Introduction, Page 5
The answer lies partly in the difference in content between the two writers, but even more in a difference of approach. Guicciardini’s Ricordi are the detached reflections of an aristocratic mind, successfully involved in politics, yet able to stand apart. His recommendations are always qualified and he rejects in principle Mchiavell’s advocacy of extreme courses. Likewise, his Considerazioni sui Discorsi del Machiavelli are a cool appraisal of the other’s mistakes. Guicciardini has few enthusiasms. Machiavelli, on the other hand, displays a passionate enthusiasm for the game he describes, rejects the via media and backs his recommendations with the fervour of his conviction.
His approach is generalizing, sweeping and, above all, didactic. Machiavelli sets out consciously to teach politics to the politician, statecraft to the statesman. Where Guicciardini refines and corrects, Machiavelli exhorts and adumbrates, over-simplifying, distorting even, to dramatize his points. The author of Il Principe and I Discorsi, no less than the author of La Mandragola, saw human life essentially as drama.