VIROLI, Maurizio

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: European University Institute, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—242 Corwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and teacher. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, professor of politics and visiting member of Institute for Advanced Study.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Research fellowship, Clare Hall, Cambridge; Jean Monnet fellowship, European University Institute.

WRITINGS:

L'etica laica di Erminio Juvalta, F. Angeli (Milano, Italy), 1987.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the "Well-ordered Society," translated by Derek Hanson, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor, with Gisela Bok and Quentin Skinner) Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1990.

From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquistion and Transformation of the Language of Politics, 1250-1600, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Dalla politica alla ragion de stato: La scienza del governo tra XIII e XVII secolo, Donzelli (Rome, Italy), 1994.

For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1995.

(With Domenico Losurdo) Ascesa e declino delle repubbliche, Quattro Venti (Urbino, Italy), 1997.

Machiavelli, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Il sorriso di Niccoló: Storia di Machiavelli, GLF Editori Laterza (Rome, Italy), 1998, translation by Antony Shugaar published as Niccoló's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Norberto Bobbio) Dialogo intorno alla repubblica, GLF Editori Laterza (Rome, Italy), 2001.

Republicanism, translated by Antony Shugaar, Hill and Wang (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Norberto Bobbio) The Idea of the Republic, translated by Allan Cameron, Blackwell (Malden, MA), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Political analyst and philosopher Maurizio Viroli comments on the significance of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in relation to societal milieu in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the "Well-ordered Society." Maurice Cranston, reviewing the book in the Times Literary Supplement, stated that "Viroli brings some new light to bear on Rousseau's development of the antithesis between order and disorder into the suggestion that there are only two sorts of government to choose between, the republican and the despotic." Susan Shell, writing in the American Political Science Review, made a similar observation: "Viroli's study takes its primary bearings from what he calls the competing natural law and republican traditions." Aubrey Rosenberg, writing in the French Review, commented that "Viroli concludes that Rousseau's originality lies in his combining of two apparently irreconcilable traditions: (a) the social contract theory in which individualism is paramount; and (b) the republican theory in which civic virtue is of the essence."

Viroli collaborated with fellow editors Gisela Bok and Quentin Skinner to produce Machiavelli and Republicanism, published in 1990. Political Studies reviewer Giovanni Giorgini noted that in his contribution to this volume Viroli "investigates the significance of the word politico in Machiavelli as compared to its meaning, imbued with Aristotelianism, in contemporary literature, finding no break but continuity with tradition."

Another of Viroli's books, From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquistion and Transformation of the Language of Politics, is an investigation into the change in the "language of politics," according to Gordon Leff, reviewing the work in the Times Literary Supplement. Leff noted that during the period under study, 1250 to 1600, that change, as described by Viroli, was from "the notion of politics as the art of preserving a republic … to its being the art of preserving a state." Steven Rowan, writing in the Renaissance Quarterly, noted that Viroli "sees language as something arising from doctrine and expressing distinct, 'architectural' concepts." James Farr, writing in the American Political Science Review, stated that "From Politics to Reason of State is an exemplary history of political thought and case study in conceptual change."

Viroli explores the meaning and history of both patriotism and nationalism in For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism. John Patrick Diggins, writing in the London Review of Books, observed that "although Viroli's book concentrates on Europe, his distinction between patriotism and nationalism resonates in America, especially in the thoughts and actions of Abraham Lincoln." F. M. Barnard, writing in the Review of Politics, commented, "Anyone interested in the genesis of nationalism in and through (and against) patriotism should amply profit from [Viroli's] study."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, September, 1991, Susan Shell, review of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the "Well-ordered Society," p. 1010; June, 1994, James Farr, review of From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquisition and Transformation of the Language of Politics, 1250-1600, p. 459; December, 1996, David Miller, For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism, p. 885; December, 1999, Harvey C. Mansfield, review of Machiavelli, p. 964.

Booklist, October 1, 2000, Jay Freeman, review of Niccoló's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli, p. 320.

Choice, April, 1989, C. E. Butterworth, review of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the "Well-Ordered Society," p. 1406; June, 1993, C. E. Butterworth, review of From Politics to Reason of State, p. 1703; April, 2001, K. Gouwens, review of Niccoló's Smile, p. 1526.

English Historical Review, April, 1992, H. G. Koenigsberger, review of Machiavelli and Republicanism, p. 391.

French Review, April, 1991, Aubrey Rosenberg, review of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the "Well-ordered Society," p. 847.

History: Review of New Books, summer, 1999, Daniel W. Hollis, review of Machiavelli, p. 176.

Journal of European Studies, June, 1994, S. J. Milner, review of Machiavelli and Republicanism, p. 202.

Library Journal, October 15, 2000, Robert J. Andrews, review of Niccoló's Smile, p. 80.

London Review of Books, March 6, 1997, John Patrick Diggins, "Let Every Faction Bloom," p. 22.

New York Times Book Review, December 3, 2000, Alexander Stille, "The Original Spin Doctor," p. 90.

Political Studies, December, 1994, Giovanni Giorgini, review of Machiavelli and Republicanism, p. 759.

Publishers Weekly, September 11, 2000, review of Niccoló's Smile, p. 76.

Renaissance Quarterly, summer, 1994, Steven Rowan, review of From Politics to Reason of State, p. 393; summer, 2000, Wayne A. Rebhorn, review of Machiavelli, p. 563.

Review of Politics, winter, 1997, F. M. Barnard, review of For Love of Country, p. 141.

Times Literary Supplement, May 5, 1989, Maurice Cranston, "Arguments for Extremism," p. 490; June 28, 1991, Anthony Pagden, "Struggle for Greatness," p. 23; September 2, 1994, Gordon Leff, review of From Politics to Reason of State, p. 23; August 4, 2000, Sebastian de Grazia, "The Candid Secretary," p. 27.

Washington Post Book World, January 7, 2001, Mark Lilla, "A Real Prince," p. 10.*