Martin van Gelderen studied at the European University Institute and taught at the Technische Universitaet in Berlin and at the University of Sussex, prior to his appointment to the chair of European History at the European University Institute in 2003. His many publications include The Political Thought of the Dutch Revolt (Cambridge University Press 1992), The Dutch Revolt (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, 1993) and he is currently preparing (also for the Cambridge Texts series) a new English rendition of De Iure Belli ac Pacis by Hugo Grotius.

Quentin Skinner is Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge. A Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, he is also a fellow of numerous academic bodies and the recipient of several honorary degrees. His many publications include The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge University Press, 1978, two volumes), Machiavelli (1981), Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge University Press, 1996), Liberty before Liberalism (Cambridge University Press, 1998), and three volumes of Visions of Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2002).

These volumes are the fruits of a major European Science Foundation project and offer the first comprehensive study of republicanism as a shared European heritage. Whilst previous research has mainly focused on Atlantic traditions of republicanism, Professors Skinner and van Gelderen have assembled an internationally distinguished set of contributors whose studies highlight the richness and diversity of European traditions. Volume I focuses on the importance of anti-monarchism in Europe and analyses the relationship between citizenship and civic humanism, concluding with studies of the relationship between constitutionalism and republicanism in the period between 1500 and 1800. Volume II, first published in 2002, is devoted to the study of key republican values such as liberty, virtue, politeness and toleration. This volume also addresses the role of women in European republican traditions, and contains a number of in-depth studies of the relationship between republicanism and the rise of a commercial society in early modern Europe.