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 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, 1978, two volumes), Machiavelli (Oxford, 1981), Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996), Liberty before Liberalism (Cambridge, 1998), and three volumes of Visions of Politics (Cambridge, 2002).