vertu

alternative vertù · alternative virtu

1. historicaluncountableartThe fine arts as a subject of study or expertise; understanding of arts and antiquities.First known use 18th c.

   To give them their Due, they ſoar a Step higher than their Predeceſſors, and may be called Men of Wiſdom and Vertù (take heed you do not read Virtue).

   1750, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, volume III, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, →OCLC, pages 238–239

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   He engaged a certain Abbé of distinguished taste in virtù to attend them as their Ciceroné, and explain the antiquities brought from Herculaneum and Pompeia […].

   1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt, published 2008, page 233

2. historicaluncountableartObjets d'art collectively.First known use 18th c.

   I marvelled that the king should regard a chapel as an object of vertù.

   1851, Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick or The White Whale”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), Boston: The St. Botolph Society, published 1922, →OCLC, page 423

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   A Catalogue of a Truly Valuable Assemblage of Articles of Virtu of William Chinnery, Esq. Brought from Gillwell, Essex[…].

   1812, William Chinnery, A Catalogue of a Truly Valuable Assemblage of Articles of Virtu of William Chinnery …, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, title page

   The more drawers and closets there were, the more hiding-holes could Charlotte make for the accommodation of old rags, hair-combs, old shoes, ribbons, cast-off artificial flowers, and other articles of vertù, wherein her soul delighted.

   1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, London: John Cassell, →OCLC, page 178

   “I was anxious to add to my collection of theosophical tea-cups, spirit cigarettes, and other articles of vertu […].”

   1917, Aleister Crowley, Moonchild, Weiser, published 2010, page 81

3. uncountableEspecially with reference to the writings of Machiavelli (1469–1527): the requisite qualities for political or military success; vitality, determination; power.First known use 19th c.

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   All these connotations, even the positive and moral ones, are within the range of significations Machiavelli wants us to hear in “virtù.” For him the word suggests a kind of flexibility that can initiate effective, efficient, and energetic action based on a courageous assertion of the will and an ability to execute the products of one's own calculations. Such calculations are a significant adjunct to his ideas about virtù: they outline what might be called an internal or mental virtù.

   1976, Niccolò Machiavelli; James B. Atkinson, transl., The Prince [The Library of Liberal Arts; LLA-172], Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, ISBN 978-0-672-51542-2; reprinted as Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Publishing Company, 2008, ISBN 978-0-87220-920-6, pages 69–70

   He alternately shocks his readers and provides relief from the very shocks he administers: Agathocles has virtù but cannot be said to have virtù. It is not enough to say that he uses the word in several “senses”; he uses it in two contradictory senses as to whether it includes or excludes evil deeds.

   1996, Harvey C[laflin] Mansfield[, Jr.], Machiavelli's Virtue, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, pages 6–7

   To oversimplify, Machiavelli uses virtù to refer both to “Christian” moral virtues, the conventional universalistic values embodied in the Golden Rule, and to a set of more particularistic classical virtues centered on honor. Together they comprise Machiavelli's account of the most noble and distinctive human excellences, achievements, and aspirations.

   2000, Jack Donnelly, Realism and International Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 175

4. uncountableMoral worth; virtue, virtuousness.First known use 20th c.