That Nikolo Machiavelli is a political realist has become almost a common place in interpreting his work (but also the life associated with it in an impressive and symbolic way). The influential contemporary interpretations, however, call that perspective into question, and they are joined by the reading of Jerôme Roudier, who offers an original view of Machiavelli’s work. Not only does he refuse to see Machiavelli as a mere “realist” (what does it even mean to be a realist in politics?), but Roudier suggests a reading that comes from a “political programme” that is implicitly part of his work. Although it comes from a general place, namely that Machiavelli is not interested in political theory, Roudier quickly leaves the familiar paths and turns to the notion of a political programme that necessarily contains both practical and theoretical moments, both rational and ideal constructions. In his performance, Roudier lingers on the moments that often confused previous interpretors – on Machiavelli’s contradictions, paradoxes, inconsistencies or incoherences of his work – but does not see them as an obstacle to a coherent understanding of one of the most original works in the history of philosophy and political thought.