Hablar al pueblo: el uso de la contio desde la Antigüedad hasta el Renacimiento

Parler au peuple : la pratique de la contio de l’Antiquité à la Renaissance

Laurent Gerbier (1)

1 CESR - Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance UMR 7323

In the Roman republic the contio is a singular device : this assembly is not intended for voting laws but for defending them before the people. Far from simply being considered as a passionate and manipulatable mass, the crowd attending the contio maintains, as witnessed to by Cicero, a foundational relation with the truth. In the Italian cities of the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance is corroborated that the art of the contio (ars contionandi) always concerns the republican discourse. Even in Maquiavelo, the contio will fix this discernment of the certain and the good that belongs to the crowd confronted with the public opinion, which constitutes the grounds of the all nation’s lore.

Analyse de la 'contio' et de ses implications éthiques et politiques, de la Rome républicaine à la Florence de la Renaissance.

Mots clés: politique; éthique; Machiavel; rhétorique; Cicéron; Boncompagno da Signa

Domaines: Philosophie

Laurent Gerbier. Parler au peuple : la pratique de la contio de l’Antiquité à la Renaissance. Erytheis : revue d'études en sciences de l'homme et de la société, 2005, Savoirs de la citoyenneté, pratiques du lien social, 1. ⟨halshs-01177975⟩