianism beforeGentillet,’ Notes and Queries, New Series, 1, 4 (April 1954), 141 Google Scholar. Concerning Simon Patericke's English translation of the Discours , see my‘Studies on Machiavelli and his Reputation in the Sixteenth Century, 1. Marlowe's Prologue to The Jew of Malta,' Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies , v (1961), App. vii, 247-248.

3 Raab, The English Face of Machiavelli , p. 57.

4 Erlangen, 1855-58.

5 Nicolai Machiavelli Princeps aliaque nonnulla … curante Hermanno Conringio , Helmestadii, 1660.

6 De Nicolao Machiavello libri tres (Halle, 1731), pp. 28-30, 33-35, 50-71.

7 P. 30. Christ finds it quite likely that the publication of Gentillet's work caused a general feeling of aversion to Machiavelli even in Italy:‘Divulgatis eo, quo diximus, tempore Innocentii Gentilleti commentariis, etiam per Italiam excitata fuisse multorum contra Machiavellum iudicia, credibile est’ (n.).

8 Possevino had not read Machiavelli's Prince. He is, in fact, convinced that The Prince is divided into three books and that the subject matter is distributed exactly as in Gentillet's Discours.

9 Meinecke's, F. discussion of Gentillet in Die Idee der Staatsrason in der neueren Geschkhte (Miinchen 1924, Eng. trans. London, 1957, pp. 49–56)Google Scholar is the only serious attempt in this direction.

10 Rathé, C. Edward,‘Innocent Gentillet and the first Anti-Machiavel,’ Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, xxvn (1965), 186–225 Google Scholar. It was not Mr. Rathé's purpose to provide anything like an accurate biography of Gentillet:‘It is not the claim of this study to establish an historically accurate biography. That is the work of the historian’ (p. 188, note 1).

11 C. Edward Rathé,‘Innocent Gentillet, etc.,’ p. 191.

12 Archives d'Etat de Genève, Etat Civil, Morts, 19, p. 67, 23 juin, 1588.

13 See e.g.: Rochas, H. J. A., Biographie du Dauphiné, Paris 1856-60, 1, 419 Google Scholar; Brun- Durand, J.,‘Présidents en la Chambre de l'Edit,’ Bulletin de la Sociéké départementale d'archéologie et de statistique de la Drôme, VII (1873), 345 ff.Google Scholar; Douglas, C. A., Vie et poésie de Sqffrey de Calignon, Grenoble, 1874, P- 458 Google Scholar; Fazy, H.,‘L'Anti-Machiavel de Gentillet,' Bulletin de Vlnstitut national genévois, xxvni (1888), 445 Google Scholar; Schäfer, H.J., Innozenz Gentillet, sein Leben und besonders sein ‘Antimachiavel,’ Inaugural-Dissertation Bonn (Köln, 1929), p. 10 Google Scholar; Cioranesco, A., Bibliographie de la littératurefran(aise du XVIe siècle (Paris, 1959), p. 337 Google Scholar. I have only mentioned here relatively recent works, leaving out everything published before the middle of the nineteenth century.

14 Archives d'Etat de Genève, Notaire Benoist Mantelier, 1, fol. 130r∼v.

15 Archives d'Etat de Genève, Registres du Conseil, 1585, fol. 76v, 31 mai.

16 Jacques Lect (1560-1611), Genevan Jurisconsult, was appointed Professor of Law in 1583 upon the recommendation of Théodore de Bèze and played an important role in Genevan politics; in 1584, he became a member of the Council, and eventually replaced Bèze in the political life of the city.

17 Archives d'Etat de Genève, Registres du Conseil, 1585, fol. 83r, 15 juin.

18 The place of printing is not indicated in the 1586 French edition of this book; but the Latin edition of the same year has:‘Genevae, Per Dionysium Probum, & Heliam Viollier.'

19 Archives d'Etat de Genève, Registres du Conseil, 1586, fol. IIIv , 30 mai.

20 Bibliothèque de la ville de Grenoble, MSS. R. 5659. This letter was brought to my notice some years ago by one of my students, Miss P. D. Stewart, whom I wish to thank for allowing me to publish it here for the first time. The book mentioned in the letter is almost certainly the Bureau du Conseil de Trente , published the month before. On Artus Prunier de Saint-André, who held several official positions and took an important part in the public life of the Dauphiné, see Rochas, H.J. A., Biographie du Dauphiné, 11, 311–312 Google Scholar. Gentillet's reference to the‘ancien Calendrier,’ in dating the letter, is a reminder that he is not following the calendar that, in 1582, Pope Gregory xm had adopted in the place of the Julian calendar. According to the new calendar, Gentillet's letter should have been dated September 3, 1586.

21 I am planning to publish these documents together with a study on Gentillet and his works in the near future. In the meantime, I should like to thank the staff of the Archives d'Etat of Geneva, and in particular Mr. Louis Binz, as well as the staff of the Bibliothéque de la ville of Grenoble.