[In the following brief notes, Grayson describes the contents, physical appearance, and publication history of Guicciardini's Ricordi, Considerations on the "Discourses" of Machiavelli, and Ricordanze.]

Introductory Note: Ricordi

Guicciardini made three redactions of this work. Although he began to collect together certain maxims as early as 1512, the main body of the collection, in a manuscript now lost, was put together sometime before 1525, re-copied, enlarged, and corrected in 1528, and further revised in 1530. In this process he made no fewer than 606 formulations for a total of 276 maxims, of which in the final version he discarded 55. The history of the growth and elaboration of the Ricordi has been reconstructed by R. Spongano in his excellent critical edition published by the Accademia della Crusca, Florence, in 1951 (Sansoni). The present translation, based on this edition, is confined to the 221 ricordi of the final redaction.

The Ricordi in one form or another were printed several times in the sixteenth century, and translated early into French, Dutch, and Spanish. The first English translation did not appear until 1845 (by Emma Martin, The Maxims of Fr. Guicciardini, London); a further translation was made by N. H. Thomson, Counsels and Reflections of Fr. Guicciardini, London, 1890. But in these, as in Italian editions before Spongano's edition of 1951, some degree of confusion, or at best parallelism, between the various redactions was inevitably present. On the diffusion, translation, and influence of this work, see V. Luciani, Fr. Guicciardini and his European Reputation, New York, 1936 (Italian translation brought up to date, Florence, 1949) Chapter X.…

Introductory Note: Considerations on the "Discourses" of Machiavelli

Machiavelli composed his Discourses between 1515 and 1518 in three books, dealing respectively with the internal politics, the expansion, and the contribution of individuals to the greatness of the Roman Republic. Ranging over a far wider area of historical and political interest and example than these general themes and his principal source would suggest, they represent the most mature reflection of Machiavelli on his long experience of contemporary affairs and continual reading of histories. After his death they were published for the first time in 1531 by Blado in Rome.

Guicciardini began his Considerations in Rome in 1530, where he probably had access to the autograph copy on which the Blado edition was based. He evidently intended to comment on more than thirty-eight chapters from the three books, but the work remained unfinished, and was unknown and unpublished until the nineteenth century. The present translation (the first complete translation into English) is based on the text published by R. Palmarocchi in vol. VIII (Scritti Politici e Ricordi) of Guicciardini's Opere (Bari, Laterza, 1933, pp. 3-65), which we have also followed in numbering the chapters according to the relevant number of the Discourses and in adding the title of each chapter from Machiavelli's work.

For a full appreciation of this work, the Considerations and the Discourses should ideally be read together. Machiavelli's Discourses have, however, been translated into English in recent years by Fr. L. J. Walker, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1950 (though the translation is not always reliable, the notes, in vol. II, are very full and include copious reference, often with translations, to Guicciardini's Considerations). This fact, as well as reasons of space (in general each Discourse is much longer than its Consideration) and the character of the present series, determined the limitation of our notes to an indication for each Consideration of the essential argument and examples of Machiavelli's text commented on by Guicciardini. Much that Machiavelli wrote in these Discourses was ignored by Guicciardini for one reason or another: some indication of the major 'omissions' is given in the notes. With their help and through Guicciardini's comments it is possible to perceive Machiavelli's views, and to appreciate the difference of approach of the two writers to the history of the past and of their own times.…

Introductory Note: Ricordanze

The Ricordanze here translated are in fact two separate records of Guicciardini's life and personal affairs: the first compiled between April 1508 and December 1515 and covering the period 1482-1515; the second written between July 1527 and February 1528, covering the period 1506-27. They exist in different holograph books, the second having the following descriptive title:

This book belongs to messer Francesco di Piero Guicciardini and is entitled Debtors and Creditors A; it was begun on I July 1527, because the other books I had started in the past, I had left behind and could not continue, as I was abroad for eleven years without a break.

From pp. 3-150, Debtors and Creditors;

From p. 150 to end, Ricordanze.

Although the second record repeats some few items of the first they are in the main very different in their material content, the one chiefly social-political, the other commercial-financial. Although they overlap slightly materially and chronologically, and though they are incomplete, together they give a remarkably coherent picture of the personality, interests, and concerns of Guicciardini the lawyer, citizen, husband, father, and business man.

The Ricordanze were not intended by the author for publication. The first part was published for the first time by Canestrini in 1867, and the second by P. Guicciardini in 1930. The present translation (the first into English) is based on the edition of R. Palmarocchi in vol. IX (Scritti autobiografici e rari) of Guicciardini's Opere, Bari, Laterza, 1936, pp. 53-98. The last three pages of the second part have, however, been omitted here. They contain an inventory of the silver plate which Guicciardini had made while he was in Romagna in 1524 or had acquired in earlier years for household purposes. As they are made up almost entirely of details of weights, alloys, makers' names, etc., it was felt that these pages might be dispensed with in the present translation.

Notes have been added to the text with the prime object of clarifying some of the financial transactions. The reader is reminded that the dates in the text are in Florentine style, the year beginning on 25 March.…