Mirrors for princes

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Mirrors for princes or mirrors of princes (Latin : specula principum) constituted a literary genre of didactic political writings that were established in antiquity but increased in popularity throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It was part of the broader speculum or mirror literature genre.

Contents

These texts most frequently take the form of textbooks for the instruction of monarchs on successful governance and behavior. Authors often composed such "mirrors" at the accession of a new king, when a young and inexperienced ruler was about to come to assume royal authority.

Some of the earliest writers on this genre include Aristotle, Plato, and Xenophon. [1] Pre modern examples include Sedulius Scottus (fl. 840–860), the Irish poet associated with the Pangur Bán gloss poem (c. 9th century). Possibly the best known European "mirror" is The Prince (c. 1513) by Niccolò Machiavelli, although this was not the most typical example.

Antiquity

Sumer

Egypt

Indian

Greek and Roman

Western European texts

Early Middle Ages

Carolingian texts. Notable examples of Carolingian textbooks for kings, counts and other laymen include:

Irish texts

High Middle Ages

Late Middle Ages

Renaissance

Enlightenment

Modern

Byzantine texts

Pre-Islamic Persian texts

Islamic texts

Slavonic texts

Chinese texts

Ancient

Imperial dynasties

Han dynasty

Tang dynasty

  • Ouyang Xun (624 AD) Yiwen leiju 藝文類聚 ("Classified collection based on the Classics and other literature")
  • Kong Yingda (642 AD) Wujing Zhengyi 五經正義 ("Correct Meaning of the Five Classics")
  • Liu Zhi (7th century AD) Zhengdian 政典 ("Manual of politics"), a political encyclopaedia useful for young boys taking the Imperial Examination

Song dynasty

Ming dynasty

Qing dynasty

See also

References

  1. Gray, Vivienne J. (2010). "Xenophon's Mirror of Princes". doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199563814.001.0001. ISBN   978-0-19-956381-4.
  2. A. Dubreucq (ed.), Jonas d'Orléans, Le métier du roi (De institutione regia). Sources Chrétiennes 407. Paris, 1995. pp. 45–9.
  3. Rob Meens. "Politics, mirrors of princes and the Bible: sins, kings and the well-being of the realm." Early Medieval Europe 7.3 (1998): 352
  4. Kelly, Fergus, ed. (1976). Audacht Morainn. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN   0901282677.
  5. Ireland, Colin A., ed. (1999). Old Irish Wisdom Attributed to Aldfrith of Northumbria: An Edition of Bríathra Flainn Fhína Maic Ossu. Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. ISBN   0866982477.
  6. Guibert de Tournai (1914). de Poorter, A. (ed.). Le traité Eruditio regum et principum de Guibert de Tournai : étude critique et texte inédit.
  7. Vincent de Beauvais (1995). Schneider, Robert J. (ed.). De morali principis institutione. Turnhout: Brepols.
  8. Schneider, Robert J.; Rouse, Richard H. (January 1991). "The Medieval Circulation of the De morali principis institutione of Vincent of Beauvais" . Viator. 22: 189–228. doi:10.1484/j.viator.2.301322. ISSN   0083-5897.
  9. M. Pinto de Mencses (ed.). Espelho dos Reis por Alvaro Pais. Lisbon, 1955.
  10. Jean-Philippe Genet (ed.). Four English Political Tracts of the Later Middle Ages Camden Society, 4th ser. 18 (1977). 177-9.
  11. Salter, F.M. "Skelton's Speculum Principis" Speculum 9 (1934): 25–37
  12. Olden-Jørgensen, Sebastian (ed.). Alithia. Et dansk fyrstespejl til Christian IV. UJDS-Studier 14. Copenhagen, 2003.
  13. "Mirror for Princes". 15 November 2016.
  14. "Āīn-nāmā". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  15. "Andarz". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  16. Dunlop, D.M. (tr.). Fusul al-Madani: Aphorisms of the Statesman. University of Cambridge Oriental Publications. Cambridge, 1961.
  17. Bosworth, C.E. (1998). "al-Maghribī, al-Ḥusayn ibnʿAlī". In Meisami, Julie Scott; Starkey, Paul (eds.). Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Volume 2: L–Z, Chronological Tables, Index. Routledge. p. 488. ISBN   0-415-18572-6.
  18. Michele Amari (1852) Solwān; or Waters Of Comfort by Ibn Zafer, vol.1.
  19. Michele Amari (1852) Solwān; or Waters Of Comfort by Ibn Zafer, vol.2
  20. Meisami, Julie Scott (tr.). Sea of Precious Virtues. Salt Lake City, 1991.
  21. Sajida Sultana Alvi. Advice on the art of governance. An Indo-Islamic Mirror for Princes. State University of New York Press. 1989.
  22. "Mirrors For Princes (2010): Torino Film Festival". 29 September 2023.

Further reading