Language, politics and patriotism: Niccolo Machiavelli&#39;s &#39;Secular Patria&#39; and the creation of an Italian national identity

William Landon

Italian scholars, the historian Carlo Ginzburg, the historian of early modern philosophy Michele Ciliberto, and the historian of Italian literature Alberto Asor Rosa, each published a monograph on Machiavelli. Although in different ways and with different aims, the three scholars engage with the central themes of Machiavelli scholarship: Machiavelli's relationship with religion and his appraisal of the figure of Savonarola; the tension between Machiavelli as a subtle political theorist and his failure to influence contemporary political events; Machiavelli's language and the key terms of his political views, such as fortune and virtue; the Italian Renaissance crisis and its historical significance; the relationship between his literary production and his political writings and agency; war and politics; his relationship with Francesco Guicciardini; the nexus between history and politics; and Machiavelli's "negative anthropology," which contrasted with a supposed humanist view centered on man. All these issues are, evidently, intertwined. Machiavelli's main work was the Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (Discourses on Livy, 1540), a book in which ancient history and contemporary politics are closely connected. The relationship between Machiavelli's historiographical research and the political dimension of his writings has ultimately been the main focus of Italian scholarship on Machiavelli. For these three scholars, the interest of Machiavelli is not merely academic but is connected to the understanding of the cultural and political history of Italy in the long

Confusion verging on chaos aptly describes Italian politics between any two points in time. That being said, the amount of outright violence, political backstabbing and social upheaval Machiavelli had to put up with - as a successful bureaucrat and diplomat first (1498-1512), and later as a disgraced citizen (1512-27) is, with few if any exceptions, virtually unmatched in the history of Italian philosophy. At any rate, it is conspicuous enough to put him in a league of his own (among political thinkers). All the more so since, in Machiavelli's own words, his claim to originality rested on a return to the things themselves and the 'real truth' they convey through experience, as opposed to the traditional proclivity towards speculation regarding 'imaginary things', most notably by portraying fanciful characters and devising political regimes that can only exist on paper. Indeed, philosophers had long been lecturing- either in flawless syllogistic fashion or in vivid rhetorical style - both rulers and subjects on how they should behave and interact. However, they had taken little notice of how they actually go about their business. Alternatively, what does unbiased, direct observation of the present and extensive, informed reading of the past teach us about the ways of the world?

This essay argues against prevailing scholarly trends that the *Florentine Histories* continues to delineate the ways through which Niccolò Machiavelli, in *The Prince* and the *Discourses,* advised potential founders or reformers to exploit, for their own benefit and that of their patria, the inevitable social conflicts between elites and the peoples that arise in all polities. Machiavelli demonstrates that, in particular, Giano della Bella and Michele di Lando could and should have attempted to imitate exemplary ancient founders and reformers whom he praises in previous works, especially Moses, Romulus and Brutus. Machiavelli implicitly criticizes Giano and Michele for failing to "spiritedly invigorate" new laws with necessary and salutary violence; for neglecting to effectively manage the “envy” of rival peers; for not resisting the allure of “middle ways” between difficult political choices; and for failing to militarily organize or mobilize the entirety of Florence’s common people.

Language, Politics and Patriotism: Niccolo Machiavelli's 'Secular Patria' and the Creation of Italian National Identity William John Landon The University of Edinburgh For the Degree of PhD 2003 an Abstract study about Florence, Italy, and the possibility for peninsular unification as set of Niccolo Machiavelli's II Principe and the Discorsi. Many scholars have viewed these works as irreconcilable: the first focusing on principalities and the second upon republican government. Indeed, the political vocabulary which makes up these works is different. II Principe concentrates on the actions of the prince and is not a study of politics in general, where, the Discorsi certainly are. This may be due to considerations of genre; the former being one in a long line of advice books for princes and the latter being a good example of the Florentine civic humanist tradition. However, scholars have yet to examine Machiavelli's use of the term patria in both works. This Dissertation argues that patria provides a definite link between Machiavelli's two famous treatises, bridging the gap that some believe separates them. Such an interpretation of patria has interesting implications. For example, Machiavelli's concept of the 'secular patria'' may have provided, at least in theory, the means by which Italy could be united. For, when he wrote II Principe and particularly its rousing conclusion, Florence was in a special place of prominence. It not only had a Medici prince ruling it, but a Medici Pope in Rome. This Florentine/Roman link through the Medici family represented an occasione which Machiavelli desperately wanted Lorenzo de' Medici and Pope Leo X to seize. If they would act decisively, following the example of Cesare Borgia and Pope Alexander VI, it seems that Machiavelli believed they could unite Italy under a secular republican government as described in the Discorsi. The different aspects of this plan include a national 'citizen army', an 'end to exile' and possibly linguistic unification. When Machiavelli's use of the term patria is examined within the confines of II Principe and the Discorsi, similarities appear between those and a work which the vast majority of scholars both Italian and Anglophone - attribute to him - the Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua. An examination of that work cannot prove Machiavelli's authorship or the date when it was written, but it is possible to demonstrate that This is a out in the pages - Machiavelli could have authored the treatise around the same time he authored the final Chapter to II Principe. Viewed in this light, his plan for Italian unification which includes a secular republican government and a national army may be complemented by the call for Florentine linguistic hegemony in the Dialogo. Ultimately, Machiavelli's theory for unification as set out in II Principe and the Discorsi proved to be too idealistic, and so utterly impracticable that his friend, Francesco Guicciardini, derided him for being naive. However, those same characteristics, combined with a hearty distaste for the Roman church, for which he was chided and posthumously condemned in the cinquecento, ultimately led to his restoration and exoneration in the romantic nationalism of the Risorgimento. hereby affirm that this thesis is me solely. I my own work, and has been composed by Signed: William John Landon four years, 11 host of friends. I would like to thank die librarians in the Special Collections Departments at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow Over the past helped by a and the librarians at the Bibfioteca Nazionaie in Florence and the Biblioteca Vattcana for allowing me to include photographs of the Dialogo in my Dissertation. More specifically, of all the people who helped mc, Dr. Richard Mackcnncy's place is most prominent. As my supervisor, he provided me with constant support, criticism and intellectual stimulation. Our meetings never failed to produce in me, a new curiosity for as well as a deeper love of Italian history and culture. He helped to turn this guy from Kentucky into a scholar; thanks Richard. Dr. Trieia Allerston, my second supervisor, always had a knack tor finding m area hi which 1 needed subtlety and finesse. 