ABSTRACT
At the sight of Machiavelli the man of the pen suddenly becoming the man of military affairs, historians and biographers alike proclaim his patriotism. I shall certainly not be the first to deny him that virtue. Beyond the love for his own small city state and its liberties, which has been recognized in him since his own times, there is no one today who does not see in him more clearly than in any other Italian of his age the glimmerings of a loyalty to a wider nation.
