Abstract

The essay discusses the old question of the relationship between Machiavelli's two major works, the "Prince" and the "Discourses", and suggests an interpretation of them based on Aristotle's "anatomy of the city ". The analysis is centered on the theory of "mixed government " (the "res publica"), which makes Machiavelli the last great and innovative classical political thinker. With the rise of European Wars of Religion the "mixed government " became the main problem for authors such Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes, who identified Aristotle, Polibius and Machiavelli as their enemies. The Author thinks that the theory of the "parts of the city " is a useful tool for the understanding of Machiavelli's thought and that it gives the possibility to go beyond ideological modernization of Machiavelli's thought as "republicanism ".