A collection of essays by Quentin Skinner, one of the world's leading intellectual historians. Divided into three volumes, they include some of his most important philosophical and methodological statements written over the past four decades, each carefully revised for publication in this form. In a series of seminal essays Professor Skinner sets forth the intellectual principles that inform his work. In the first volume he considers the theoretical difficulties inherent in the pursuit of knowledge and interpretation, and elucidates the methodology which he will use in the two successive volumes, which deal respectively with the political thought of the Italian Renaissance and with the political thought of Thomas Hobbes. Professor Skinner's work is characterised by philosophical power, limpid clarity, and elegance of exposition; these essays provide a fascinating digest of the development of his thought. Professer Skinner has been awarded the Balzan Prize Life Time Achievement Award for Political Thought, History and Theory. Full details of this award can be found at http://www.balzan.it/News_eng.aspx?ID=2474