Francesco Guicciardini

The Italian historian and statesman Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540) is best known for his history of Italy, which covers the period from 1492 to 1532.

Francesco Guicciardini was born in Florence into a prominent mercantile family. After graduating in civil law from the University of Pisa, he began a successful practice with clients drawn from the leading Florentine families, merchant organizations, and monastic orders. In 1508 he married Maria Salviati, who bore him seven daughters. His first political appointment, the important one of ambassador to Spain, came to him at the early age of 28. After the return to power of the Medici in Florence and the elevation to the papacy of Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici as Leo X, Guicciardini insisted upon being recalled, arriving home in January 1514. Two years later he was appointed governor of Modena, beginning a career of Church service that endured until the triumph of imperial forces in Italy and the occupation of Rome by troops of Charles V in 1527.

Under Pope Clement VII, his close friend, Guicciardini's power in Romagna was extended. An able governor, he resolutely established order and instituted fiscal reforms and a program of public works. He played a key role in the formation of the anti-imperial League of Cognac in 1526. The third and last Florentine Republic condemned him in absentia on trumped-up charges in 1530, shortly before it fell. When Guicciardini opposed absolute power for the reinstated Medici regime, Clement VII sent him away to be governor of Bologna. When Cosimo I de' Medici reached an accord with Charles V, Guicciardini, still an anti-imperialist, lost favor and retired to his villa of Santa Margherita in Montici. Like his friend Niccolò Machiavelli, he wrote his most important works during a period of political disgrace.

Guicciardini's masterpiece, the Storia d'Italia (History of Italy), was written from 1537 to 1540. Published in 1561, the work met with great success, spreading throughout Europe in translation. The Storia d'Italia was a history not just of Italy but of Europe. Guicciardini's skill at interrelating political movements in many states, his objectivity even in analyzing events in which he directly participated, his combination of broad perspective with shrewd psychological insights into the contemporary makers of history are truly remarkable. Among the famous passages, sometimes anthologized for their literary verve, are his delineation of conditions in Italy upon the death of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1492 and his portrait of Clement VII.

His other works include Storia fiorentina (1509), Relazione di Spagna (ca. 1514; Report on Spain), Dialogo del reggimento di Firenze (1525; Dialogue on the Government of Florence), Ricordi politici e civili (1529; Political and Civil Memoirs), and Considerazioni sui Discorsi del Machiavelli (1529; Considerations on Machiavelli's Discourses). Of these works the last two are the most important. Guicciardini's Ricordi fails to make the clear distinction between public and private morality made by Machiavelli, but it combines shrewd personal observation with fragmentary political analysis.

Further Reading

Guicciardini's Selected Writings (1965) has an introduction by the editor, Cecil Grayson. A biography is Roberto Ridolfi, The Life of Francesco Guicciardini (1960; trans. 1967). See also Vincent Luciani, Francesco Guicciardini and His European Reputation (1936), and Felix Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini:Politics and History in Sixteenth-century Florence (1965). □

Guicciardini, Francesco (1483–1540)

Italian writer of Florence whose methods in research have given him the title of the “first modern historian.” He studied at the universities of Ferrara and Padua and at first sought a career in the church. His father disapproved of his choice and he turned to the law and a political career in Florence. The government of Florence appointed him as an ambassador to King Ferdinand of Spain. In 1515, he entered the service of Leo X, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent of Florence. Guicciardini became the papal governor of Reggio and Modena, towns of northern Italy then under the control of the pope. As governor of Parma, he defended the town against an assault by the French, an action that was rewarded by Pope Clement VII with an appointment as vice regent of Romagna and then as lieutenant-general of the army of the pope.

In 1531 Guicciardini became the governor of Bologna, but in 1534 resigned his post. By this time he was disillusioned with the ambition and greed of the popes and decided to seek his fortune by allying with the Medici clan. For this the city of Florence, which had expelled the Medici, declared him an outlaw. After Alessandro de' Medici, his patron and protector, was murdered in 1573, Guicciardini allied himself with Cosimo de' Medici, a boy whom Guicciardini believed he could manipulate and through whom he hoped to rule Florence as a regent. Seeing through his machinations, however, Medici dismissed Guicciardini and exiled him to his country home.

With his hopes of power and influence in Florence ended, Guicciardini began to write The History of Italy, the work for which he is best known. In great detail, this work describes events in Italy in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

He also set down his thoughts on politics and religion in the Ricordi Politici, a commentary on the works of Machiavelli, and essays collected under the title of Political Discourses.

See Also: Machiavelli, Niccolo; Medici, Cosimo de'

Francesco Guicciardini , 1483–1540, Italian historian and statesman. He represented (1512–14) his native Florence at the court of Spain, held offices in the Florentine government, and in 1516 entered the service of Pope Leo X. An able administrator, he was appointed governor of Modena (1516), commissary of the papal army (1521), and president of the Romagna (1524). After 1527, when he lost his high office as a result of the invasion of the papal states by the army of Emperor Charles V, Guicciardini devoted himself chiefly to writing. Breaking with medieval tradition, he removed history from the realm of literature and related it to the development of states. His history of Italy, written in his maturity and covering the period 1492–1534 (the period of the Italian Wars), is the masterwork of Italian historical literature of the Renaissance. It is distinguished by its clear-eyed analysis of motives, events, and persons. A follower of Machiavelli, Guicciardini has been accused of cynical realism. His history of Florence from 1378 to 1509, written in his youth, was published in 1859. It is marked by extreme simplicity and directness of style. Guicciardini also wrote a collection of maxims, translated as Counsels and Reflections (1890).

Bibliography: See studies by F. Gilbert (1965) and R. Ridolfi (1968).

Guicciardini, Francesco (1483–1540) Italian statesman and historian. As Florentine ambassador to Aragon (1512–14), and then in the service of the papacy (1515–34), he showed outstanding administrative ability, and he also became a prolific political writer. In 1536, back in Florence, he began his monumental Storia d'Italia (“History of Italy”), which covered the years from 1494 to 1534. Although he died before completing the final revision, it stands as the most objective contemporary history of the country during the period of Italy's wars with France.