DIIS contribution to Machiavelli Encyclopedia

In 1513 Machiavelli wrote the Prince after his eviction from the Florentine Republican administration at the return of the Medici. On the occasion of the 500 years’ anniversary, the Italian publisher Treccani initiated a major project: a Machiavelli Encyclopedia, constructed on the template of the former Dante Encyclopedia. This project involves a large staff at the universities of Rome and Bologna and more than 200 external researchers - Italian and international - each of them a well-established authority on specific topics related to this author. The result is now at hand at the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, fromd.difelice@treccani.it

One should not expect, within the frame of this major analytical and historical project, to find any traces of the vast secondary literature that over the centuries has just used Machiavelli as a reference point to argue for or against cynicism or to recycle other commonplace considerations on practical vs theoretical political thinking. In his preface Prof. Gennaro Sasso, director of the project, specifically excludes this line of business. The Machiavelli Encyclopedia remains a state-of-the-art reference for those in need of the latest scientific tool to approach a difficult author.

One Danish Machiavelli specialist, Lars Vissing, currently working at DIIS, was among those invited to cooperate on this project. Since the 1980s L. Vissing has published several monographies and articles on Machiavelli. His contribution to the Encyclopedia relates to the prominent Machiavellian theme of political illusionism.