1 would also like to thank my examiners, Dr. Peter Laven and Professor Jonathan Usher for their insights. Signore Simone Testa, ray dear friend and colleague in study at Edinburgh fbc three years, was always quick to make a pasta and then talk about the philandering of this or that mischievous cardinal before trying my patience with his political views. Somewhere in between all of these perfectly wonderful distractions, we wet* a/ways able Co find time Co && about our ideas and help each other in our mutual quest for the elusive PhD. 1 wish htm the best of hick in die future. I also send my regards to Dr. May-shine tin, who frequently sent me encouragement from across the Pacific and to Monsieur Philippe Dayan. ray old friend whose hospitality mid generosity were appreciated mere than he knew. 1 would also like to thank Margaret Angovt for her constant support and kindness. Drs. John trad Susan Cruickshank deserve special mention because they gave me unwavering aqiport through die mc^tbyiag oftimes. The tranquillity oftheir borne and my flat al 8 Blacket Place will always hold a cherished place in my memories of Edinburgh. To my family, for then- boundless provision of encouragement - even if they did think thai I was taking a little too long -1 give my Iore. To my Dad and Mom, Dr. George and Mrs. Kathleen Landon, who continued to have faith in me, even when I gave them no reason to do so, 1 send my deepest love, respect and thanks. Finally, I want dreams and made them her own. For the past ten years, through unexpected trials the most wonderful escapades, she has been and continues to be my best friend most my and and exquisite treasure. This Dissertation is unreservedly and lovingly dedicated to wife, Carta. Contents Illustration and Plates viii List of Abbreviations x Policy xi on Translations and Footnotes Volume One Language, Politics and Patriotism: Niccolo Machiavelli's 'Secular Patria' and the Creation of an Italian National Identity Introduction 1 Chapter One Patria in the Context of Niccolo Machiavelli's II Principe and the Discorsi I. The Date of 11 Principe and the Discorsi II. La Patria and II 16 25 Principe III. La Patria and the Discorsi Chapter Two Machiavelli's Secular Patria. His Sources, A Contemporary's View and the Call for Italian Unification I. II 14 Principe and De Officiis 31 42 45 II. Patria in Titus Livius's Ab urbe condita 49 III. Patria in Guicciardini's Considerazioni 54 IV. Necessita and the Secular Patria 59 V. From Dictatorship to Republic? Theory and Practice Chapter Three The Secretary and the Citizen Army: Theory and Practice I. The Theory of the Citizen Army in II Principe, the Discorsi and the Arte della guerra II. Practice versus Theory in II Principe, the Discorsi and the Arte Chapter Four Machiavelli's Road to Exile I. Machiavelli and Marcello Virgilio Adriani II. Machiavelli's Letters from Exile 66 74 77 90 99 101 112 Contents Chapter Five Niccolo Machiavelli, Author of the Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingual I. Patria in the 130 Dialogo II. Machiavelli, the Provenance of the Dialogo - and the Inquisition 135 160 III. Machiavelli and Dante Chapter Six The Date of the Dialogo and Machiavelli's Exhortatio in 11 Principe I. The Date of the 129 Dialogo 184 185 II. Dates and Contexts 188 III. The Date of the 202 IV. The Epilogue to II Principe Dialogo and Chapter Twenty-Six 210 Chapter Seven An Italian Edition of the Dialogo (Following that of Sergio Bertelli's with the Addition of Extended Notes) I. Sergio Bertelli's Edition of the Discorso nostra lingua o dialogo intorno alia II. Bertelli's'Nota al testo': A Comment 216 218 231 Conclusion 233 Bibliography 238 Volume Two Appendices Appendix One Supplements to Chapters One, Two, Three and Five 1. Chapter One I. Patria in II 2. 1 Principe 1 II. Patria in the Discorsi 3 III. Patrie in the Discorsi 17 Chapter Two I. Patria in Cicero's De Officiis 18 II. Patriam in Cicero's De Officiis 20 III. Patriae in Cicero's De Officiis 20 IV. Patria and Religion in Livy's Ab urbe 22 v Contents vi V. Patria in Guicciardini's Considerazioni 3. Chapter Three 27 I. Patria in the Arte delta guerra 4. 25 Chapter Five I. Patria in the II. Patrie in the Dialogo 29 Dialogo 32 III. Patrium in the Dialogo IV. John Hale's Translation of the 32 Dialogo 32 Appendix Two Other Occurrences of Patria in the Writings of Niccolo Machiavelli, Titus Livy and Francesco Guicciardini 41 1. Niccolo Machiavelli 42 I. Patria in La Prima Decennale 42 II. Patriae in La Prima Decennale 42 III. Patria in II Decennale Secondo 42 IV. Patria in La vita di Castruccio Castracani da Luca 42 V. Patria in the Istorie fiorentine 43 VI. Ripatriare in the Istorie fiorentine VII. Patria in I 2. Titus 59 Capitoli 60 Livy 60 I. Patria in the First Ten Books of Livy's Ab urbe condita 60 II. Patriam in Livy's Ab urbe 65 III. Patriae in Livy's Ab urbe 69 IV. V. Patriamque in Livy's Ab urbe Patriaeque in Livy's Ab urbe 3. Francesco Guicciardini 73 73 74 I. Patria in Guicciardini's Storia d'ltalia 74 II. Patrie in Guicciardini's Storia d'ltalia 91 III. Patria in Guicciardini's Storie fiorentine 98 Contents vii IV. Patria in Guicciardini's Discorsi Politici a. Patria in Se 'I Gran di Italia b. Patria in Capitano debbe accettare la impresa Ragioni che consiglio la Signoria di Firenze ad accordarsi con Clemente VII V. Patria in Guicciardini's Scritti Minori a. Patria in b. Patria in 102 103 103 Capitolo II. Se sia lecito condurre el populo legge con la forza non potendo farsi altrimenti 104 Patria in Capitolo III. Se lo amazzarsi da se medesimo per non perdere la liberta o per non vedere la patria in servitu procede da grandezza di animo a da vilta, e se e 101 Capitolo I. Elogio di Lorenzo de' Medici alle buone c. 101 laudibile 105 o no VI. Patria in Guicciardini's Ricordi 106 a. Capitolo I: Serie Prima 106 b. Capitolo II: Serie Seconda 108 VII. Patria in Guicciardini's Defensoria a. Consolatoria, Accusatoria and Patria in the Consolatoria 109 b. Patria in the Accusatoria c. Patria in the a. Patrie in the Consolatoria b. Patrie in the 111 Defensoria VIII. Patrie in the Consolatoria and Defensoria 109 116 Defensoria 118 118 118 Illustration and Plates Illustration 1. Title Page: Statue of Niccold Machiavelli in the sculpture gallery Outside of the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. Lorenzo Bartolini, 1846. Plates [Plates 1-11 between pages Prefatory Note to the 1577 apograph of the Dialogo. 1. Giuliano de' Ricci's 2. 183 and 184] apograph showing where Ricci's handwriting ends and Niccolo younger's begins. Detail of 1577 the 3. Underlined reference to the Papal Court in the Vatican Manuscript of the Dialogo. 4. Bracketed reference to the Papal Court in the 1726 Palatino Manuscript of the Dialogo. 5. Niccold the younger's writing becomes almost illegible where the Papal Court is apograph. discussed in the 1577 of 1769 Cosmopoli edition of the Dialogo. 6. Title page 7. 1769 edition of the 8. Title Page 9. First Dialogo, Bottari's omission evident. of 1804 Milanese edition of the Dialogo. Page of 1804 Milanese edition with 10. 1804 Milanese edition, page 433. Papal Court. discussion of the 11.1804 Milanese edition. additional Title. The last four lines of this Discussion of Bottari's omissions. an page Papal Court at the top of the preface the page [Plates 12-61 between pages 232 and 233] 12-22. Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua. Manoscritto E.B. 15 10 (11 pp., da c. 133r a 138r). della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze mirrors Illustrations and Plates ix Nic°. Machiavelli nel quale si tratta [della lingua]. Manoscritto Borghini III, Filze Rinuccini 22, 9 pp, da c. lr a c. 5r. 23-30. Discorso di Miscell. 31-40. Messer Niccold di Bernardo Machiavelli: Discorso linguafiorentina. Manoscritto Vat. Barb. Lat 5368, 41-61. Discorso o dialogo circa la 44-53. over cc. dialogo Intorno alia nostra lingua. Manoscritto Palatino 815 della 820-839. Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, pp. List of Abbreviations Art Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Art of War. Trans. Ellis Farneworth. New York: Da Capo, 1965. Arte Machiavelli, Niccolo. Dell'Arte delta Storiche e Mazzoni e guerra in Letterarie di Niccold Machiavelli. A Tutte le cura opere di Guido Mario Casella. Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929: 263-374. Dialogue. 1961 Machiavelli, Niccold. Dialogue concerning our language in The Literary Works of Machiavelli. Trans. John R. Hale. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961. Dialogo. 1969 Machiavelli, Niccold. Opere di Niccold Machiavelli. 11 Vols. A cura di Sergio Bertelli Milano: Giovanni Salerno, 1968-82. The Dialogo is in Volume 4, Teatro e Scritti Letterari (1969): 361-377. Discourses. 1950 Machiavelli, Niccold. The Discourses of Niccold Machiavelli. 2 Lesley J. Walker. London: Routledge, 1950. Vols, trans. Discorsi. 1999 Machiavelli, Niccold. Discorsi Sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio. Giorgio Inglese. Milano: Introduzione di Gennaro Sasso, Note di Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1999. Personal Machiavelli, Niccold. Machiavelli and his Friends: Their Personal Correspondences Correspondences. Trans. James B. Atkinson and David Sices. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996. Lettere Machiavelli, Niccold. Opere di Niccold Machiavelli, Volume Terzo: Lettere. A Cura di Franco Gaeta. Torino: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 1984. Prince. 1995 Machiavelli, Niccold. The Prince. Trans. George Bull. Penguin Group, 4th ed., 1995. Principe. 