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The Prince, a civilizing hero What kind of person was the Italian prince at the end of the Middle Ages ? More than someone above his fellow men : he was a hero, whose primary duty was held to be that of denying or of repelling barbarism. He had one essential way of achieving this and his power rested on it : this was war – in the military reality of the times and even more so in its symbolism. This was apparent in rhetoric and iconography, particularly evidenced by the decoration of the palaces. Relying on ancient and medieval models, the Italian prince of the 15th Century positioned himself, when confronted by all these “barbarisms”, as the defender of the civilization that Italy had only recently become aware of incarnating ; this was done within a political perspective, which was in tune with the increase in the phenomenon of “monarchization”.