SOURCE: "Divine Order, Fate, Fortune and Human Action in Guicciardini's Storia d'Italia," Forum Italicum, Vol. 28, No. 1, Spring, 1994, pp. 22-40.

In the following essay, DiMaria argues that Guicciardini's Storia d'Italia reflects the spirit of the times; that is, Guicciardini acknowledges the large part that fortune plays in an increasingly complex world even as he asserts that individuals have a measure of power over events.

The decades of relative calm and political stability preceding the death of Lorenzo de' Medici (1492) undoubtedly contributed to the humanist belief in one's ability to influence the course of human affairs. The prevailing mood of self-assurance and self-determination promoted the belief that the individual could indeed build, to use a Machiavellian metaphor, the necessary dikes to withstand the flood of adverse Fortune, when and where it struck. However, soon after Lorenzo's death, Italy became host to a series of devastating wars which were to involve...