«From Francesco Guicciardini, Maurizio Viroli, a biographer of Machiavelli, tells us, who was“ a master of calculation, prudence, of the reserve both in words and in actions; He knew how to hide his feelings so well that he managed to obtain the most prestigious charges from the potatoes, despite hate A revelation. "

Of the prologue of Daniel Gamper, professor of philosophy and essayist

We rescue the thoughts that Francesco Guicciardini, the great father of modern historiography, wrote under the title of Ricordi. These aphoristic notes, which were gathering at different times of his life and in various periods of his activity as a diplomat, remained unpublished until 1857. Machiavellian neighbor, fourteen years older than him, in the Republic of Florence, his pragmatism subject to circumstances The author of The Prince was opposed to the moment.

Guicciardini's ideas, impregnated with realism, offer useful teachings to deal with public and private affairs, and their skepticism, irony and disbelief against any explanation that does not take into account the complexities of the context maintain all its freshness and their validity five centuries later.