Per lo studio degli ambienti culturali intorno a Machiavelli cancelliere: nuevo dati su Agostino Vespucci

Abstract

During Machiavelli’s years as second chancellor, members of the staff formed around him a true friendship network, exchanging both cultural and political ideas. Biagio Buonaccorsi and Agostino Vespucci stand out as Machiavelli’s closest friends in that group. Unlike the former, Vespucci has received little attention until he has recently been identified as the humanist who signed as Agostino Nettucci. The paper discusses Vespucci’s beginnings in the chancery; his earliest letter to Machiavelli is brought to light – a text known but hitherto not attributed to him –; the content of a now untraceable letter from Vespucci to Buonaccorsi is recovered thanks to a little-known 19th-century French translation, and Machiavelli’s historiographic project in that period is re-examined in the light of his coadjutors’ collaboration.