Ammirato, S.
Istorie Fiorentine.
Florence, A. Massi, 1641-1647
2 parts in 3 vols.
(8),553; (2),557-1188,(2); (8),563,(37)p.,
3 identical large engraver title-pieces., original uniformed vellum bindingd.
Folios, size 9 by 13 1/3"
Some toning, foxing.
First 2 leaves of volume 3 with some repair on the margins.
Volume 2 has repair of the front cover, visible on the photo.
All volumes with bookplate (of Whig MP George Wilbraham) on upper pastedown.
Text in Italian

Scipione Ammirato (1531 – 1601) was an Italian historian and philosopher. He is now regarded as an important founding figure in the scholarly study of the history of philosophy. He is best known for his political treatise Discorsi sopra Cornelio Tacito (Discourses on Tacitus), published in 1594. The book soon became “an international classic” with numerous translations.
In his Discorsi Ammirato presents himself as an anti-Machiavellian from the outset, leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to confute the main theses of Il Principe. Unlike Botero and Lipsius, Ammirato did not see Tacitism as a surrogate form of Machiavellianism.
On the contrary, his Discorsi present the works of the Roman historian as an antidote to Il Principe, and this approach was to prove widely popular during the long Tacitus revival.
Moreover, Ammirato's doctrine of reason of state defined such “reason” as violating neither natural nor divine law; it was the reason of the greater public good (such as public safety) and thus, in departing from the ordinary moral order in extraordinary circumstances, the modern prince did not come into conflict with Christianity.
Istorie Fiorentine, in two parts. Part I, consisting of twenty books, comes down to the year 1434, when Cosimo de' Medici, styled Pater Patriae, returned from his exile, and it was published in 1600, in 1 vol. fol. Part II, in fifteen books, to the year 1574, was published 1641, in 1 vol. fol., by Ammirato the younger, and dedicated to the Grand Duke Ferdinando II. Ammirato the younger published also in 1647 a second and improved edition of the first part, with additions, in 2 vols fol. Ammirato's history of Florence is considered the most accurate and complete of its kind. The Accademia della Crusca called him "the modern Livy". Ammirato, was highly critical of Machiavelli's Florentine Histories; he said that Machiavelli «altered names, twisted facts, confounded cases, increased, added, subtracted, diminished and did anything that suited his fancy without checking, without lawful restraint and what is more, he seems to have done so occasionally on purpose!»

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