1999 Machiavelli, Niccold. II Principe e Altre Opere Politiche: Introduzione di Delio Cantimori. Note di Stefano Andretta. Milano: Garzanti Libri, 1999. On Footnotes and Translations Following Allan H. Gilbert's Machiavelli's 'Prince' and Its Forerunners: Typical Book 'de Regimine Principum primary source materials in this Dissertation as a are cited in their quotation are original language in the body of the text and translations for each included in the Dissertation proper. footnotes1. This policy is followed in the whole of the The Appendices, however, follow Appendix One, for example, contains materials that Dissertation. Therefore, these The references in written. Although these are not use Translations here would be in the introduction to each Notes in all in The cases are Allan H. Gilbert, The slightly different convention. cited in the body of the are inclusive of translations as in the body of the Thesis. referred to directly in the Thesis, they of patria in Machiavelli, his superfluous. More by way sources may prove helpful and in Guicciardini. of explanation for this is provided Appendix. presented in the 'Chicago Style', following the conventions set out Chicago Manual ofStyle2. Regimine 2 are a Appendix Two remain in the original language in which they were in further studies into the 1 'The Prince' Machiavelli's 'Prince' and Its Forerunners: 'The Prince' Principum' (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1938). Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, as a 14th edn., 1993). Typical Book 'de Introduction Federico Chabod described II character of this dedicated to from that upon world'1. Principe One as, in a sense, 'primordial', detailing the 'ultimate might suggest that Machiavelli and the historiography studying his writings have also become something 'primordial'. amorphous matter a different Machiavelli evolves and who is searching for him. One might find a cynic, and dissimulation, the father of the Italian nation, or a rears realist, Indeed, his head depending a master of simulation the founder of modern political science2. Apparent shock and horror greeted his work in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, then centuries. came There recently, he has was the apologists of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth further come to disquiet in the wake of the Second World War and be viewed as the zenith of republican virtue. more Machiavelli's reception has been nothing if not varied. Great historians and English playwrights, French philosophers, political scientists have each put forward their version of Machiavelli and each version is different2. complete historiographical should mention: While it is survey beyond the scope of this Thesis, to present of works dedicated to the study of Machiavelli, a one Chabod, Ernst Cassirer and Maurizio Viroli. Why these might ask? Each of these writers represents defining characteristics of Machiavelli's reception. Beginning with the earliest of these, Marlowe and Shakespeare, 1 - Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Francesco de Sanctis, Federico one Italian and Anglophone Federico Chabod, "The Prince: one will find Myth and Reality" in Machiavelli and the Renaissance trans. David (London: Bowes and Bowes, 1958): 30-125. See p. 61. 2 De Lamar Jensen, ed., Machiavelli. Cynic, Patriot or Political Scientist? (Boston: D C. Heath and Co., 1960). This is an interesting collection of essays and extracts that deals with these aspects of Machiavelli's posthumous persona. 3 For comparison, see A. Richard Turner, Inventing Leonardo (New York: Knopf, 1993) and Peter Burke, The Fortunes of the Courtier ("Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995). Moore Introduction 2 a distillation of of tyrants, sixteenth-century views of Niccolo Machiavelli a the advisor and friend the master of murder and deception. The two great of - English playwrights, Marlowe and Shakespeare, invoked a vision shadowy Florentine whose their audiences. The Jew very name was meant to provoke fear and revulsion in of Malta contains Marlowe's depiction of that dreaded 'MachevilT: dead, beyond the Alps, And now the Guise is dead, is come from France To view this land, and frolic with his friends. To some perhaps my name is odious, But such as love me, guard me from their tongues, And let them know that I am Machevill, And weigh not men, and therefore not men's words4 Albeit the world think Machevill is Yet Playing mind was his soul but flown English insecurities and Francophobia, Marlowe's 'Machevill' brought to upon everything that the theatre-goer hated and feared about their 'untrustworthy' neighbours from and therefore infamous across more the channel. Bringing the 'Machevill' into local, Machiavel's' penchant can smile, and murder whiles I smile, more surpass the 'murderous for blood: And cry, "Content" to that which grieves my And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, And frame my face to all occasions. I'll drown familiar terrifying surroundings, Shakespeare, in Henry VI, Part III, wrote the soliloquy in which Richard of Gloucester dares to Why, I more heart, sailors than the mermaid shall; slay more gazers than the basilisk; play the orator as well as Nestor, Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could, And, like a Sinon, take another Troy. I can add colours to the chameleon, Change shapes with Proteus for advantages, I'll I'll 4 Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta ed. James R. Siemon, (London: A. and C. Black, 1997), 9. Act One, opening lines. Introduction 3 And set the murderous Machiavel to school. this, and cannot get a crown? Tut, were it farther off, I'll pluck it Can I do down3 language of Marlowe and Shakespeare certainly paints Machiavelli in an The the printed words of Machiavelli (II unfavourable light which itself relied Principe not translated in English until 1640), but as a was result of the banned status of his upon not the rumour that followed his name work6. Indeed, the passages that follow are but two examples of the sort of material that led the Inquisition to ban his work in 1564 and two why Machiavelli, posthumously, gained such reasons a sinister reputation'. principe soprascritte qualita, quelle che sono tenute buone: ma, perche non si possono avere, ne interamente osservare, per le condizioni umane che non lo consentono, li e necessario essere tanto prudente, che sappia fuggire l'infamia di quelle che li torrebbano lo stato, e da quelle che non gnene tolgano guardarsi, se elli e possibile; ma, non possendo, vi si pud con meno respetto lasciare andare. Et etiam non si curi di incorrere nella famia di quelli vizii, sanza quali possa difficilmente salvare lo stato; perche, se si considerra bene tutto, si troverra qualche cosa che parra virtu, e seguendola sarebbe la ruina sua, e qualcuna altra che parra vizio, e seguendola ne riesce la securta et il bene essere suo8. Et io so che ciascuno confessera che sarebbe laudabilissima cosa imo trovarsi di tutte le 5 William Shakespeare, "Henry VI, Part III," The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare, ed. Sylvan Barnet (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972): 190-232. See Hl.ii. 182-195, pp. 215-216 Nicholas Machiavel's Prince: Also 'The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Luca' and 'The Means Duke Valentino us'd Edward Dacres Hils). 7 Peter Godman, From Poliziano to Machiavelli: Florentine Humanism in the High Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton the Index. 8 put to death Vitellozzo Vitelli. Oliverotto of Fermo. Paul and the Duke of Gravina' trans. (Amsterdam: Da Capo, 1969 - facsimile of 1640 edition printed in London by Bishop and to University Press, 1998): 303-333 for Niccolo Machiavelli, II Principe an overview of Machiavelli's works and the Inquisition and Altre Opere Politiche Introduzione di Delio Cantimori, Note di Stelano 1999), 61. For translation see Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince trans. George Bull (London: Penguin Group, 4th ed., 1995), 49. '1 know everyone will agree that it would be most laudable if a prince possessed all the qualities deemed to be good among those I have enumerated. But, because of conditions in the world, princes cannot have those qualities, or observe them completely. So a prince has of necessity to be so pmdent that he knows how to escape the evil reputation attached to those vices which could lose him his state, and how to avoid those vices which are not so dangerous, if he possibly can; but, if he cannot, he need not worry so much about the latter. And then, he must not flinch from being blamed for vices which are necessary for safeguarding the state. This is because, taking everything into account, he will find that some of the things that appear to be virtues will, if he practices them, ruin him, and some of the things that appear to be vices will bring him security and prosperity'. Andretta (Milano: Garzanti Libri, e Introduction 4 Written in age an dominated by Ciceronian political morality, Machiavelli's frank depiction of the 'verita effettuale' stood out in glaring opposition to the during his lifetime, he was never norm9. However, rebuked for passing comment on the 'way things are'. Indeed, such stark rhetoric regarding the actions of princes may have been forgiven him after his death if he had not so relentlessly assaulted the Roman church. Ma, sendo quelli retti [principati ecclesiastici] da cagioni superiore, alia quale aggiugne, lascero el parlarne; perche, sendo esaltati e mantenuti Dio, sarebbe offizio di uomo prosuntuoso e temerario discorrerne. Non di manco, se alcuno mi ricercassi donde viene che la Chiesa, nel temporale, sia venuta a tanta grandezza, con cio sia che da Alessandro indrieto, e' potentati italiani, et non solum quelli che si chiamavono e' potentati, ma ogni barone e signore, benche minimo, quanto al temporale, la estimava poco, et ora uno re di Francia ne trema, e lo ha possuto cavare di Italia e ruinare Viniziani: la qual cosa, ancora che sia nota, non mi pare superfluo ridurla in buona parte alia memoria.10. mente umana non da These passages Marlowe, as in II Principe, combined with the depictions of him in Shakespeare and the secretive and bloodthirsty villain, had a historiography concerned with Machiavelli's work and life. association with un-Christian, immoral cabals, that Rousseau read II Principe as though it contained a hidden message. advocacy of tyranny, Rousseau argued that Machiavelli Machiavelli - was lasting impact Such was on the Machiavelli's in the eighteenth century - Underneath the apparent actually a republican: and a good citizen. But, being attached to the court help veiling his love of liberty in the midst of his country's oppression. The choice of his detestable hero, Caesar Borgia, clearly shows his hidden aim; and the contradiction between the teaching of The Prince was a decent man of the Medicis, he could not 9 Allan H. Gilbert, Machiavelli's 'Prince' and Its Forerunners: 'The Prince' as a Typical Book 'de (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1938): 231-237. See also Quentin Skinner, Machiavelli (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996): 40-47 Principe. 1999. 48. Prince. 1995. 36. 'But as they are sustained by higher powers which the human mind cannot comprehend, I shall not argue about them; they are exalted and maintained by God, and so only a rash and presumptuous man would take it on himself to discuss them. None the less if anyone should ask me how it is that the Church has attained such great temporal power, inasmuch as, up to the time of Alexander, the Italian potentates, and not only those who called themselves potentates but every baron and nobleman, even the pettiest, set it at naught, but now a king of France trembles before it, and it has been able to chase him out of Italy and ruin the Venetians, I should not think it superfluous to recall to some extent how it happened, even though the story is well known'. Reaimine Princioum' Introduction 5 Livy and the History of Florence shows that this profound political thinker has so far been studied only by superficial or corrupt readers. The Court of Rome sternly prohibited his Book. I can believe it; for it is that court that it most clearly portrays.11 and that of the Discourses So, on might surmise from Rousseau's reading of Machiavelli that his reputation was no one fault of his own, couch his but due to the corruption of the Medici regime which forced him to republican idealism in the language of tyranny. unification and in its Indeed, some aftermath, a much different picture of Machiavelli came to the fore. viewed Machiavelli's final Chapter of II Principe foreshadowing of the rise of Charles Emmanuel When Francesco de Sanctis circles Italian unification was, rose to a for all practical For de Sanctis, Machiavelli was one as a prophetic I12. place of prominence in Italian scholarly purposes, famous historian of that era, de Sanctis reserved for disdain. By the time of Italian complete. Arguably the most Machiavelli praise rather than of the first to expound upon the 'modern science' of politics. questo, che bisogna considerare le cose nella loro «effettuale», cioe come son porte dall'esperienza ed osservate dall'intelletto; che era proprio il rovescio del sillogismo e la base dottrinale del medio evo capovolta: concetto ben altrimenti rivoluzionario che non e quel ritorno al puro spirito della Riforma e che sara la leva da cui uscira la scienza moderna... Questo concetto applicato all'uomo ti da II Principe e i Discorsi, e la Storia di firenze e i Dialoghi sulla milizia. E il Machiavelli non ha bisogno di dimostrarlo: te lo da come evidente. Era la parola del secolo ch'egli trovava e che tutti riconoscevano...Cosi nasce la scienza dell'uomo, non quale pud o dee essere, ma quale e... La «divina commedia» diviene la «commedia umana» e si rappresenta in terra: si chiama storia, politica, filosofia della storia, la scienza nuova.. .Non e il caso di disputare sulla verita o falsita delle dottrine. Non fo una storia e meno un trattato di filosofia. Scrivo la storia delle lettere. Ed e mio obbligo notare cio che II concetto del Machiavelli e verita 11 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Le Contrat Social (Paris, 1782). See Book HI, Chapter 6 for the above. The by Maurizio Viroli, Machiavelli (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 209, n. 6. 12 See Chabod, "Myth and Reality", 115, where he cites Francisco Quevedo, "Lince de Italia", in Obras (Madrid, 1880), 237. 'El duque de Saboya ha tornado por si la eshortacion lisonjera que Nicolas Maquiavelo hace al fin del libro del tiranno, que el llama Principe: para librar a Italia de los barbaros, hase dado por entendido de las sutilezas del Bocalino, y de las malicias y susposciones de la Pietra del Paragone; y determino edificarse liberatodor de Italia, titulo dificil cuanto magnifico'. translation is Introduction 6 si nella De Sanctis seems pensiero italiano; perche quello solo coscienza13. move nel that de Sanctis himself in re-appropriated Machiavelli's cinquecento ideas, fitting them quite new framework of a united Italy, all the while refusing to entangle questions about the morality of Machiavelli's writings. Machiavelli's This attention to Machiavelli's course. may be why he, unlike patriotism and his use many scholars before of patria of which more since, paid or will be said in However, such continuous praise of the Florentine faded in Italian scholarship, to be replaced by famous of these studies was a more written In his Machiavelli and the Machiavelli. To de Sanctis, political thought appeared to be tailor-made for the romantic nationalism of Risorgimento. due vivo nella letteratura che e vivo readily acknowledged Machiavelli's secularism and he embraced it. Indeed, it comfortably within the the e He painted a balanced approach to Machiavelli. The most by Federico Chabod. Renaissance, Chabod presented 'ritratto' to which many a human portrait of readers could relate and an interpretation of his works which dealt not only with the genius, but also with the inaccuracies of Machiavelli's works. Chabod described II Principe as follows: 13 Francesco de Sanctis, Storia della letteratura Italiana. nuove edizione 2 Vols. A cura di Benedetto Croce (Bari: Laterza e Figli, 1912). See Vol. 1 pp. 421-422. For an adequate translation see Francesco de Sanctis, History of Italian Literature 2 Vols, trans. Joan Redfern (London: Humphrey Milford, 1930). See Vol. 1., pp. 464-465. 'Machiavelli's conception is this: that things should be looked at in the "effectual" truth as shown by actual experience, and by the intellect. This was really the syllogism reversed, the basic doctrine of the Middle Ages turned upside down. It was a conception infinitely more revolutionary than the return to pure spirit of the Reformation. And its fruit was modem science. Applied to man it gives us II Principe and the Discorsi, the Sloria di Firenze, and the Diologhi dell 'arte militare. And Machiavelli puts his conception forward as a thing that is clear in itself; there is no need to demonstrate it. He had discovered the motto of the century, and everyone recognized it. So the science of man is bom; man not as he might be, and as he ought to be, but man as he is... The "divine comedy" becomes the "human comedy" with its scene laid on earth; its new names are politics, philosophy of history, the new science. ..As to ., - whether this doctrine is true or false it is not my business to argue. This book is not a history, and still less is it a treatise on philosophy. It is a history of letters. But as nothing can be alive in a country's literature that is not alive in its Italian thought'. consciousness, it is my obligation to point out the tendencies that are moving in Introduction 7 primordial, the ultimate character of this world - devoid of great moral and political motifs, uninfluenced by the masses, having its being solely in the isolated virtue of scattered individuals, who left their own imprint on material that was flabby and incoherent - finds its true expression in The Prince. The latter is not exactly a history of the Seigniories and Principates, if by history we mean the detailed examination and the minute and constant assessment of specific events. Rather does it summarize and illustrate the consequences of history, revealing them in broad outline, stripped of all irrelevancy. Naturally, it does not go into details Machiavelli is not at all