Anti-Machiavellism as constitutionalism: Hermann Conring's commentary on Machiavelli's The Prince

► Hermann Conring wrote one of the first commentaries on Machiavelli's The Prince in 1661. ► He argued that it should be understood as a constitutional study of tyranny. ► Conring argued that it anticipated the popular sovereignty theory of the monarchomachs. ► Conring concluded that this was faulty political science. ► For him, The Prince was an opportunity to contrast the monarchomachic and Aristotelian theories of the state.