Abstract
Starting from the constitutive relationship between 'pain' and 'justice', this contribution deals with one of Niccolò Machiavelli's minor writings, the Allocuzione fatta per un magistrato. An analysis of its content allows us to advance an interpretation that refers to the Gospel text of the Magnificat, from which the Florentine Secretary seems to have drawn the main images used in his speech. Yet none of this calls into question the typical conflictualism of his thought.