The Return of Grand Theory in the Human Sciences.

2006 Balzan Prizewinner. Firenze, Olschki Ed. 2016, cm 17 x 24, 78 pp. con 4 tavv. f.t. a colori, brossura The Annual Balzan Lecture,7. Testo in Inglese. Contemporary political theorists frequently say that there is only one coherent way of thinking about liberty, and that it consists in recognising that an individual is free so long as there is no interference with the exercise of his or her powers. In Thinking About Liberty: An Historian’s Approach, Quentin Skinner shows that this is mere dogma by tracing a genealogy that considers different ways of thinking about liberty, a central concept in social and political thought in today’s Western democracies. He isolates three distinct strands in the genealogy of modern liberty, including the above mentioned freedom as absence of interference (by external agencies or by the self), as well as two alternatives: freedom as absence of dependence (as in liber homo vs slave status) and freedom as self-realisation. In speaking as an historian, Skinner’s chief concern is to excavate a way of thinking about freedom that has lately been in danger of getting lost. The lecture also presents Skinner’s 2006 Balzan Prize research project, which involved young European scholars to address questions about the place of civil, religious and political liberty in the formation of modern Europe.

Cambridge University Press 2006, cm.15x23, pp.XIX,460, illustrazioni, brossura con copertina figurata. The second of three volumes of essays by Quentin Skinner, one of the world's leading intellectual historians. This collection includes some of his most important essays on the political thought of the Italian renaissance, each of which has been carefully revised for publication in this form. All of Professor Skinner's work is characterised by philosophical power, limpid clarity, and elegance of exposition; these essays, many of which are now recognised classics, provide a fascinating and convenient digest of the development of his thought.

Cambridge University Press 1998, cm.13,5x21,5, pp.XIV,142, brossura con copertina figurata. This extended essay by one of the world's leading historians seeks, in its first part, to excavate and to vindicate, the neo-Roman theory of free citizens and free states as it developed in early modern Britain. This analysis leads on to a powerful defence of the nature, purposes and goals of intellectual history and the history of ideas. As Quentin Skinner says, 'the intellectual historian can help us to appreciate how far the values embodied in our present way of life, and our present ways of thinking about those values, reflect a series of choices made at different times between different possible worlds'. This essay provides one of the most substantial statements yet made about the importance, relevance and potential excitement of this form of historical enquiry.

Cambridge University Press 2006, cm.15x23, pp.XVI,210, brossura con copertina figurata. The first of three volumes of essays by Quentin Skinner, one of the world's leading intellectual historians. This collection includes some of his most important philosophical and methodological statements written over the past four decades, each carefully revised for publication in this form. In a series of seminal essays Professor Skinner sets forth the intellectual principles that inform his work. Writing as a practising historian, he considers the theoretical difficulties inherent in the pursuit of knowledge and interpretation, and elucidates the methodology which finds its expression in his two successive volumes. All of Professor Skinner's work is characterised by philosophical power, limpid clarity, and elegance of exposition; these essays, many of which are now recognised classics, provide a fascinating and convenient digest of the development of his thought.

Rome, 30 septembre - 2 octobre 1993. Sous la direction de Yves-Marie Bercé et Elena Fasano Guarini. Rome, Ecole Française de Rome, Palais Farnèse 1996, cm.17x24, pp.773, 6 tavv.in bn.ft., brossura, cop.fig.con bandelle. Collection de l'École française de Rome,220. Actes du colloque international organisé par l'Ecole française de Rome, l'Institut de recherches sur les civilisations de l'Occident moderne de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne et le Dipartimento di storia moderna e contemporanea dell'Università degli studi di Pisa, Rome, 30 septembre-2 octobre 1993.