34: 'Nel nostro scrivere non intendiamo far giudizio delle cose incerte, e massimamente della intenzione e animo segreto degli uomini, che non apparisce chiara se non per congettura e riscontro delle cose esteriori.
E pero stando termo il primo proposito, vogliamo raccontare quanto piu possibile ci sia, la verita delle cose fatte, piu tosto che delle pensate o immaginate.' This is dignified and noble language in an age which admired the brilliant falsehoods of Giovio.
Many of my readers will doubtless feel that too much time has been spent in the discussion of these annalists of the siege of Florence.

Yet for the student of history they have a value almost unique.

They suggest the possibilities of a true science of comparative history, and reveal a vivacity of the historic consciousness which can be paralleled by no other nation.

How different might be our conception of the vicissitudes of Athens between 404 and 338 B.C.if we possessed a similar Pleiad of contemporary Greek authors! Having traced the development of historical research and political philosophy in Florence from the year 1300 to the fall of the Republic, it remains to speak of the two greatest masters of practical and theoretical statecraft--Francesco Guicciardini and Niccolo Machiavelli.
These two writers combine all the distinctive qualities of the Florentine historiographers in the most eminent perfection.

At the same time they are, not merely as authors but also as men, mirrors of the times in which they both played prominent parts.