Maxims and Reflections of a Renaissance Statesman

…of maxims and observations, the Ricordi. His political thought is frequently akin to, and sometimes more radical than, that of his friend Niccolò Machiavelli, with whom he shared, despite his long service with the papacy, a criticism of the contemporary church. He disagreed, however, in his Considerazioni intorno ai “Discorsi”…

…of Guicciardini’s main works, his Ricordi (1512–30; “Things to Remember”; Eng. trans. Maxims and Reflections of a Renaissance Statesman), has a place among the most original political writings of the century. Guicciardini was also the first, in his Storia d’Italia (1537–40), to compose a truly national history of Italy, setting…