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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $71.50

Format:
Hardback
208 pp.
156 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780198815457

Publication date:
February 2018

Imprint: OUP UK


Constituting Freedom

Machiavelli and Florence

Fabio Raimondi

Constituting Freedom focuses on the question at the heart of Machiavelli's thinking, that is "in what mode a free state, if there is one, can be maintained in corrupt cities; or, if there is not, in what mode to order it?"

The book analyses the different solutions thought up by Machiavelli, starting from the hypothesis of the "civil principality", the definition of the republican "civil and free way of life" and the examination of the history of the Florentine institutions, to two short writings during the years 1520-1522, the Discursus florentinarum rerum and the Minuta di provisione per la riforma dello Stato di Firenze, in which Machiavelli explored publicly, for the first time, his projects to bring back the republican freedom in Florence after the fall of the first Republic of the City and the Medici's return.

The book's main argument is that Machiavelli was always a committed republican, even when he worked for the Medici, and even though he believed that the city's constitution needed to change after the fall of Soderini. In the Discursus and in the Minuta Machiavelli proposed a constitution in which the "humours" were forced to mix themselves with one another so as to be obliged to generate a new form of "equality", which according to Machiavelli is the main characteristic of a free, just, and stable republic. The aim was not to obtain equilibrium among parts of the city leaving them unaltered, but to mix them. Only in this way could Florence return to being free.

Readership : Postgraduate, research, and scholarly: scholars and students of political theory and history of political thought.

Introduction
1. Corruption and Inequality
2. Tumults and the Birth of Florence
3. Political History of the Florentine Institutions
4. Constituting Freedom

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Fabio Raimondi teaches history of political thought at the University of Salerno. His main fields of research are the political thought of early modern Europe (Niccoló Machiavelli and Giordano Bruno in particular), Marxism and the social and political theories in post-war France.

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Special Features

  • Offers a new interpretation of some of the major issues within Machiavellian political thought.
  • Provides a clear guide into the historical and conceptual sequence of Machiavelli's writings.
  • Helps readers to understand the differences between Machiavellian and contemporary political lexicon.
  • Provides clear historical contextualization.
  • Highlights the main interpretive differences between major studies on Machiavelli.