Appunti sul livio di Machiavelli

Abstract

Of all the classical authors Machiavelli read and meditated upon, none was more important to him than Livy, whose Ab Urbe condita libri had a profound impact on the shaping of his political thinking. When Machiavelli wrote his major works, Il Principe and the Discorsi, some twenty printed editions of Livy's history already existed. As the textual and, more especially, the paratextual differences between them are considerable, the question which edition Machiavelli actually used is of some importance. This subject is dealt with by Ronald T. Ridley in his 1987 article Machiavelli's Edition of Livy, where he postulates that Machiavelli used the Paris edition published in 1511 by Josse Bade. In the present article this thesis and the question it aims to resolve are examined closely; moreover, some observations are made about the paratextual characteristics of the Livy editions published between ca. 1470 and ca. 1520.