Abstract

The aim of this essay is to analyse the different (and sometimes conflictive) reports about the battle of Ravenna, linking that event to the development of Machiavellian thought. During 1512, Francesco Guicciardini was ambassador of Florence in Spain, and he received news about the battle through letters of his father Piero and his brother Luigi. That correspondence shows that Machiavelli had written too about the battle, but - at least in Francesco Guicciardini's opinion - Niccolò wrote «a passione» ("with passion" and untruthfulness), increasing the slain on one side and diminishing it on the other, according with an already clear political view.