The Problematics of Reading in Machiavelli's "Discourses"

Abstract

Machiavelli's Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (hereafter, Discourses) repose upon a striking paradox: for all their author's thematic interest in ordine, be it constitutional or civil, such a concern does not always appear to inform the work itself. True, each book of the Discourses contains themes proper to it, but within each book topical chaos sometimes seems to reign. While on the one hand Machiavelli may cautiously lead his reader through a discursive maze, elsewhere he appears to leap with abandon from chapter to chapter, offering little solace to a reader in search of a logic at best well hidden. Even efforts to reveal the book's order as a reflection of Livy's chronology offer little assistance, as Machiavelli intersperses sequential readings of Livy with references to chapters far afield from the sequence.l The Discourses' masterly counterpulls of centripetal and centrifugal forces thus lead the reader to the center only through the most circuitous routes. The structure of the Discourses perhaps best recalls a chain reaction that threatens constantly to spill out of control. Only Machiavelli's own selectivity, and presumably his decision to stop writing, keep the volume within the ample limits he assigns; otherwise its length would be unimaginable. Nevertheless the text lays a trap for the reader, who paradoxically seeks to master it by reducing it to primary themes while suffering the temptation to pursue its ever-expanding implications. And while the first exercise may constitute a legitimate act of selfdefense in the face of a daunting challenge, the competent reader must nonetheless recognize, at the very least, the inadequacy of such an approach. For it betrays what the Machiavelli of the Discourses seeks to instruct us about reading: that to read superficially or reductively is to