Uses, misuses and absences of the Discourses on Kingship of Dio Chrysostom in the political literature of 15th and 16th centuries

The paper focuses on receptions and reuses of the four Discourses on Kingship by Dio Chrysostom in some of the most relevant works of political literature of the 15th and the 16th centuries in Italy and, although in a lesser degree, in Europe. Starting from the second half of the 15th century till the end of the 16th century, these works of Dio – particularly their Latin translation – became a possible reading for men involved in the debate on the monocratic power. Either the Discourses were used (sometimes misused) or, more or less consciously, ignored, they anyway were relevant elements of the pivotal debate on the prince in that period. The analysis would start from the most relevant Italian political works of the middle of the 15th century. If for example in Poggio Bracciolini and in Leon Battista Alberti we cannot find unmistakable links to the four Discourses, the De principe by Giovanni Pontano is widely imbued with quotations, excerpts and references coming from these works of Dio; similarly it happens in the De principe of Bartolomeo Sacchi. Because of their relevance in the literature concerning political thought, I will aim particularly to thoroughly examine, among others, the works of Machiavelli, Erasmus, Jean Bodin, Pierre Grégoire, Alberico Gentili and Althusius, in order to find links to these Discourses on Kingship and build a sort of map of their presence in those political works that undoubtedly are milestones in the history of political ideas of the early Modern Age.