concerned now with writing history - and these must be sought elsewhere, just as we have to look elsewhere for a precise, factual account of the course which Italian life pursued in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Here we have merely the fundamental principle which determines and informs various immediate manifestations of that life a principle that is at the The - - same In time a consequence14. other words, Chabod contextualised Machiavelli's evolution to cinqnecento political thought, tracing its Italy rather than trying to re-shape it to fit into a twentieth- century framework. By the same token, Chabod does not attempt to excuse or condemn 'immorality'. Rather he addressed the ideas contained in II Principe with Machiavelli's their historical and one might political importance in mind without passing judgement thereon. Or, conclude, Chabod inaccuracies, not his moral examined meticulously inadequacies'3. The same cannot Machiavelli's historical be said of the writings of Ernst Cassirer. In his influential collection of essays, 1946], Cassirer summoned once The Myth of the State [originally published again the long-dead shade of the 'murderous Machevil'. Persuasively, Cassirer argued, 'that Machiavelli's Prince contains the most immoral things and that Machiavelli has no scruples about recommending to the ruler all sorts of deception, perfidy and cruelty is incontestable'16. That such unscrupulousness played into the hands of no 14 despots and tyrants, Cassirer had doubt. Where Chabod strove to Chabod, "Myth and Reality": 61-62. Ibid. See the subheading "The Errors in Machiavelli's Assessment of History": 85-93. 16 Ernst Cassirer, The Myth of the State: A reduced photographic reprint of the 1946 edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961), 142. 15 Introduction 8 view Machiavelli within the context of Machiavelli's had so early cinquecento Italy, Cassirer examined political thought in terms of the political absolutism and tyranny recently witnessed during the Second World which he War17. Indeed, his points were well- argued and persuasive, and Machiavelli's reputation suffered as a consequence. Cassirer's Yet, contemporaries, J.H. Whitfield, Felix Gilbert and Hans Baron, to varying degrees sought to repair the old wounds which Cassirer's arguments had re-opened in Machiavelli's common reputation18. has extent, one might argue, that they scholarship, Maurizio Viroli has published thought19. Bridging the gap had more in Allan Gilbert's work - deal on Machiavelli's Approaching the 'problem' of political morality, Viroli has illustrated, following Chabod, that II Principe must be viewed political work a great between Italian and Anglophone scholarship, Viroli published most of his works in both languages. Machiavelli and on as a 11 product of its Principe's genre, time20. Of equal importance, building This upon Viroli has set forth that II Principe is not at least in terms of traditional Florentine republican values about the 'art of the state'. 17 an with the idealism of de Sanctis than the moralism of Cassirer. In recent political To such - but a a book explains, according to Viroli, the differing foci of II example, Benito Mussolini's infatuation with Machiavelli's 11 Principe is just one reason why were framed thus. See the excerpt from Emil Ludwig's "Talks with Mussolini" in Italy from the Risorgimento to Fascism: An Enquiry into the Origins of the Totalitarian State ed. A. William Salomone (Devon: Redwood Press, 1971): 206-207. There Mussolini details his affinity for Machiavelli. 'My father used to read the book aloud in the evenings, when we were warming ourselves beside the smithy fire and were drinking the vin ordinaire produced from our own vineyard. It made a deep impression on me. When, at the age of forty, I read Machiavelli once again, the effect was reinforced'. 18 J.H. Whitfield, Discourses on Machiavelli (Cambridge, Heffer, 1969); Felix Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965); and Hans Baron, "Machiavelli the Republican Citizen and Author of The Prince," in Hans Baron, In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism: Essays on the Transition from Medieval to Modem Thought Vol. 2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988): 101-157. 19 Maurizio Viroli, From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquisition and Transformation of the Language of Politics. 1250-1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992). See Chapter Three, 'Machiavelli and the republican concept of polities': 126-177. By the same author see Machiavelli. 20 Viroli, Reason of State: 128-130. For Cassirer's views Introduction 9 Principe and the Discorsi, the former being a devastating critique humanist views and the latter being a From the until the present, views and interpretations of Whether viewed consistency. as a undoubtedly been viewed are However, there is a demonic and crafty personage, a friend of tyrants, or as the pinnacle of cinquecento republican in his . political works have changed dramatically. Machiavelli and his certain 21 handbook for republicans' sixteenth century as a genius. Drawing political thought, each of these there other aspects of contemporary ways upon political theory, Machiavelli has and highlighting divergent strands of viewing the Florentine can be justified, but of his political thought and personality which have yet fully to be developed? If one casts one's gaze Guicciardini's commentary on Machiavelli to emerge been, but was he 22 one might argue his friend's political works allows for Genius he . a naive back to the cinquecento, was, a that Francesco different picture of schemer and friend of tyrants he might have and romantic idealist? This Dissertation seeks to illustrate that Machiavelli's political thought has significant traces of those attributes. examination of his call for Italian liberation and imification may an help to demonstrate this. Chapters of this Thesis examine Machiavelli's theory of the 'secular The first two patria\ which drew on aspects However, he drained those religion. Indeed, from the ancient sources - sources with which he Cicero and Livy specifically An examination of Machiavelli's 'secular patricC may - was familiar. of all references to help to demonstrate, contrary to the assertions of prominent scholars such as Baron, that II Principe and the 21 22 Viroii. Reason of State: 128-130. Francesco Guicciardini, Considerazioni intorno ai Discorsi del Machiavelli Livio in Opere 8: Scritti politici e sopra la Primi Deca di Tito ricordi A cura di Roberto Palmarocchi (Bari: Laterza, 1933): 1-65. Introduction 10 Discorsi united are Italy, united by this concept as those Chapters will of the 'secular argue, then it but thereafter he wanted Guicciardini use interests More specifically, it seems that he of the Church to liberate and unite Italy, go their separate on the papal throne chance to throw off the government24. indicate that Machiavelli a was - a theory which as named Capitano of Florence, his uncle Giovanni de" Pope Leo X. This linking of Florentine and Roman brief window of opportunity a - special occasione - with yoke of foreign oppression and unite itself under The final Chapter in Machiavelli's 11 Principe a a secular seems to hoped Lorenzo and Leo X, following the example of Cesare Borgia and his father, Pope Alexander VI, would use their familial bond and the link this afforded between Florence and Rome to undertake unification. ways recognised and scoffed at. provided Italy with republican resources religion and politics to When, in 1515, Lorenzo Medici sat the a that he wanted it to be a united appears patria free from religion in the temporal sphere. wanted Lorenzo de' Medici to patria,2~\ If Machiavelli wanted a drive for Italian liberation and Having achieved this, Lorenzo, following the example of the Roman dictator, would magnanimously lay aside his all-powerful office, allowing Italians to unite themselves under a secular republican regime Roinanga in Chapter VII of II Principe. But, - one as might simplistic, too naive for the great Machiavelli. Indeed, of his knowledge of the ins-and-outs of Italian politics family more 23 24 specifically would rule out his drawing Baron, "Machiavelli the Republican": 101-157. up Cesare Borgia had done in the one argue, might also more such such a a plan is too argue, the extent generally, and the Medici plan. That he was perhaps Maurizio Viroli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the 'well-ordered society' trans. Derek Hanson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 11. Viroli summarized that the crux of Machiavelli's political thought was 'to work out how it [a republican government] can be brought into being'. Introduction 11 more knowledgeable than most regarding the details related to these is likely, but Dissertation will argue of uniting a that his desire to see Italy united blinded him to the practicalities politically and culturally diverse peninsula. Guicciardini's role in this is central, for he passed judgement on Machiavelli's plan for liberation and that judgement was Guicciardini same argued that, for example, even about the actual a means if Lorenzo loved the united patria he cause Indeed, for Guicciardini, Machiavelli's plan achieved. unification - and altogether unfavourable. helped to create, that love would not be enough to office. this was him to lay aside his all-powerful laughable23. One might say the by which, Machiavelli argued, Italian unification could be Chapters Three and Four, for example, illustrate that Machiavelli's concept of 'national citizen army' was flawed, and his concept of ending the practice of exile so idealistic, that he lost touch with the practicalities of what was Italy. How, for example, could according to Machiavelli should refuse to use that his united Italian army which - artillery, be successful against the military might of Swiss mercenary army, seems a actually happening in let alone the hardened regular troops of Spain study of classical sources a or German France? - or It and the contemporary society that led him to "5 Considerazioni. 