See Francisco de Quevedo, Política de Dios y gobierno de Cristo Nuestro Señor, Part I, which is dedicated to Felipe IV. See also Baltasar Gracián's El político, who is Fernando el Católico. (N. from the A.)

This was the case with the Valencian Fadrique Furió Ceriol. Professor Donald Bleznick in his article «Spanish Reaction to Machiavelli in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries» writes: «He based his observations and recommendations upon the lesson of historical knowledge supplemented by his own broad personal contacts with important figures of the day» (547). Furió Ceriol served in the Spanish court for seventeen years and he had also been a soldier. (N. from the A.)

As early as the time of John of Salisbury the prince was to seek the welfare of others, be father and husband to his subjects; correct the errors of his subjects, punish wrongs and injuries with even-handed equity, protect the weak and the innocent, protect widows and orphans, provide for the welfare of the lower classes, not close his ears to the cries of the poor, and protect the Church against sacrilege (Born, «Perfect Prince», 472-73). Juan de Avila in his «Del buen gobierno del Estado» writes that it is indeed a fortunate king who not only reforms his own person, but that of the entire court and country (Tratados de reforma: Memorial primero al Concilio de Trento 207). (N. from the A.)

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries writers of political tracts and guides considered the real in terms of the ideal, and were interested in nothing less than the pattern of the perfect prince (Born 470). Writers of the Middle Ages followed the precepts established by Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, whose ideas on governance were also incorporated by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. (N. from the A.)

Robbin S. John in his study More's Utopia: Ideal and Illusion (New Haven: Yale UP, 1969) writes: «More, as the poet of Utopia, faces a different problem; how to balance social wisdom not only against the foolish and corrupt practices of men in real life but also against the tantalizing urge to retreat into the illusory world of theoretical perfection» (22). (N. from the A.)

Giuseppe Prezzolini in his book on Machiavelli writes: «He repudiates the relevance of Christian morality, the basis upon which the Western World was founded. And he even denies the values of life, except for pride, and presents a vast universal panorama that offers no reward to valor, no justice to innocent victims, and only partial victory over adverse forces to those who know how to make use of guile and power» (13). Prezzolini adds: «His prince's concern is only the good of the state. Machiavelli never fails to say that only the evil committed to create and maintain a state and to continue its existence is justified. He never says this of evil committed for personal gain» (Machiavelli. New York: Farrar, 1967). (N. from the A.)

Bleznick explains: «Spain of the 16th and 17th centuries cannot be properly understood without taking into account the intense religious fervor manifest in all phases of its life» («Spanish Reaction» 543). Machiavellian ideas constituted a threat to the welfare of Spain and its dominions according to Spanish theorists, especially the Jesuits, who hastened to write book after book to counteract the Italian's injurious doctrines (545). (N. from the A.)

Sebastián Fox Morcillo wrote his treatise in Latin: De regni regisque institutione. (N. from the A.)

George Uscatescu in his De Maquiavelo a la Razón de Estado (Madrid: Cosano, 1951) writes: «Las ideas políticas renacentistas penetran gran parte del pensamiento político de la Contrarreforma y su antimaquiavelismo representa, en la medida en que serpea todo residuo medieval, el triunfo definitivo de la moderna doctrina de la razón de Estado, que, según nuestro modo de ver, nace en la pragmática política española, adquiere formas doctrinales en Italia y vuelve como ideología entre los pensadores españoles del siglo XVII» (169-70). (N. from the A.)

In the prologue to Quijote I Cervantes is in reality referring to Guevara's Epístolas familiares. As Martín de Riquer states in his footnote to this particular reference to Guevara as Bishop of Mondoñedo: «Adviértase la ironía al decir que su 'anotación'... dará gran crédito, pues era cosa sabida y demostrada que los libros de fray Antonio de Guevara estaban plagados de supercherías y falsedades» (Prólogo I, 23). (N. from the A.)