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Machiavelli's Ironic View of History: The Istorie Florentine*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Salvatore Di Maria
Salvatore Di Maria*
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee
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Extract

A few years ago, Felix Gilbert, after a brief survey of various studies on Machiavelli's Istorie fiorentitte (1520-24), noticed the need to focus on the work's historical significance, and proposed a reading that goes beyond the mere narrative account of the rise and development of the city of Florence. Having shown that the work's structure follows the cyclical theory of history prevalent in Renaissance historiography, Gilbert goes on to suggest that Machiavelli anticipates Florence's rise from its present decline: “It would seem possible to suggest therefore that Machiavelli intended to represent the situation in which Italy found itself in the early sixteenth century as carrying with it the possibilities of a new ascent. “ The book, he argues, contains the same political message conveyed in his earlier works, such as the Prince (1513), which appropriately ends on the optimistic note that a redentore will come to lead the peninsula out of its ruinous downfall and back to glory and prosperity.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , Summer 1992 , pp. 248 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1992

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Footnotes

*

A version of this article was first read at the annual meeting of the American Association of Teachers of Italian in Atlanta on 22 November 1988. The essay was prepared with the support of the Professional Development Award from the University of Tennessee.

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