Machiavelli, the Aristotelian Problem of Tyranny in Giles of Rome and Marsilius of Padua

Abstract

This article investigates Machiavelli’s relationship with the treatment of tyranny in scholastic Aristotelianism. More specifically, it analyzes Machiavelli’s omissive analysis of tyranny against the backdrop of the Vernacular translated texts of two Aristotelian thinkers who were present in Machiavelli’s context: Giles of Rome and Marsilius of Padua. It is argued that some pragmatic political themes of Machiavelli’s political thought have interesting antecedents already in previous medieval Aristotelian thinkers.