Unlike Machiavelli-inveterate dreamer and cynic-Guicciardini's mind is remarkable for the balance and masterly coolness of its judgment.-Federico Chabod

In the history of Renaissance thought, Guicciardini's Ricordi occupy a place of singular importance. Few works of the sixteenth century allow us so penetrating an insight into the views and sentiments of its author as these reflections of the great Italian historian. . . . Like Machiavelli's Prince, the Ricordi form one of the outstanding documents of a time of crisis and transition; but unlike the Prince, they range over a wide field of private as well as public life. In doing so, they revel the man as well as the political theorist.-Nicolai Rubenstein, from the Introduction