The languages of political society. Western Europe, 14th-17th centuries

Studies of the political languages worked out in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern age have investigated up to now above all the role of the discursive practices in the construction of class and community spaces, the definition of the relation between the various institutions, and the shaping of the forms and contents of obedience to higher powers and authorities. Gathering together the papers presented in a symposium on The Languages of the Political Society, this book widens the spectrum of analysis to take in some topics that have received less attention until now in the study of the processes of state-building in late medieval and Early Modern Europe: the formulation of the value of the common good in relation to citizenship; the linguistic, musical and theatrical vectors for expressing political relations; the control and expression of public emotions and collective feelings; and the capacity of some financial and monetary systems to translate ideals and to produce legitimacy.