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Tacitus and Tacitism

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Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy
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Abstract

Tacitism represents an important phase in the history of classical scholarship and a characteristic feature of Renaissance political thought. The two most prominent representatives of Tacitism are Marc-Antoine Muret and Justus Lipsius, exemplary editors, commentators, professors, and disciples of the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 55–120 AD). Tacitism is sometimes depicted as a sequel to Machiavellism, an updated version of cynicism and dissembling suited to the paranoid atmosphere of Counter-Reformation Europe. It can more properly be thought of as an important philological achievement and a productive literary motif. In fact, Tacitism forms a crucial link between classical scholarship and vernacular literature in the early modern era.

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References

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Correspondence to Eric MacPhail .

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MacPhail, E. (2022). Tacitus and Tacitism. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14169-5_881

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