Symbolische Kommunikation über Festungen. Machiavelli und der Fortifikationsdiskurs im 16. Jahrhundert

Abstract

Summary Symbolic Communication about Fortresses. Machiavelli and the Treatises on Fortification in the 16th Century Scholarship on Machiavelli (old and new) has emphasized that the Florentine’s military theory was outdated and neglected important recent technological developments. The article questions this point of view by analyzing Machiavelli’s treatment of the topic of fortification. In his major political works Machiavelli claims that fortresses are useless from a military perspective and that they have detrimental effects on the political sphere. A close reading of the chapters concerning fortification in „Il Principe“ and the „Discorsi“ as well as of the reactions to Machiavelli’s assumptions by early modern authors of treatises on fortification reveals the Florentine’s intention to make a political, rather than a military statement in his discussion of fortresses. Using hyperbolic rhetoric and referring to the republican topos of the building of fortresses as an identification mark of tyrannical g...