1.10., p. 20. 'Di questi si truova pochissimi, o forse nessuno, che sanza necessita l'abbino lasciata; ne e maraviglia, perche chi e nutrito in una tirannide non ha occhi da cognoscere quella gloria che si acquista di mettere la patria in liberta, ne considera questo caso con quello gusto che fanno gli uomini privati, perche, assuefatto a quello modo di vivere, giudica che el sommo bene sia nella potenzia, e non cognoscendo el frutto di quella gloria, nessuna altra ragione gli puo persuadere a lasciare la tirannide'. And For translation see Francesco Guicciardini, Considerations in The Sweetness of Power: Machiavelli's 'Discourses' and Guicciardini's 'Considerations' trans. James B. Atkinson and David Sices (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002), 1.10., p. 402. 'There are very few, perhaps none, who have relinquished a tyranny without being forced to, nor is that surprising, since a man who is brought up under tyranny has no eyes to recognize what glory can be gained by liberating one's native land. He does not consider the possibility with the same enthusiasm as private citizens because, accustomed to that way of life, he judges that the highest good lies in power; because he is unaware of the fruits of glory, no other reason can convince him to renounce tyranny'. Introduction 12 'secularise' his drained practicality also of patria theory from his military considerations26. If one turns to o a work that many dialogo intomo alia nostra lingua - think one was written by Machiavelli - the Discorso might find that the concept of the secular The patria is present, and that, interestingly, it is linked with linguistic unification. author of the Italy. Dialogo sets forth the Florentine/Tuscan dialect Indeed, the author argues as the superior language in for Florentine linguistic hegemony. These interesting similarities, along with similarities in vocabulary and other political ideas found in works definitely written by Machiavelli, are not short work, which is discussed in detail in written by Machiavelli, and at this Dissertation argues, a enough to prove his authorship. However, that Chapters Five through Seven, could have been particular time - the vendemmial of 1515, the time, that Machiavelli wrote the final rousing Chapter of II Principe. Perhaps the similarities between the Dialogo and works by Machiavelli or same are mere chance, perhaps the author of the Dialogo knew the works of Machiavelli well. Nevertheless the call in the Dialogo for Florentine linguistic hegemony Machiavelli's call for Florentine Dialogo appears to political superiority. seems to complement Indeed, the way in which the mirror Machiavelli's political views shaped the way in which that work is studied in this Thesis. Traditionally, the Dialogo, whether viewed been studied "6 as a as a work of Machiavelli or not, has linguistic treatise. Literary elements of that Dialogo have been 'done to Sydney Anglo, Machiavelli: A Dissection (London: Victor Gollancz, 1969). By the same author see as a Military Authority. Some Early Sources", in Florence and Italy: Renaissance Studies in Honour of Nicolai Rubinstein eds. Peter Denley and Caroline Elam (London: Committee for Medieval Studies, Westfield College, 1988): 321-334. And Michael Mallett, "The Theory and Practice of Warfare in Machiavelli's Republic", in Machiavelli and Republicanism eds. Gisela Bock, Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993): 173-180. "Machiavelli Introduction 13 Some of the greatest death'. attention to those. Italian scholars of the twentieth century paid particular might cite the works of Sergio Bertelli, Fredi Chiappelli and One Bortolo Tommaso Sozzi as but three 'renaissance' of interest has taken political scientists Codevilla to as name well but a as examples27. Recently, however, something of place in which the Dialogo has been studied by historians: Susan Meld Shell, Maurizio Viroli, and Angelo few28. Each of these has examined to Dialogo with Machiavelli's Istorie fiorentine. Principe and the Dialogo can Discorsi29. be examined done, but rather for unification as an as work of Machiavelli interesting work which set out in 11 This Dissertation It must be said that the author by as a may varying degrees the Shell for example compared the of political considerations in the Dialogo. presence a as compares no means it with II believes that the Shell, Viroli and Codevilla have provide insight into Machiavelli's plan Principe and the Discorsi. Politics, patriotism and perhaps language combine in Machiavelli's plan for Italian liberation and unification to make a potent concoction at once impractical and prophetic. His plan, which appeared to his friend Guicciardini to be laughable, indeed proved to be out of place in the early years of the cinquecento. Rather, one might argue, Machiavelli's call for Italian unification, its idealism and even naivete found a home in the romantic nationalism of Italy's ~7 Sergio Bertelli, "Egemonia linguistica Biblioteaue d'Humanisme et Risorgimento. come egemonia culturale e politica nella Firenze cosmiana", in Renaissance. 38 (1976): 249-281. Fredi Chiappelli, Studi sul Linguaggio del (Firenze, 1952); and Machiavelli e la "La Lingua Fiorentina" (Bologna: Massimiliano Boni, Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua: Edizione critica A cura di Bortolo Tommaso Sozzi (Torino: G. Einaudi, 1976). 28 Susan Meld Shell, "Machiavelli's Discourse on Language," The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli: Essays on the Literary Works, ed. Vickie B Sullivan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000): 78-101. Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism (New York: Clarendon Press, 1997): 32-33 for references to the Dialogo. Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. Angelo M. Codevilla (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), xxi-xxv. Shell, "Discourse on Language", 93. Machiavelli 1974). Chapter One 'Patria' in the Context of Niccolo Machiavelli's 'II Principe' and 'Discorsi' Introduction of the Florentine republic, the author of the Discourses 'How could the faithful secretary on the First Ten Books rarely has such Machiavelli studies, Baron himself of Titus Livy, also be the author of The a PrinceT1. loaded question been posited, readily admitted. In this Chapter, we as In the realm of its author, Hans will seek to unpack Baron's query, thereby examining issues related to the dating of Machiavelli's II Principe and the Discorsi sopra content and la prima deca di Tito Livio and the relationship of one to the other in time, political vocabulary. confines of existing as stato, fortuna, Machiavelli or scholarship2. However, rather than focus on words such virtu, we will suggest that the term patria is also a central, though neglected, word in Machiavelli's That is not to say discourse This will place the investigation firmly within the opere . that patria has been entirely neglected in historical and political relating to Machiavelli. On the contrary, J.H. Hexter and Maurizio Viroli have given particular attention to the term in Machiavelli's political works, although their investigations make 1 Hans up only small parts of articles or treatises concerned with Baron, "Machiavelli the Republican Citizen and Author of The Prince," in Hans Baron, In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism: Essays on the Transition from Medieval to Modern Thought Vol. 2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988): 101-157, 101. 2 Maurizio Viroli, From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquisition and Transformation of the Language of Politics. 