Chapter 2 - Pre-Histories and Word Histories

Summary

Chapter 2 provides a word history of politique throughout the sixteenth-century, considering late-medieval and Italian influences, the context of vernacularisation and the status of language under François I, and the impact of the Reformation and of Calvin’s thought in particular. This is followed by in-depth analysis of Guillaume Budé’s Institution du prince, Rabelais’s Gargantua, Etienne Pasquier’s Pourparler du prince, and Louis Le Caron’s Courtesan dialogues. It also considers the political career of Michel de L’Hospital and his connection with understandings of politique. These case studies are also a pre-history for uses of politique that emerge during the civil war. The chapter concludes with an analysis of François de la Noue’s Essais politiques et militaires and Montaigne’s Essais.