"Veritas filia temporis". Machiavelli e le citazioni a chilometro zero

Abstract

This article suggests a potentially direct source of the quotation of Veritas filia Temporis in the third chapter of the Discorsi sopra la prima Deca di Tito Livio. Remarkably, it is not a classical source but a fifteenth-century Florentine text, Apologia contra vituperatores civitatis Florentiae (1496) by Bartolomeo Scala, a humanist and chancellor who had established a friendly relationship with Machiavelli’s father. This identification stimulates further reflections on the question of Machiavelli’s culture and his sources, that scholars should locate in his contemporary context rather than in ancient texts, the Secretary’s acquaintance with which cannot always be demonstrated.

Keywords

• literature
• Florence
• humanism