Question

why may a historian call Niccolo Machiavelli "The firsmodern Italian

Answer 1

Because he took an overview of it;thought of Italy as a whole. It was at a crucial point in history when the Italian people could no longer identify themselves with the greatness of the classical Roman empire. There was a Holy Roman Empire and, as Rome was in Italy, they felt partly heirs to that;and yet, the peninsula was broken up into various micro-states, kingdoms and duchies, and of course the papal states;but however, there was not a clear conception of Italy's modern nation- hood, which Machiavelli instantly repaired simply by perceiving it and, expressing things within the context that there was a nation.