Guiraudet e Périès traduttori di Machiavelli alla luce della Rivoluzione: tra riabilitazione e usi politici

Abstract

This paper focuses on two important French translations of Machiavelli’s works, by Charles-Philippe-Toussaint Guiraudet (1799), and by Jean-Vincent Périès (1823-1826). Although the two translations have precise cultural targets (to rehabilitate Machiavelli’s image and to overtake the republican interpretation), both translators have political and personal aims closely related to the political context they’re in. Guiraudet outlines the patriotic interpretation of the Prince for the first time and, considering Machiavelli as the theorist of the strong executive power, he wants to take position against the Jacobins and forewarn the coup d’État of 18 Brumaire. Périès defines Machiavelli as the theorist of the representative regime and, in the context of the Spanish war of 1823, he wants to associate ancient bonapartists’ political stances to Louis XVIII’s regime.