The first book of the fifth volume treats the Background of Machiavellism in sixteenth-century Europe. The focal point is Niccolo Machiavelli's reputed modernistic Machiavellism and statism, in relation to that of Jean Bodin, King Henry VIII, and Giovann Botero.
Machiavelli, even more than Bodin, has usually been considered crucial background to the development of modern state theory in seminal later theorists such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Bentham, Hegel, and Savigny who promoted the institutions of modern nation-states. His revolutionary ideas have long been deemed paradigmatic for later thought and activity concerning the state. This book will be of interest to historians, to students of the history of ideas, and to legal and constitutional historians.