Images of Italy of the late 15th – early 16th centuries in the literary works of Machiavelli

The research is aimed to explore the images of Italy in the literary works of Niccolo Machiavelli, a Florentine diplomat and writer of the era of the first decades of the Italian Wars (1494-1559), of which he was a witness and participant. The authors of the article focused on three works of Machiavelli: his diplomatic poem in two parts "Decade" ("Decennali"), as well as the comedies "La Mandragola" and "La Clizia", the choice of which was due to the similar genres and ideology of these works affecting the fate of Italy. To implement the research objectives, a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach was used, combining methods of historical research (cultural-historical, comparative-historical, historical-genetic methods), as well as methods of literary analysis (structural-descriptive, comparative). The main approaches to learning the heritage of the humanist in historiography were analyzed; the specificity of the images of Italy in these literary works of Machiavelli was revealed; the degree of content and ideological similarity of the works was determined. A historiography review showed the presence of many approaches and assessments, among which the authors of the article emphasize the point of view of the modern Italian researcher R. Bruscaglit, with his idea of Machiavelli as the heir to the creative spirit of Florence during the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and supplement it with their own conclusions. The analysis of the poem "Decades", written during Machiavelli's real diplomatic activity, showed that the main reason for the outbreak of the Italian Wars, in his opinion, was the disunity of the Italian states, their orientation toward external forces (France, Empire, Spain) and their unwillingness to unite. Machiavelli "painted" the image of a divided Italy, which was in trouble at the behest of the Duke of Milan, and ironically described his native Florence, allied with France. The analysis of the comedies "La Mandragola" and "La Clizia" showed that, when the writer finished his political practice, he continued to remain a sensitive observer and analyst, satirically denouncing the decline of his city and the misfortunes of Italy. The article draws conclusions about the orientation of Machiavelli the writer towards the initial period of the Italian Wars as a "point of no return" in Italian history; about the role of the poem "Decades" as a kind of a "prologue" to his comedies, which are filled with images of Italy. In these Machiavelli's works, similarities and differences are revealed in the contextual and semantic specificity of the expression of images of Italy. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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