Of Guicciardinre history, the first sixteen books were published in 1561, the other four appeared afterwards, and the whole twenty together were published for the first time at Venice in ]569: 'Istoria d'italia di Francesco Guicciardini, gentilnomo Fiorentino, libri xx.' The work was afterwards frequently reprinted both in Italy and in other countries, and it has been translated into several European languages. The old Italian editions are mutilated from political motives ; the first unmntilated edition was that under the fictitious date of Fribourg, 3 vols. 4to, 1775; but the most complete and correct edition is that by Professor Rosini, of Pisa, 10 vols. 8vo, 819.20, with a luminous essay by the editor concerning Guicciardinra life and writings.
Guicciardini stands by common consent at the head of the general historians of Italy. His narrative, which embraces the period from 1494 to 1532, is that of a contemporary who had seen and participated in many of the events which he relates. He is very prolix, differing in this respect from the concise nervousness of his countryman Machiavelli, and his minuteness is sometimes wearisome. He has adopted Lines custom of putting speeches into the months of his principal historical personages, and sometimes the sentiments he makes them express aro not consistent with facts, as Foscarini has observed in his ' History of Venetian Literature.' In his narrative be has been charged, not with stating untruths, but with colouring and disguising truth when he speaks of parties which he dislikes, such as the Florentine popular leaders, the French, and the court of Rome, which, after the death of Clement VII., became hostile to the Medici. In bis tone he cannot be called either moral or patriotic. Like Machiavelli, he belongs to the school of positive or matter-of-fact historians ; he considers men such as he found them to be, and not such as they might or ought to be ; he relates with the same coolness an atrocious act as a general one; and he seems to blame failure resulting from incapacity, or weakness, or scrupulousness, more than the success resulting from boldness and abilities, however unprincipled.
Like some other statesmen, be considers an error in politics as worse than a crime. It must be observed however that Guicciardini lived in an age of triumphant dishonesty, that he was the contemporary of the Borgias, of Ferdinand of Aragon, of Ludovico Sforza, Bourbon, Pescara, and the worst of the Medici ; and it is no wonder therefore that he ascribes the acts of public men to two great sources, selfish calculation, or passion, and seldom, if ever, to virtue, or disinterested ness. Collections have been made of the moral and political aphorisms scattered through his work, by his nephew Ludovico Guicciardini (Antwerp, 1585), by Angbiari (Venice, 1625), and others. Corbinelli published another collection of principles and sentences which it appears that Guicciardini had written separately for his own guidance : Consigli e Avvertimenti In materia di Re Pubblica e di Private,' Paris, 1576. Part of his correspondence was published by Frk Remigio, in his Considerazioni civil sopra ristoria di Francesco Gnicciardini; Venice, 1582. Other letters of Guicciardini, written during his Spanish legation, have been published by Roaini 'Legs zione di Spawn,' Pisa, 1825. Botta, a Piedmontese writer who died in 1837, has written an able continuation of Guicciardini's history in 50 books : ‘Storia d'Italia continuata da quella del Guicciardini sine al 1789, di Carlo Botta,' 10 vols. 8vo.