Skinner - From humanism to Hobbes: studies in rhetoric and politics

Quentin Skinner 2018

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First published 2018

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My first thanks must go to Richard Fisher. It was he who, as Managing Director of the Cambridge University Press, encouraged me to think of putting together the essays I have produced since the appearance of my previous collection, Visions of Politics , in 2002. Two volumes were originally envisaged, but on rereading my work I came to see that none of it warranted republication in its original form, and that much of it did not warrant republication at all. I eventually decided, with the help of the Presss referees, to concentrate on reshaping one group of interconnected studies, and the present volume is the result. Some new chapters have been added, while my earlier essays have been revised to remove overlaps and repetitions, to make clear the links between them, and to bring them up to date with the latest scholarship. They have also been enlarged, in some instances extensively, and in these cases I have retitled them. They were all read in their original form by a number of experts, whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged in notes at the beginning of each chapter. The same notes extend my thanks to the editors and publishers who have allowed me to reuse this earlier work. I need to add a special word of appreciation to Rachel Platt, who negotiated permission for me to include three pieces originally published by Oxford University Press.

I owe an immense debt to Queen Mary University of London, where I have been teaching since 2008. My colleagues in the School of History remain warmly welcoming, and I feel especially grateful to Miri Rubin, Colin Jones and Julian Jackson for doing so much, as successive Chairs of the School, to make it a civilised and distinguished place in which to work. To the Schools Director of Administration, Emma Yates, I am obliged for many kindnesses, and I particularly want to thank her for securing a grant from the University to pay for the illustrations in this book. I have learned a great deal from my colleagues in intellectual history, especially Warren Boutcher, David Colclough, Mira Siegelberg, Gareth Stedman Jones, Georgios Varouxakis and above all Richard Bourke. I also want to acknowledge how much I owe to the outstanding group of PhD students I have supervised at Queen Mary on topics closely related to the themes of this book: Alexandra Chadwick, Signy Gutnick-Allen, Elliott Karstadt, Vanessa Lim, Joanne Paul, Lorenzo Sabbadini and Clare Whitehead.

Many friends have discussed my research with me throughout the years when I have been writing the essays in this book. I name them with the deepest gratitude: David Armitage, Annabel Brett, Hannah Dawson, John Dunn, Marco Geuna, Raymond Geuss, Paul Ginsborg, Angus Gowland, Kinch Hoekstra, Fred Inglis, Melissa Lane, Jonathan Lear, Noel Malcolm, Eric Nelson, Markku Peltonen, Philip Pettit, John Pocock, Pete Stacey, Tim Stanton, Keith Thomas, John Thompson, Richard Tuck and last but by no means least James Tully. I am also most grateful for the advice of the Cambridge University Presss two highly perceptive referees. To Noel Malcolm I owe special thanks as does every student of Hobbes for the pleasure of being able to work with his definitive edition of Hobbess Leviathan , one of the great editorial achievements of our time.

My research has mainly been conducted in the British Library and the Library of the Warburg Institute, University of London, and I am extremely grateful for the courtesy and efficiency of their staff. For creating the images I have used as illustrations, and for granting me permission to reproduce them, my thanks are due to the British Library, the Cambridge University Library, the Cambridge University Press, the Houghton Library of Harvard University and the Huntington Library. I am much indebted to all these institutions for their helpfulness as well as their technical expertise.