Machiavelli in assenza di Machiavelli: la fondazione della politica moderna in Rodolfo De Mattei

This paper focuses on the critical interpretation of Machiavelli which transpires, between the 40’s and 70’s of the 20th Century, from the works of Rodolfo De Mattei, a historian of political thought. The aim is to pay tribute to a specific body of study and research centered around Machiavelli and the separation between ethics and politics which emerges from his works, recognizing the importance of political cultures which, between pre-Machiavellism and anti-Machiavellism, made a significant contribution to the reconsideration of the genesis of politics modernity. De Mattei’s interpretation aims at keeping Machiavelli’s contribution to the renewal, in the Modern sense, of political language in the right proportion with the need for giving back to politics a solid foundation of values, reconsidering the relationship between means and goals, reaching for a universalistic destination of politics, conceived as a precipitate of man as a person in history and society.