The Discourses on Livy (Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy) is a work of political history and philosophy composed in the early 16th century by the famed Florentine public servant and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), best known as the author of The Prince. Where The Prince is devoted to advising the ruler of a principality, i.e., a type of monarchy, the Discourses purport to explain the structure and benefits of a republic, a form of government based on popular consent and control. It is considered almost unanimously by scholars to be if not the first, then certainly the most important, work on republicanism in the early modern period.Machiavelli dedicated this work to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai, two of the greatest exponents of the Orti Oricellari in Florence, where aristocratic young people met in order to discuss politics, art and literature.

Outline

If The Prince resembles a guidebook based primarily on empirical observations, Machiavelli wrote the Discourses as a commentary on Livy's work on the history of Ancient Rome, Ab Urbe condita. However, both books include empirical observations—particularly from the political landscape of Renaissance Italy—and historical generalizations. Machiavelli himself does not make a sharp distinction between the two methods of inquiry, as he thinks that all ages are fundamentally similar. Machiavelli seeks to use both methods to discover the laws of the political universe, which he indicates are as unchanging as those of the natural world.

The book is, strictly speaking, three books in one. In Book I Machiavelli focuses on the internal structure of the republic. Book II is about matters of warfare. Book III is perhaps most similar to the teachings of The Prince, as it concerns individual leadership. The three books combined provide guidance to those trying to establish or reform a republic. However, his advice is (after Machiavelli's fashion) rather unorthodox, including a very long section on conspiracies, and seemingly providing advice to people seeking to overthrow a republic as well as those trying to establish one.

Although the formal title of the text translates as Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy, Machiavelli makes liberal references and allusions to the other books of Ab Urbe conditia, as well as to other works of classical literature. He particularly makes jibes—both direct and indirect—at Aristotle's Politics.

Reception and reaction

Francesco Guicciardini, Machiavelli's friend, read the book and wrote critical notes (Considerazioni) on many of the chapters. Jean-Jacques Rousseau considered the Discourses (as well as the Florentine Histories) to be more representative of Machiavelli's true philosophy:

Notes

1. The Discourses, written 1513-1517, is in many ways a different work, although how different it and The Prince actually are has been a matter of considerable academic dispute ever since the former's posthumous publication in 1531. For that scholarly debate cogently summarized, see David Ingersoll, "The Constant Prince: Private Interests and Public Goals in Machiavelli," Western Political Quarterly 21(Dec. 1968), 588-596, at 588-589.

Further reading

• Full Text of the Discourses, courtesy: Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Full Text of the Discourses in Italian, Bibliotheca Philosophica

• J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (Princeton: 2003; 1975). Traces the republican ideal of civic virtue from the ancients, through Machiavelli, to the English, Scottish, and American political traditions.

• J.G.A. Pocock, "The Machiavellian Moment Revisited: a Study in History and Ideology,"

• Quentin Skinner, Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Volume 1: The Renaissance (Cambridge University Press, 1978). Skinner contextualizes Machiavelli, bringing to light the intellectual discussions that preceded and influenced his work.

• Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli, University of Chicago, 1958.

• Harvey Mansfield, "New Modes and Orders, A study of the Discourses on Livy" University of Chicago, 2001.

• Minowitz, Peter, “Machiavellianism Come of Age? Leo Strauss on Modernity and Economics,” The Political Science Reviewer 22 (1993) 157-97.

• Hans Baron, "The Composition and Structure of Machiavelli's Discorsi, Journal of the History of Ideas 14,1(1953), 136-156.

• Gisela Bock; Quentin Skinner; Maurizio Viroli, eds. Machiavelli and Republicanism (Cambridge: 1990).

• John M. Najemy, "Baron's Machiavelli and Renaissance Republicanism," American Historical Review 101,1(1996), 119-129.