FRANCESCO GUICCIARDINI’S APHORISTIC STYLE AND ITS SOURCES (BASED ON THE “NOTES”)
This paper aims to identify the connection between the aphoristic style of Guicciardini’s Maxims and Reflections ( Ricordi ) and the author’s sceptical attitude towards the possibility of identifying universal rules applicable to the problems of human existence. The analysis of Guicciardini’s aphoristic style is based on the study of the latest edition of his work. The first peculiarity of this kind of work is the apparent unsystematic and fragmentary nature of the text. However, the author of the present paper does not share the viewpoint of some scholars who consider Guicciardini to be simply a haphazard writer. Guicciardini’s conscious effort to be more concise and the clearly “didactic” orientation of his work reveal a certain system behind it and show this text to be an important contribution to the development of modern rationalism.