La noblesse hors d’elle-même

In sixteenth-century France, the nobility held an unchallenged and unanimous view concerning its own superior status and quality. A more critical assessment had been expressed in Italy by several Quattrocento and Cinquecento humanists, namely Poggio, Machiavelli, Nenna, Guazzo and Tasso. The arguments against the superiority of the nobility were often simply based on some ironical survey of a handful of European aristocratic groups. But, when attacking the claims to excellence of some national aristocracy, more reasoned arguments could rely on Aristotle’s Politics and its notion of arete.