LA CONSTRUCTION PROBLEMATIQUE DE L’« ITALIE » CHEZ MACHIAVEL, UNE MODELISATION DEJA MODERNE ?
THE PROBLEMATIC CONSTRUCTION OF ‘ITALY’ IN MACHIAVELLI: AN ALREADY MODERN MODEL?

Summary/Abstract: The Problematic Construction of ‘Italy’ in Machiavelli: An Already Modern Model? This article examines how Machiavelli’s diplomatic writings and major political works (The Prince, Discourses on Livy, Discourse or dialogue concerning our language), construct a conception of “Italy” that anticipates modern identity and state formation. Tracing his shift from the stereotypes of De natura gallorum (1503) to the objective, quantified Portrait des choses de France (1510), the article shows how Machiavelli moves beyond medieval marvel-narratives toward a proto-geopolitical method rooted in Venetian and Florentine intelligence practices. This objectified account of French otherness lets him gauge the power gap between Florence and Europe's major monarchies, exposing the impossibility of an autonomous Florentine foreign policy and the strategic need for Italian unification. Beyond geostrategy, Machiavelli deepens the question culturally: in the Discourse or dialogue concerning our language, he locates in a shared vernacular – rather than religion, which he faults for eroding civic virtue – the bond capable of grounding a common Italian identity, despite unclear borders and persistent regional particularisms (Venice, the Papacy, Milan, Naples). The article argues that Machiavelli thereby invents a fully “modern” mode of identity construction, one that anticipates the later logic of the nation-state.

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