He was the principal exponent of the humanist tradition of ‘virtue politics.’[1] He was the first Western political philosopher since antiquity to devote sustained attention to the question of how a republic devoted to liberty and equality could uphold meritocratic principles in government—how it could ensure that its rulers and political class generally were public-spirited, well-educated men of virtue and wisdom.
He was the first political philosopher since Aristotle to devote sustained attention to citizenship (in both its republican and royal varieties), and the first to explore the potential of a planned urban environment to shape civic values and facilitate a free way of life.
He was also the pioneer of a new ‘historico-prudential’ approach to political thought that applied the study of the humanities, above all history, to the reform of republican and royal institutions.
[2] He was exiled from Siena in 1457, and later became the Bishop of Gaeta and had the prominent role of governor of Foligno, then in the Papal States, for several years from 1461, appointed by Pope Pius II.
A highly accomplished Hellenist himself, he was able to study and synthesize the newly available Greek literature that was rapidly filling the shelves of Italian libraries during the quattrocento, both in the original and in new Latin translations made by his fellow humanists.
Unlike some other humanists, however, Patrizi did not adopt the view, common in his day, that institutions were irrelevant so long as rulers were virtuous.
He posed the question how institutions could be designed to promote virtue among rulers and to protect the organs of the republic from wounds inflicted by ignorant, greedy and power-hungry persons.
[6] He proposed as his optimus status reipublicae, or best possible republic, a mixed constitution led by aristocrats, though his necessary condition for membership in the aristocracy was not high birth but good character and humane learning.
By a natural process of thought Patrizi became the first author in European history to advocate universal literacy among the citizen class as well as public funding for teachers of the liberal arts.
[8] He was in fact the first political thinker since Aristotle to devote sustained attention to the concept of citizenship in both its republican and royal varieties.
Patrizi calls for reformation of the legal system to protect it from the influence of wealth; hence both prosecutors and defense attorneys should work for honor alone or be paid by the state.
The moral economy, Patrizi thought, could be achieved by educating merchants and bankers in the virtues of frugality and generosity and teaching them to avoid greed and luxury.
Patrizi proposed a scheme of agrarian reform whereby state lands would be leased on a long-term basis to the rural poor in order to prevent them from falling under the power of wealthy landowners.
He was a professor of literature in Siena’s public Studio (or university) and private tutor to Achille Petrucci, offspring of the city’s most important political family of the quattrocento and a future civic leader.
After his exile from Siena in 1457, Patrizi supported himself briefly as private tutor to the son of the Milanese ambassador, and in that capacity met leading statesmen and princes from Tuscany and northern Italy.
When his friend Enea Silvio Piccolomini became Pope Pius II in September 1458, Patrizi took holy orders and was made the Bishop of Gaeta (1461).
After Pius’ death in 1464, his position in Foligno became untenable owing to a popular uprising, and he retired to administer his diocese in Gaeta, a port city in the Kingdom of Naples.
A collection of 41 poems in various meters, composed in Patrizi’s early career and scribally published in 1461 with a dedication to Pope Pius II.
A collection of 345 epigrams of varying lengths, composed by Patrizi in the latter part of his career and apparently left unpublished at his death.