Reason and Experience
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2021
When the men involved in the government of the states of Renaissance Italy explained the basis of the principles by which they argued that political life and the conduct of affairs were, or should be, shaped, “reason” and “experience” were what they most frequently cited, sometimes separately, often together. Government records are the main sources for this study. Preambles to legislation, the records of council proceedings, and diplomatic reports and instructions have proved the most fruitful major classes of material; papers concerning or advocating reforms have a particular interest. One crucial consideration that has always to be borne in mind is the question of whose opinions are being voiced, particularly for documents written by chancellors or secretaries on behalf of a prince or a committee, although the book is not so much a study of the political principles of individuals as of the climate of opinion.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.