CAMPANELLA, Tommaso.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Discourse Touching the Spanish Monarchy. First edition in English of De monarchia hispanica discursus, first published in Latin in 1640, this copy from the celebrated library of the Earls of Macclesfield. Written during the Dominican monk Campanella's 27-year imprisonment for conspiring against the Spanish rulers of southern Italy, the Discourse offers both an anti-Machiavellian analysis of political power, and a survey of the Spanish government."Kings, Campanella argued, come in three types: the wolf, the mercenary, and the shepherd. The wolf is merely a tyrant who looks upon the people as existing 'for his own use'; the mercenary - Machiavelli's Prince - does not 'devour' as the wolf does, but merely 'steals what is useful to him', while offering his flock no real protection. The shepherd, however, the political counterpart to Christ himself, lives only to serve the people; and it is the shepherd, counterpart to the pope, who is the only truly prudential ruler" (Pagden, p. 46).The final two chapters concern the King of Spain's position in the New World. Campanella shows little humanitarian concern for the natives, proposing to transport them to Africa, but does point out the foolishness of simply stripping the lands of gold and silver, rather than populating them with productive men and developing the region.The translation is by Edmund Chilmead (1610-1654), a chaplain at Christ Church, Oxford, ejected in 1648, perhaps for his commitment to the royalist cause, and who sup

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.