Abstract: The study examines Machiavel’s method which is based on two pillars : on the one hand, the “long experience of the modern things” and on the other hand “continual reading of the ancient things”. Machiavel attends the events, meets king Louis XII, emperor Maximilien, pope Jules II, but he also questions his fellow-citizens. But in addition, faithful to the humanistic tradition, he questions the men of Antiquity “to ask for the reasons of their acts to them” and especially in connection with the current questions and their policy issues : the war and the survival of the Florence Republic.
