L’ideale del governo misto tra Venezia e Firenze. Un aristotelismo politico a doppia faccia

Marie Gaille (1)

1 SPHERE (UMR_7219) - Sciences, Philosophie, Histoire

The ideal of the mixed governement has been elaborated through philosophical and political narratives. Cities, such as Sparta and later, Venice, are at the front-stage of these stories. However, this constitutional “myth” of Venice has its origin in two very different sources : a certain strand of the political thought in Venice encouraged by its governement ; the political debate in Florence in the first part of the 16th century. The thought of G. Contarini and of D. Giannotti are essential landmarks in this process. Their studies allow us to throw light on the fact that, at this moment, political thought is in an intervening period : it is still framed by the conception of the three forms of government and their corrupted forms while it tries to create other conceptual frameworks. Their studies also shows the weight of the reference to Aristotle in Venice and Florence at the beginning of the 16th century and, at the same time, the impossibility to speak of a single political aristotelism.

résumés en français et en anglais Le gouvernement mixte est transformé en idéal à travers la construction de récits philosophico-politiques qui mettent en scène des cités. Après Sparte, Venise en constitue un modèle exemplaire. Cependant, ce « mythe » constitutionnel de Venise se constitue à partir de deux sources radicalement différentes : un courant de la pensée politique de Venise encouragé par son gouvernement ; le débat politique florentin dans la première partie du 16ème siècle. La pensée de G. Contarini et celle de D. Giannotti interviennent de manière fondamentale dans ce processus. Leur confrontation met en évidence la tension d’une pensée politique qui, à l’époque, se situe dans un entre-deux théorique : encore marquée par la conception des trois formes de gouvernement et de leurs formes corrompues, cherchant à s’en distancer en créant d’autres cadres conceptuels. Elle montre aussi l’importance de la référence à Aristote à Venise et à Florence au début du 16ème siècle, mais aussi l’impossibilité de parler d’un aristotélisme politique au singulier. The ideal of the mixed governement has been elaborated through philosophical and political narratives. Cities, such as Sparta and later, Venice, are at the front-stage of these stories. However, this constitutional “myth” of Venice has its origin in two very different sources : a certain strand of the political thought in Venice encouraged by its governement ; the political debate in Florence in the first part of the 16th century. The thought of G. Contarini and of D. Giannotti are essential landmarks in this process. Their studies allow us to throw light on the fact that, at this moment, political thought is in an intervening period : it is still framed by the conception of the three forms of government and their corrupted forms while it tries to create other conceptual frameworks. Their studies also shows the weight of the reference to Aristotle in Venice and Florence at the beginning of the 16th century and, at the same time, the impossibility to speak of a single political aristotelism.

Mots clés: Renaissance; Venise; Machiavel; Florence; constitution mixte; Aristote

Domaines: Philosophie

Marie Gaille. L’ideale del governo misto tra Venezia e Firenze. Un aristotelismo politico a doppia faccia. Filosofia politica , 2005, 19 (1), pp. 63-76. ⟨hal-01309029⟩