Abstract

Whereas in XVIth century European public discourse the republic of Venice and the Helvetic republic are the only republican models, in XVIIth century the paradigmatic republican model is the republic of the United Provinces. The author surveys the major steps of this turning-point, including Grotius's creation of the Batavian myth, the Althusian paradigm, the myth of the Elzevir republics, Cunaeus's "De Republica Hebraeorum". The author concludes that a tentative realization of the Dutch republican model may be seen in the Neapolitan uprising of mid-XVIIth century.