Abstract

The peculiar evolution of penal law in XIII-XV century, especially in the Italian context, set out an idea of state (and of sovereignty and monarch) as autonomous and superior in comparison with the juridical position of each citizen. This ideological construction became one of the basis of Machiavellian political thought. On the other side, the powerful influence of Machiavellian literary imagery was a fundamental help for jurists of XVI century in building the crimen lesae maieastatis, the typology of political crime in the age of absolutism.