Francesco Guicciardini (March 6, 1483-May 22, 1540), Florentine historian and statesman. A friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli, he is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance.

Guicciardini's main work is the Storia d'Italia. He also wrote a collection of notes (Considerazioni) on Machiavelli's Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio. In these as well as his Maxims (Ricordi) Guicciardini presents a worldview that is more skeptical and more conservative than that of Machiavelli.

Works

• Storie fiorentine (1508-1510)
• Diario di Spagna (1512)
• Discorso di Logrogno (1512)
• Relazione di Spagna (1514)
• Consolatoria (1527)
• Oratio accusatoria (1527)
• Oratio defensoria (1527)
• Del reggimento di Firenze (1527)
• Considerazioni intorno ai "Discorsi" del Machiavelli sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (1528)
• Ricordi (1512-1530)
• Le cose fiorentine (1528-1531)
• Storia d'Italia (1537-1540)