Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe
eBook - PDF

Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe

  1. 312 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe

About this book

"Larvatus prodeo," announced René Descartes at the beginning of the seventeenth century: "I come forward, masked." Deliberately disguising or silencing their most intimate thoughts and emotions, many early modern Europeans besides Descartes-princes, courtiers, aristocrats and commoners alike-chose to practice the shadowy art of dissimulation. For men and women who could not risk revealing their inner lives to those around them, this art of incommunicativity was crucial, both personally and politically. Many writers and intellectuals sought to explain, expose, justify, or condemn the emergence of this new culture of secrecy, and from Naples to the Netherlands controversy swirled for two centuries around the powers and limits of dissimulation, whether in affairs of state or affairs of the heart. This beautifully written work crisscrosses Europe, with a special focus on Italy, to explore attitudes toward the art of dissimulation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Discussing many canonical and lesser-known works, Jon R. Snyder examines the treatment of dissimulation in early modern treatises and writings on the court, civility, moral philosophy, political theory, and in the visual arts.

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Yes, you can access Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe by Jon R. Snyder in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & European History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Illustrations
  4. Preface
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. 1. Not Empty Silence
  7. 2. Taking One’s Distance
  8. 3. Confidence Games
  9. 4. The Government of Designs
  10. 5. The Writing on the Walls
  11. Notes
  12. Bibliography
  13. Index