Il pensiero politico della Storia d'Italia

In this essay I provide a reconstruction of the political thought that underpins Guicciardini's History of Italy. I contend that this work should be read in the context of an evolution in Guicciardini's positions. In the first section, I show that, starting in 1527, Guicciardini gradually lost faith in thepossibility of establishing well-ordered republics both in Florence and, more broadly, in Italy. As I argue in the second section, this is reflected in the negative characterization of republics such as Florence, Venice, and Genoa in the History.

Through a detailed analysis of Guicciardini's authorial choices, I demonstrate that the work can be seen as suggesting that republics are obsolete political forms in a world shaped by monarchical States and imperial aspirations. In the last section, I connect this claim to the more general post-humanistic worldview conveyed in the History, according to which contemporary reality differs so radically from antiquity that the imitation of classical models is futile. [Publisher's text]

104185 characters