Giles of Rome’s "De regimine principum": Reading and Writing Politics at Court and University, c. 1275–c. 1525

228 Pages·1999·13.014 MB·English

by  Charles F. Briggs

GILES OF ROME’S DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM
Reading and Writing Politics at Court
and University; c. /275-c. /525
From the time of its composition (c. 1280) for Philip the Fair of France until the early sixteenth
century, Giles of Rome’s mirror of princes, the De regimine principum, was read by both lay and
clerical readers in the original Latin and in several vernacular translations, and served as model
or source for several works of princely advice. This study examines the relationship between the
didactic political text and its audience by focusing on the textual and material aspects of the
surviving manuscript copies, as well as on the evidence of ownership and use found in them
and in documentary and literary sources. Briggs argues that lay readers used De regimine for
several purposes, including as an educational treatise and military manual, whereas clerics, who
often came first into contact with it at university, glossed, constructed apparatus for, and modi­
fied the text to suit their needs in their later professional lives.
Charles F. briggs is Assistant Professor of History at Georgia Southern University. He has
published articles in Scriptorium, Manus crip ta, English Manuscript Studies, no 0-1700, and
Medieval Perspectives.

Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology
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Leonard Boyle Vatican Library
Virginia Brown Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies, Toronto
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Patrick McGurk Birkbeck College, London
Nigel Morgan La Trobe University, Melbourne
Richard Rouse University of California, Los Angeles
David Wright University of California, Berkeley
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ALREADY PUBLISHED
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G IL E S OF R O M E ’ S
D E R E G I M I N E P R I N C I P U M
Reading and Writing Politics at Court
and University, c. 1275—c. 1727
CHARLES F. BRIGGS
Georgia Southern University
Cambridge
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 irp, United Kingdom
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Charles F. Briggs 1999
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions
of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may
take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1999
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
Typeset in Adobe Garamond nXon i}'Apt in QuarkXPress™ [se]
A catalogue recordfor this book is availablefrom the British Library
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Briggs, Charles F.
Giles of Rome’s De regimineprincipum: Reading and Writing
Politics at Court and University, c. 1275-c. 1525 / Charles F. Briggs
p. cm. (Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology, 7)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN o 521 57053 o
I. Giles, of Rome, Archbishop of Bourges, c. 1243-1316. De
regimine principum. 2. Political science - Study and teaching -
History. 3. Didactic literature, Medieval and Modern - History and
criticism. 4. Learning and scholarship - History - Medieval,
500-1500. 5. Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern) 6. Education
of princes. 7. Education, Medieval. I. Title. II. Series.
JC393.G573B75 1999
97-47553 cip
isbn o 521 57053 o hardback