
Reason of State, Propaganda, and the Thirty Years' War
An Unknown Translation by Thomas Hobbes
Noel Malcolm(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 21. January 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-0-19-957571-8 (ISBN)
Description
Acclaimed writer and historian Noel Malcolm presents his sensational discovery of a new work by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): a propaganda pamphlet on behalf of the Habsburg side in the Thirty Years' War, translated by Hobbes from a Latin original. Malcolm's book explores a fascinating episode in seventeenth-century history, illuminating both the practice of early modern propaganda and the theory of "reason of state".
Reviews / Votes
Review from previous edition The bringing to light of a previously-unknown work by a major writer or thinker is always a cause of excitement, and even more so when the author in question is a figure of the stature of Hobbes. Noel Malcolm's discovery amongst the papers of the first Earl of Newcastle of an imcomplete manuscript translation, unmistakably in Hobbes's handwriting, of an inflammatory European political pamphlet of the 1620s, is thus a tantalising and provocative event...Most professional scholars...will close this slim volume with mingled emotions of admiration and despair: admiration at the reach, precision and judgement of Malcolm's scholarship, despair over whether they could themselves emulate it. * David Womersley, Social Affairs Unit Web Review * Noel Malcolm's book consists of six stage-setting chapters, Hobbes's English translation of a manuscript version of a pamphlet written in Latin during the Thirty Years' War, and the Latin text of the published version. Malcolm's chapters are a tour de force of scholarship...Malcolm's careful, erudite edition of the translation and his discussion of the minutiae of the Thirty Years' War must be lauded. * A. P. Martinich, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * This book...offers what good history should: the recovery of the past, in all of its forgotten complexity and detail. In a day when most academic writing achieves only clever hermeneutics, reading Noel Malcolm is a bracing pleasure. * Times Literary Supplement *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
314 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-957571-8 (9780199575718)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Noel Malcolm
Reason of State, Propaganda, and the Thirty Years' War
An Unknown Translation by Thomas Hobbes
Book
02/2007
Oxford University Press
€74.80
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Noel Malcolm is a General Editor of the Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes. He has been a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Foreign Editor of The Spectator, and political columnist of the Daily Telegraph. He left journalism in 1995 in order to concentrate on scholarly research and writing. Since then he has been a Visiting Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford, a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University, and Carlyle Lecturer at Oxford University. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2001.
Content
Preface ; A Note on Dates and Transcriptions ; 1. Hobbes's Early Career ; 2. The Translation: Authorship, Date, and Style ; 3. The 'Secretissima instructio' Texts ; 4. The Distribution of the Altera secretissima instructio in England ; 5. Palatine Politics: Cavendish, Mansfield, and Hobbes ; 6. 'Reason of State' and Hobbes ; Hobbes's translation of Altera secretissima instructio ; Altera secretissima instructio ; List of Manuscripts ; Bibliography