Journal of the History of Philosophy

988 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 3 I :~ APRIL a993 Mark Morford. Stoics and Neostoics: Rubens and the Circle of Lipsiu~. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 199L Pp. xviii + a46. Cloth, $42.5o. When I first saw this book advertised, I was very excited. Philosophers who study seventeenth-century philosophy need to understand the Stoic revival of the sixteenth century, the development of Neostoicism, and the ways in which these movements influenced philosophical, religious, and political thinking in the next century. Useful secondary accounts are few. There are really only two surveys--L~ontine Zanta's La Renaissance du Stoicisme au XVIe Si~cle (1914) and G~nter Abel's Stoizismus und Friihe Neuzeit 0977); both cover the major figures, Justus Lipsius, Guillaume du Vair, and Pierre Charron, and other evidence of Stoic thinking in the sixteenth century. In addition, there is the work of Gerhard Oestreich, some of it now available in English translation in Neostoicism and the Early Modern State (x982), and two chapters in Anthony Levi's French Moralists (x964). In 193~ Rudolf Kirk edited John Stradling's Elizabethan translation of Lipsius's De Constantia 0594), and in 1955 Jason Saunders provided a valuable survey of Lipsius's life and Stoic works, Justus Lipsius: The Philosophy of Renaissance Stoicism, certainly the best English account for philosophical purposes. Helpful as these works are, however, more is needed, especially philosophically analytical accounts that assess these sixteenth-century developments with the sophistication of recent work in the history of philosophy and relate them to early modern philosophy. Morford's book, the work of a classicist, may not have promised exactly this, but it did promise greater clarification of Renaissance Stoic thought. The theme of Morford's work is the Stoicism ofJustus Lipsius, the great Belgian classical scholar of the late sixteenth century, and its influence on the art of Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens's brother, Philip, was one of Lipsius's favorite and most talented students and disciples. Through him Peter Paul Rubens was drawn into Lipsius's circle and was schooled in the Stoic philosophy of Tacitus and Seneca and in Lipsius's own synthesis of Stoicism and Christianity. In his early chapters Morford explores Lipsius's conception of friendship and his relations with various students and professional associates . He traces Lipsius's complex, controversial relations with Christianity--his conversions to Lutheranism and Calvinism, his return to Catholicism, and his views on church and state. Morford then examines Lipsius's magisterial edition of Tacitus, his De Constantia of 1583, his handbooks on Stoic moral and physical theory, and his edition of Seneca. In the final two chapters he charts the Stoic and Lipsian impact on Rubens's life as a diplomat and on his art, especially on his iconography and choice of themes. Morford argues that even in Rubens's last decade, when his work and his life seem to have changed under the influence of his wife, Helena Fourment, Rubens remained committed to Stoic principles. When Rubens retired from public life, he may not have sought a life of austerity, but he nonetheless pursued the Stoic ideal by cultivating his virtue and his art. Reading Morford's book, one cannot help but learn a tremendous amount about Lipsius and his circle. It is brimming with detail and meticulous, relentless scholarship. Morford has examined all the relevant sources, from treatises to vast amounts of correspondence, and he tracks down every allusion, every reference, and every source. BOOK REVIEWS 289 But for philosophers the value of the book lies not in these overwhelming particulars but rather elsewhere, in Morford's examination of Lipsius's political thought, his Stoic moral philosophy, and his special synthesis of Stoicism and Christianity. Unfortunately these topics are not discussed critically. Generally Morford either reports without analysis what Lipsius cites from Tacitus, Seneca, Epictetus, et al., or simply paraphrases what Lipsius says. To be sure, he does engage some large and important questions about Lipsius, especially concerning his personality, the role of Christianity in his life and thought, and his conception of the primary relevance of classical scholarship for current affairs. But even here Morford's solutions are neither clear nor compelling; too often heaps of...