1250-1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992): 128-133. Generally, patria is relegated to footnotes or endnotes and paid no real attention. For example, see Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, eds. Quentin Skinner and Russell Price (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 10th edn., 1998): 103. J.H. Hexter, "II principe and lo stato." Studies in the Renaissance 4 (1957): 113-38. Nicolai Rubinstein, "Notes on the word stato in Florence before Machiavelli," Florilegium Historiale: Essays presented to Wallace K. Ferguson, eds. J.G. Rowe and W.H. Stockdale (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971): 314-326. Quentin Skinner, "The State," in T. Ball, J. Farr and R.L. Hanson, eds., Political Innovation and Conceptual Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989): 90-131. Fredi Chiappelli, Studi sul linguaggio del Machiavelli (Firenze, 1952). 'Patria' in 'II political Machiavelli's thought4. Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 15 This Chapter, and indeed, the entirety of this Dissertation, aims to emphasise that patria may be helpful in interpreting Machiavelli's political works, especially II Principe and the Discorsi. Utilising the substantial electronic tools available, the author has mapped Machiavelli's compendium use may prove Machiavelli's are are a Chapter and the will find from cursory a inspection of the attached are noted, they scope are few [See Appendices], The second of this investigation into patria is that it - the goal of this Chapter. examining patria and the relationship between II Principe and the Discorsi, themes of have one exceptions which possible reading Discorsi. The focus of this helpful in interpreting the relationship between Machiavelli's two most famous works In of patria and its related derivatives patria in II Principe and the Discorsi. This is for two principal important reason for limiting the may prove This patria that, generally, Machiavelli does not use it in his literary output. on While there more are upon The first is that appendices 4 occurrence found in Volume Two of this Dissertation. reasons. one his political and literary output3. useful for future studies of the term patria and its importance in political vocabulary. Every following three and of the term patria across came to the fore; patria may be that which mediates between the principality and dictatorship in II Principe and the republicanism of the This coherent proposed mediation may have interesting implications. Did Machiavelli plan for the creation of a united Italy and of a national identity? It seems Hexter, "Lo Stato", 30. Particular attention must be given to Maurizio Viroli's For Love of Country: An on Patriotism and Nationalism (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997): 29-36; by the (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998):156-174. 5 These are discussed in Appendix One, in Volume Two of this Thesis. Essay same author Machiavelli 'Patria' in 'II that he did and facets of that In may use of patria may help to interpret the different seeking to set out the aspects of this plan, this Chapter will examine the uses of another to Baron understanding of his plan. the term patria one an Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 16 in II Principe and the Discorsi, first separately, then in comparison with see whether there is a distinct implied in his question. Then, based political shift from upon one work to the other the outcome of this investigation, better be able to ascertain whether the hypothesis stated above is valid. as we The interpretation of Machiavelli's plan for Italian unification is only discussed briefly in this Chapter, keeping the focus firmly The the on the specifics of the plan that Machiavelli following Chapter along with an uses of patria in II Principe and the Discorsi. appears to have formulated will be dealt with in examination of Machiavelli's sources. Having set out the modus operandi, and the basic outline of this Chapter, it is helpful to begin to unpack Baron's question. The first component which is essential in laying the groundwork for the investigation is the date of II Principe and the Discorsi. I. The Date of II Principe and the Discorsi There is much controversy Baron concerned with the date of II Principe and the Discorsi. suggested, and this Chapter accepts, that II Principe predates the Discorsi by two years. This date structure simultaneous evolution. may For help to diminish the apparent problem with their example, II Principe contains specific advice for prince while the Discorsi set out parameters for the government. Discorsi Therein may together. They be are one proper functioning of a a new republican of the problems with examining II Principe and the seemingly irreconcilable with one another, for the apparent 'Patria' in 'II Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 17 advocacy of princely rule in II Principe and the almost continuous praise government in the Discorsi do not foci of II work as make comfortable bedfellows. Indeed, the differing Principe and the Discorsi have caused some historians to view Machiavelli's disjointed and even incoherent6. The mediate and reconcile these apparent There debated. 15137. to For are example, there is In 1515 use of the term patria may, however, contradictions. certain facts related to the date of II Principe or a consensus among originally dedicated. as a most that II Principe was written in result of the death of Giuliano de' Medici, to whom was re-dedicating II Principe, it is likely that Machiavelli edited and added further [see below] It has been assumed that Machiavelli's Discorsi as II Principe. Machiavelli 6 it He re-dedicated II Principe to Lorenzo, Giuliano's successor. sections to his work, including the last Chapter time which need not be 1516, most agree, Machiavelli returned to his treatise on principalities amend its introduction While of republican Ottavio g . originated at around the same The first sentence of the second Chapter in // Principe suggests that developed 11 Principe and the Discorsi simultaneously. In Chapter Two of Condorelli, "Per la storia del nome Stato," Archivio Giuridico LXXX1X (1923): 223-235. This apparent problem is discussed in detail by Hans Baron, Felix Gilbert and J. H. Hexter in the following articles. See Baron, "Machiavelli the Republican". Also see the following articles by the same author: "Machiavelli Dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua," Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 23 (1961): 449-76; "The Principe and the Puzzle of the Date of the Discorsi," Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 18 (1956): 405-428; and "The Principe and the Puzzle of the Date of Chapter 26," Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 21 (1991): 83-102. This topic is also discussed in Felix Gilbert, "Review-Discussion: The Composition of Machiavelli's Discorsi," Journal of the History of Ideas 14 (1953): 136-156; and J.H. Hexter, "Seyssel, Machiavelli, and Polybius VI: the Mystery of the Missing Translation," Studies in the Renaissance 3 (1956): 75-96. 7 Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, eds. Quentin Skinner and Russell Price (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), xxvi. Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans, and ed. Stephen J. Milner (London: J.M. Dent, 2000), xi. Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. Harvey C. Mansfield (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), xxvi. Niccolo Machiavelli, II Principe e Altre Qpere Politiche Introduzione di Delio Cantimori, Note di Stefano Andretta (Milano: Garzanti Libri, 1999), viii. Sebastian De Grazia, Machiavelli in Hell (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 23. John Hale, Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy (London: The English Universities Press Ltd, 1966), 146. 8 on the Eve of the Discourses: The Date and Place of the Baron, "Date of the Discorsf': 405-428. 'Patria' in 'II his II Principe, Machiavelli wrote: 'Io lascero indrieto el ragionare delle republiche, perche altra volta ne ragionai prompts several possibilities. lungo'. ['I shall leave out any discussion of republics, a since I have discussed them at time of 11 Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 18 length on another occasion']3. Machiavelli's statement The first is, that the Discorsi were indeed written at the Principe. The second is that the Discorsi were written in two distinct stages; the first stage along with II Principe and the other, at would have had recourse to the Histories of a later date, when Machiavelli Polybius, particularly book VI10. A third argument, supported by Baron and John Hale, relies upon the idea that Machiavelli went back to II treatise Principe in 1515, after the Discorsi principalities". on reference to a work on and more 1513 a underway, to update and add to his Hale's and Baron's theory accounts for Machiavelli's republics in the date structure allows for were passage from Chapter Two of II Principe. This dating of II Principe, with amendments made in 1515, it also allows for the Discorsi to date from late 151512. But what of the arguments that date the works together? Felix Gilbert suggested that the Discorsi were written in two separate stages, the first concurrent with II Principe and the second after II Principe first stage, Gilbert was not This treatise on hypothesised, was completed. This the Discorsi, but another work republican government, according to Gilbert, provided on an republics13. interesting 9 For Italian original see Principe. 