 Lipsius constructed his book from quotations of ancient writers — in itself a humanist tour de force, enabling him to show off his vast knowledge of classical literature. Montaigne described it as “a learned and carefully woven fabric.” Yet, although the treatise has been characterized as not much more than a compendium of quotations, Lipsius himself emphasized that the Politica was not a mere compilation. Since he had imposed order on the quotations, he expressed his own thought, following the strict rules of Ramist logic, through the authority of the ancients. Moreover, in addition to classical writers, Lipsius drew on medieval and Renaissance political philosophers, including Thomas Aquinas, the Spanish scholastics, Jean Bodin and Niccolò Machiavelli.