Abstract

In 1506 Machiavelli wrote a draft of a letter (probably never sent) addressed to Giovan Battista Soderini, known as "Ghiribizzi al Soderini". The paper argues: 1) that in their critical edition of the "Ghiribizzi" Ridolfi and Ghiglieri misplaced Machiavelli's long marginal addition preceded by a comparison between Hannibal and Scipio; 2) that this comparison (which surfaces also in other Machiavelli's writings) had been presumably inspired by Donato Acciaioli's pseudo-Plutarchean lives of the two generals, repeatedly published as genuine Plutarch's works; 3) that Donato Acciaioli's comment on Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics", a book owned by Bernardo Machiavelli, may shed some light on the intellectual development of his son, Niccolò.