Whithin the critique literature scope there are two standpoints as regards Machiavellian Cosmos: On one hand the traditional standpoint embodied by Leo Straus that has belittled the impact of the forces of nature; whereas on the other hand the standpoint headed by Gennaro Sasso, Miguel Angel Granada y Anthony Parel has interpreted the Machiavellian text concerning the debate between neoplatonics and neoaristotelians The Machiavelli´s overuse of a cosmological schema- wherein the life of the politic bodies is explained through an adequate (...) knowledge of the laws of the natural world-is argued in this paper as from the interpretation of the oblivione delle cose concept in D., II, V and D., I, LVI. (shrink)

This sentence: «Infinita è la violenza delle convinzioni acquisite», which appears in this text for the first time, could be the most faithful motto of Mario Martelli’s critical production, always characterized by his hard and consistent struggle against the «convizioni acquisite» of critical literature, historiography and philosophy, all of which have so severely mislead our view of Niccolò Machiavelli’s work and thought.

This sentence: «Infinita è la violenza delle convinzioni acquisite», which appears in this text for the first time, could be the most faithful motto of Mario Martelli’s critical production, always characterized by his hard and consistent struggle against the «convizioni acquisite» of critical literature, historiography and philosophy, all of which have so severely mislead our view of Niccolò Machiavelli’s work and thought.

Whilst he was writing De principatibus, was Machiavelli really as out of touch with the Florentine politico-institutional world as his letter of December 1513 claims? Who read Il principe prior to its publication, and how? Why did the philosopher Agostino Nifo, one of the major proponents of Renaissance Averroism, plagiarize it? To what extent is the Machiavellian "principato civile" comprehensible only by way of its Medicean and Florentine affiliation? Did the young Lorenzo de' Medici's political programme seek to eliminate the (...) Roman church? What politicocultural stance is hidden behind certain political terms from the humanist tradition that Machiavelli revisited in Il principe? To what extent was the Machiavellian relationship between animality and humanity, simulation and dissimulation, influenced by Leonardo da Vinci's ceuvre? And, finally, what are the questions that remain open in Il principe? This compilation offers some possible answers to these questions, thus providing new critical tools for the study of Niccolo Machiavelli's Il principe -- Back cover. (shrink)