Ludovico Zuccolo (18 September 15681630) was an Italian writer and political theorist.

Life

Ludovico Zuccolo was born into a noble family in

Faenza Faenza (, , ; rgn, Fènza or ; la, Faventia) is an Italian city and comune of 59,063 inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated southeast of Bologna. Faenza is home to a historical manufacture of majolica-ware glazed eart ...

. He was educated at

Bologna University The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

, where he studied philosophy at the Faculty of Arts. He was briefly a lawyer and philosophy professor at Bologna University. From 1608 to 1617 he served as a courtier in Urbino. From 1617 to 1623 he taught philosophy at Bologna and Padua University. In 1623 he accompanied the apostolic nuncio Innocenzo Massimo on a diplomatic mission to Spain. He returned to Italy in 1625, dying in Bologna in 1630. Zuccolo is remembered as a theorist of

reason of state ''The Reason of State'' (Italian: ''Della Ragion di Stato'') is a work of political philosophy by Italian Jesuit Giovanni Botero. The book first popularised the term '' Reason of State'' and became a political 'bestseller', going through severa ...

: against

Scipione Ammirato Scipione Ammirato (October 7, 1531January 11, 1601) was an Italian historian and philosopher. He is now regarded as an important founding figure in the scholarly study of the history of philosophy. He is best known for his political treatise ''Di ...

, Zuccolo argued that reason of state did not necessarily involve breaking the law, but included any action aiming at conserving a particular form of government. He is also remembered for the attention he gave to utopia in three pieces of writing included in his 1625 ''Dialogues'': 'Aromatario, or the Republic of Utopia'; 'Porto, or the Republic of Evandria'; and 'Belluzzi, or the Happy City'.

Works

* ''Della ragion di stato'', 1621. Republished in

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a lib ...

& Santino Caramella, eds., ''Politici e moralisti del Seicento'', Bari, 1930. * ''Discorso delle ragioni del numero del verso italiano''. Venice, 1623. * ''Discorsi dell'honore, della gloria, della riputatione, del buon concetto''. Venice: Presso Marco Ginami, 1623. * ''Nobiltà commune et heroica''. Venice, 1625. * ''Dialoghi di Lodovico Zvccolo ... Ne' qvali con varietà di ervditione si scoprono nuoui, e vaghi pensieri filosofici, morali, e politici...''. Venice: Appresso M. Ginammi, 1625. * '' Il secolo dell'oro rinascente nella amicizia tra Nicolò Barbarigo e Marco Trevisano''. Venice, 1629 * ''Discorso dello amore verso la patria''. Venice, 1631.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuccolo, Ludovico 1568 births 1630 deaths 17th-century Venetian writers 17th-century Italian philosophers Italian political philosophers University of Bologna alumni Academic staff of the University of Padua Scholars from the Republic of Venice