Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- Introduction
- 1 String versus Wind Instruments: The Ancient Tradition of the Musical Cosmos
- 2 The Harmony of the Divine Christian Order
- 3 The Harmony of Earthly Rule: Erasmus of Rotterdam and Jean Bodin
- 4 Emblematic Literature and the Ideal Ruler
- 5 Musical Emblems of the State in Seventeenth-Century Spain: Amphion, Timotheus Milesius, Marsyas and the Sirens
- 6 The Celestial Lyre: Royal Virtues and Harmonious Rule
- 7 Cosmic Harmony, Royal Wisdom and Eloquence
- 8 The Death of the Monarch and the Discord of the Elements
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
3 - The Harmony of Earthly Rule: Erasmus of Rotterdam and Jean Bodin
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- Introduction
- 1 String versus Wind Instruments: The Ancient Tradition of the Musical Cosmos
- 2 The Harmony of the Divine Christian Order
- 3 The Harmony of Earthly Rule: Erasmus of Rotterdam and Jean Bodin
- 4 Emblematic Literature and the Ideal Ruler
- 5 Musical Emblems of the State in Seventeenth-Century Spain: Amphion, Timotheus Milesius, Marsyas and the Sirens
- 6 The Celestial Lyre: Royal Virtues and Harmonious Rule
- 7 Cosmic Harmony, Royal Wisdom and Eloquence
- 8 The Death of the Monarch and the Discord of the Elements
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines the highly influential political writings of the humanist authors Desiderius Erasmus and Jean Bodin; specifically I will show how they use musical metaphors to propose different models of harmonious monarchical rule.
Humanism was one of the greatest achievements of the early modern revolution in knowledge, as it placed a new emphasis on the individual within the greater scheme of things. Humanist ideas were a response to changing times: fractures in the traditional systems of science, economy, technology and political domination in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries brought about changes in the traditional structure of the society, manifested in international wars, rebellions, heresies and utopian movements, which presented the holders of political power with the challenge of creating a new political entity that over-ruled disgregation. The loss of certainty in the medieval cosmic vision had to be counteracted by a new unquestionable foundation, namely man himself. Consequently, the state was seen to originate from the abstract individual, maker of his own society. The political community existed to guarantee the free realization of individual interests, assuring the necessary social concord.
Hence the state began to be defined as a human construction. Reason no longer had to fight against natural hostile forces, but its role was to co-ordinate them through a regime which expressed, and was part of, a universal order.
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- Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014