El modelo de princeps en la obra histórica de Lorenzo Valla

Abstract

Since the establishment of monarchial power in the Roman Empire, the political theory of philosophers as well as of historians (Valerius Maximus, Seneca, Tacitus, Plinius) seeks to sketch the model of princeps taking into account the code of moral virtues which in the Middle Ages coalesces with Christianism. Humanist thinkers (Dante, L. Valla, Diego de Valera, Antonio de Guevara, Erasmo, Saavedra Fajardo) continue in the line of this moral doctrine based on the antithesis of virtus / vitium to serve the monarch’s interests. Resorting to Valla’s rhetoric, wich provides the model of perfect prince (brave, pious, magnificence, equalitarian and the paragon of good Christian) embodied by Fernando de Aragón, Alfonso V el Magnánimo’s father.