LEONI, Giovanni Battista.

Considerationi . . . sopra l'historia d'Italia di messer Francesco Guicciardini.

Venice, Gioliti, 1583. Small 4to (215 x 115 mm), pp. [viii], 177, [15]; contemporary limp vellum. First edition. An extended refutation of the Florentine Guicciardini’s censures of Venice expressed in his history of Italy (1561), which, for example, blamed the selfish ambition of Venice for preventing Italian unity in the face of foreign incursions. Despite their disagreement, Leoni expressed his admiration for Guicciardini in the Considerationi: his stance is indicative of a growing interest among Venetians in the political culture of Florence and a shift towards a political and historical understanding resembling that of the mature Florentine Renaissance, moving away from the traditional static idealism that held that Venice’s perpetuity was guaranteed by an original constitution which had achieved a perfect balance of social forces (see Bouwsma, Venice and the defense of republican liberty pp. 69, 269).Adams L489.

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