The review of the materials of the international conference (september 23—24, 2019) on the role of the Renaissance Italian historiography in the development of the modern historical science. The conference was timed to the jubilee dates connected with the writings of two great historians and political thinkers of the Renaissance — Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini, as well as the publication of the translation into Russian of “History of Italy” written by Guicciardini. Both Florentines created profound and original historical writings that have kept their significance and been republished on different languages to present day. At the conference there were discussed issues of the transition from medieval to renaissance paradigms at different regions of Europe, especially in Italy, the development of historiography from local to national, political ideas of Machiavelli and Guicciardini in their historical interpretation, some aspects of literary works, and political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli.