Chapter 6 Thinking about the Public Realm in Early Sixteenth-Century France: Plutarch and Geoffroy Tory

In: Brill's Companion to the Legacy of Greek Political Thought
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Rebecca Kingston
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Abstract

This chapter investigates an important moment of classical reception in Renaissance France: the 1532 French vernacular translation by Geoffroy Tory, from the Latin of Nicolas Sekoundinos, of Plutarch’s essay Precepts of Statecraft. The mode of transmission, the choice of this Plutarch essay for translation and some of the subtleties in the translation itself all are significant as a background for the widespread recourse to Plutarch’s works in subsequent political reflection in France. The translation signals a growing awareness of the unique nature of public life.

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