Sulle repubbliche: mito e realtà storica

The essay highlights two figures, generally not much quoted in the debate on Republicanism, Pietro Andrea Canoniero (physician, author of Introduzzione alla politica, 1614) and Boccalini. They consider the republics, with or without princes, the governments that assure the citizens more guarantees of freedom and prosperity. The models are above all the United Provinces and Venice (especially for Boccalini). A book by Peter Burke (Venice and Amsterdam, London, 1974) shows the dark side of these realities. More recently Mary Lindemann gave more proofs of this aspect in The Merchant Republics. Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg, 1648-1790 (Cambridge, 2015). The question is therefore did they (the republics) deserve so much glory? Boccalini in his Ragguagli (I, XXX) suggests something interesting: the princes should imitate the republics, for example, living in peace, trying to defend their states rather than assaulting the others … he is anyway skeptical on the possibility that a prince would find convenient this solution, because it strongly limitates his main interests. I argue that in the seventeenth century are the roots of the modern theory in favour of the plural governments.