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<p>Jean Bodin’s first major prose work, the <i>Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem</i> of 1566 inaugurates a long critical tradition of challenging the coherence and the consistency of Machiavelli’s theory of the state, without indulging in conventional <i>ad hominem</i> attacks. Bodin’s analysis, brief and cogent, can still help us to understand Machiavelli today and to grasp some of the major tendencies of Machiavelli criticism that have developed since the Renaissance. Bodin takes Machiavelli seriously as a major threat to his own theory of sovereignty. Moreover, he focuses our attention on the rhetorical dimension of Machiavelli’s work and draws some suggestive parallels between Machiavelli and the sophistic tradition, especially in his second major work, <i>Les six livres de la République</i>, where he likens Machiavelli to the sophist Favorinus of Arles, who wrote a paradoxical encomium of the quartan fever. Bodin’s reading reveals the striking affinities as well as the basic antagonism between these two major figures in the history of political thought.</p>

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Jean Bodin’s First Reading of Machiavelli

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年2月5日

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  • Eric MacPhail

摘要

Jean Bodin’s first major prose work, the Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem of 1566 inaugurates a long critical tradition of challenging the coherence and the consistency of Machiavelli’s theory of the state, without indulging in conventional ad hominem attacks. Bodin’s analysis, brief and cogent, can still help us to understand Machiavelli today and to grasp some of the major tendencies of Machiavelli criticism that have developed since the Renaissance. Bodin takes Machiavelli seriously as a major threat to his own theory of sovereignty. Moreover, he focuses our attention on the rhetorical dimension of Machiavelli’s work and draws some suggestive parallels between Machiavelli and the sophistic tradition, especially in his second major work, Les six livres de la République, where he likens Machiavelli to the sophist Favorinus of Arles, who wrote a paradoxical encomium of the quartan fever. Bodin’s reading reveals the striking affinities as well as the basic antagonism between these two major figures in the history of political thought.