“One’s Own Arms” and Military Machiavellism: With Some Notes on The Concept of Authorship in 16th Century Treatises

Abstract

The circulation of Machiavelli’s Art of War made a fundamental contribution to the development of sixteenth-century vernacular military cultures. This essay analyses some specific aspects of the story of its reception and, in particular, focuses on the requirement of “one’s own arms” promulgated by Machiavelli’s book. This article deliberately examines two texts, which are different in both ideology and chronology: one originated in the context of the wars of religion and the diaspora of the French Protestants in the Swiss area, the other one dates back to the first half of the century. In fact, these works bring to light some of the most controversial aspects of the reception of the Florentine’s military thought. Further, they expose the difficulties that arise from applying a modern concept of authorship to texts born in a context which was characterized by a continuous recycling and reworking of themes and features, which had evolved within a long tradition of military writing and which, however, have been transformed, if not revolutionized by Machiavelli.