The Modernity of Machiavelli

LI j ACHIAVELLI'S PRINCE and to a lesser extent his Discourses on the History of Titus Livius achieved a quick and lasting fame, or at least notoriety.' The durability of this reputation is well merited. His work throws a sharp and intense, if somewhat monochromatic, light on the whole of the modern era, not only for his contemporaries who stood at its beginning, but also for us who stand almost at its end. In particular his thought can help us understand the two main institutions of modernity, the nation-state, and capitalism, even though he rarely uses the term "state" (lo stato) in its modern sense, and has little to say about economic matters. I come to Machiavelli in the spirit that he himself adopted toward the writings of the past. When he retired to his study to commune with his favorite authors of antiquity, he did not turn his back on the stormy times in which he lived; on the contrary, his approach to these writers was infused with his deep concern with the affairs of Italy and especially his beloved Florence. He studied the past in order to understand the present, and to draw lessons for himself and others about the condition in which Florence and Italy found themselves, and how this condition might be dealt with.