Reading Machiavelli Today. Dramatised reading by Jordi Boixaderas and lecture by Remo Bodei

It is now 500 years since Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince but this small book continues to be a key work in political thought and, even today, the source of many readings, appropriations, comments and criticisms. The CCCB wishes to join in celebrating this anniversary and, without falling into the temptation of “updating” Machiavelli’s work, to explore the present relevance of his ideas on the relationship between politics and morality and revisit his bleak description of human behaviour.

The actor Jordi Boixaderas will open the event with a dramatised reading of the famous letter that Machiavelli wrote from exile to his friend Vettori, describing his everyday life while he was writing The Prince. This will be followed with a lecture by the Italian philosopher Remo Bodei who will discuss Machiavelli’s realism and offer some guidelines for reading The Prince today. The philosophers Juan Manuel Forte and Rosa Rius Gatell will also speak.

This event will be part of the International Seminar on Niccolò Machiavelli: The Prince Is 500 Years Old, which is being organised by the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Barcelona.