A two-volume study of political thought from the late thirteenth to the end of the sixteenth century, the decisive period of transition from medieval to modern political theory. The work is intended to be both an introduction to the period for students, and a presentation and justification of a particular approach to the interpretation of historical texts. Quentin Skinner gives an outline account of all the principal texts of the period, discussing in turn the chief political writings of Dante, Marsiglio, Bartolus, Machiavelli, Erasmus and more, Luther and Calvin, Bodin and the Calvinist revolutionaries. But he also examines a very large number of lesser writers in order to explain the general social and intellectual context in which these leading theorists worked. He thus presents the history not as a procession of 'classic texts' but are more readily intelligible. He traces by this means the gradual emergence of the vocabulary of modern political thought, and in particular the crucial concept of the State. We are given an insight into the actual processes of the formation of ideologies and into some of the linkages between political theory and practice. Professor Skinner has been awarded the Balzan Prize Life Time Achievement Award for Political Thought, History and Theory. Full details of this award can be found at http://www.balzan.it/News_eng.aspx?ID=2474

昆廷·斯金纳　生于1940年，剑桥大学现代史专业教授，政治思想史“剑桥学派”的创始人之一，对文艺复兴时代的共和主义思潮及其对英国和美国革命的影响作出了开创性的分析。代表作《现代政治思想的基础》于1979年获得沃尔夫森史学奖，并入选《泰晤士报文学副刊》五十年最具影响力的一百本书。其他著作有：《马基雅维里》、《霍布斯哲学中的理性与修辞》、《自由主义之前的自由》等。