“Prima del Machiavelli”

Benedetto Croce’s Reflections on the System of Power in the Renaissance Kingdom of Naples

Abstract

The aim of this article is to assess, in the broader context of the history of Italian states during the Renaissance, the significance that Benedetto Croce attached to Machiavelli’s historical and political thought in the context of his historical reflections on the history of Italian states during the Renaissance, focusing on the relations between these states and the Spanish monarchy of the time. In this context, it is necessary to compare Croce’s theses with the opinions expressed by the Florentine Secretary (taken from The Prince and The History of Florence), as well as those of Francesco Guicciardini, the 16th-century author The History of Italy. For the purposes of this article, Polish and Italian literature on the subject relating to the history of Italy at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries has been used, with particular emphasis on the history of the Kingdom of Naples and, in this context, the historical and political thought of Niccolò Machiavelli. Using research methods from the field of Italian historiography and the history of political thought in the early modern era, the analysis covers the characteristics of the history of the Kingdom of Naples during the Aragonese era in the system of Italian states in the 15th century, as well as the concept of pre-Machiavellianism in the reign of King Ferrante in the reflections of Benedetto Croce. Referring to these main research theses, it is important to emphasise their significance not only in the context of the essay Prima del Machiavelli (which is a commentary on the source publication Una difesa di Re Ferrante I di Napoli per il violato trattato di pace del 1486 col Papa (Bari, 1944), but also Croce’s work on the history of the Kingdom of Naples, Storia del Regno di Napoli (Bari, 1925). In conclusion, it can therefore be said that Benedetto Croce achieved the goals he set himself in his research on the history of Southern Italy, especially the Kingdom of Naples, including his essay Prima del Machiavelli, which is important for understanding the era of key changes in this history at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. They should also be viewed, as Croce himself wanted, from an Italian historical perspective, but at the same time in a broader context, both from the point of view of political history and literary, artistic and social history. And also in accordance with his key thesis that History is always Contemporary.