Abstract

This essay explores the legacy of the Platonic philosophy at the end of the sixteenth century, when the Catholic Church switched from a tolerant approach to a rejection of the heterodox elements of the prisca theologia, and provides an analysis of Ciro Spontoni's Corona del principe (1590) and Dodici libri del governo di Stato (1599). This two works clearly witnessed this change in the contemporary cultural climate, as the Author shows highlighting the contrast between the massive presence of Platonism and Hermeticism in the Corona and the exclusion of them from the Dodici libri. Furthermore, the essay examines the relationship between Spontoni's political arguments and their sources. The essay addresses the major contemporary trends, including Platonism, Aristotelianism, Machiavellism, and Hermeticism, and pays particular attention to Marsilio Ficino's commentary of Plato's Republic, translated in vernacular by Spontoni himself and published with his Corona del principe.