1999. 15. And Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince trans. George Bull (London: Penguin Group, 4lh ed., 1995), 5. 'I shall leave out any discussion of republics, since I have discussed them at length on another occasion'. 10 Hexter, "The Missing Translation": 75-96. Also see Gilbert, "Machiavelli's DiscorsP: 136-156. The Author's argument is a combination of Hexter and Gilbert's arguments. Hexter poses the problem of Polybius VI and Gilbert proposes that the Discorsi were written in two stages, the first of which relied completely upon Livy and the second relied upon Polybius. 11 Baron, "Date of the Discorsf. Also see Hale, Machiavelli and Renaissance: 146 and 168. Baron, "Date of the Discorsi' 405-428. Baron argues that II Principe was written before the Discorsi and that Machiavelli added segments of the Prince after working on, if not completing the Discorsi. 1' Gilbert, "Machiavelli's DiscorsP, 150 'it seems possible to suggest that Machiavelli had been working 12 . on a gave treatise on republics when he was composing The Prince, and that he used this manuscript when he the Discorsi their final version and realized the necessity of providing them with a fuller introduction'. 'Patria' in 'II solution to the 'altra volta' passage refer to a previous work Discorsi. The on second, or on in II Principe, for it explains how Machiavelli could republics, before he began work on what was to become the final version of the Discorsi, while based on this earlier treatise republics, evolved well after II Principe theoretical and was conjectural nature of his work theory is not demonstrable - on finished14. He acknowledged the the dating of the Discorsi. While locate II Principe in 1513 and the Discorsi in 1515, this Gilbert's theory manages to calls the 'first Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 19 as stage'. There is Gilbert himself indicated no - particularly in light of what he evidence at hand to illustrate that Machiavelli wrote a separate work on republics. Gilbert hypothesised that this work must have been lost, but there is no concrete evidence to back up his controversies. It must be said that those who for instance J.H. - do not Hexter, are the II Principe-Discorsi date most critical of Gilbert replace his conjectures with theories of their on between 1510 and 1520, mentioned answer to arguments16. - J.H. Whitfield own13. the other hand, placed the date of the Discorsi somewhere following the date structure set forth by Gilbert in the aboveHe subscribed to Gilbert's hypothesis that the Discorsi were written in two separate stages, but here their theories diverge. Hexter illustrated that the Discorsi could not have been anywhere 1515 at the of their polished form until sometime after earliest, for Machiavelli could not have Polybius VI until at least unlike the other books of his 14 near 151517. history, Ibid, 151. 'The[... ] second stage, which come into contact with any portions Furthermore, Hexter illustrated that Polybius VI, was not available in either Latin or Italian. The was a rearrangement of previously gathered material, resulted in today, and the analysis which we have previously made of the chronological references in the Discorsi permits the conclusion that this work of rearrangement and revision took place in the year 1517. 15 J.H. Whitfield, "Gilbert, Hexter and Baron" in Whitfield's Discourses on Machiavelli (Cambridge, Heffer, 1969): 181-206. 16 Hexter, "Missing Translation", 75. 17 Hexter, "Missing Translation": 75-96. the version which we have 'Patria' in 'II final version of the Discorsi relied it was used heavily sections of Polybius' book VI, but in 1515 on only available in Greek. Machiavelli did not know Greek. So how could he have Polybius VI? Hexter posited an intriguing this unexplained problem. It is likely that answer to Machiavelli met with Janus Lascaris, a native 1515, to Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 20 or Greek speaker, at the Orti Oricellari in perhaps later. This meeting, Hexter proposed, allowed Lascaris and Machiavelli discuss Polybius, particularly book VI, and it may have spawned a Polybius VI into Latin. Hexter's thesis explains how Machiavelli Polybius VI in his Discorsi and it also work to 1515 Discorsi. come or was able to rely on the date of at least the second half of the smoother transition between II Principe and the a However, like Gilbert's arguments mentioned above, Hexter's hypotheses have under attack because not propose an agree later, allowing for moves partial translation of alternative that the Discorsi they answer to were they, to a clearly demonstrable. Again, Hexter's critics do the problems that he raised. were large extent, because the years at the least. attacked and shown to be undemonstrable despite agree with the view that the Discorsi, in developed concurrently with Machiavelli's II theories set forth Gilbert and Hexter written in two stages, separated by several Paradoxically, their hypotheses the fact that are not Principe*. The some form, most experimental of the concerning the dating of II Principe and the Discorsi is reserved for last implications of this theory may shed light on the development of the term patria in II Principe and the Discorsi. 18 Whitfield, "Gilbert, Hexter and Baron", 206. Whitfield attempts, with some success, to pick apart Hexter well as Gilbert. However, he does not postulate a theory to replace those set forth by the aforementioned scholars, instead he wrote concerning the date problem, 'That must remain, as far as 1 can see, still at present a puzzle with no proved answer'. and Baron, as 'Patria' in 'II posited Baron an alternative explanation to those set forth by Gilbert and Hexter. Like Gilbert and Hexter before him, Baron focused attention republics in Chapter Two of II Principe, to the dilemma Principe in 1515 several passages, it also Principe and the Discorsi. following the greatest scholarly 1515 and the or the 'altra volta' Machiavelli's reference passage. Baron explains 1516 to re-dedicate it to Lorenzo, he also added including the 'altra volta' Machiavelli's statement, but of or on presented by Machiavelli's reference by theorizing that when Machiavelli went back to II of II Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 21 following This theory not only explains passage. goes some way toward explaining the differing nature Baron suggests that II Principe consensus, years19. When two but he moves years are was written in 1513, the bulk of the Discorsi to late placed between them, the problem justifying the simultaneous evolution of these two seemingly diametrically opposed political works is diminished and perhaps abolished20. Baron concluded his argument by writing: 'Believers in the customary chronology of Machiavelli's works would have to explain better than has been done in the past, how Machiavelli could have written portion of the Discorsi, conditions of have advocated or of their guiding ideas, under the 1513'21. When the arguments scholarship is formidable. 19 some even a of Baron, Gilbert and Hexter are placed together, their However, Baron's assertion that II Principe Baron, "Date of the Discorsf ', 423. 'Indeed, our was amended analysis of the first few chapters of the Principe demonstrated that the passage which contains the "altra volta" reference is not an indispensable part of the text, and even obstructs the flow of the argument. And by reviewing the genesis of the Discorsi, we ascertained that Machiavelli composed the version which discusses republics "at length", precisely in 1516, and that early as the beginning of that year many cultured people in Florence not only new that preparing such a work, but had conversed with the author about his subject, and possibly had seen, or listened to, portions of the book, even though semi-publication through dedication did not take place until about two years later. Late in 1515 or in 1516, therefore, nothing would have been more natural for Machiavelli than to insert in the Principe the somewhat vague and mystifying cross reference to his more recent but not yet "published"work: "altra volta ne ragionai a lungo". 20 Hale, Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy. 146 and 168. Baron, "Machiavelli the Republican": 141-151. 21 Baron, "Date of the Discorsf', 428. as Machiavelli was 'Patria' in 'II after Machiavelli had either completed the Discorsi especially intriguing; for his scholarship allows for on a or Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 22 had them well under way is smoother transition from the focus principalities in II Principe to the republicanism of the Discorsi. Despite the differing views represented therein, from the wealth of scholarly debate concerned with the dates of 11 Principe both works, written manner. concurrently This evolution and the or and the Discorsi, one can conclude that at diverse times, evolved in a completely different disparity between their respective subjects, gives, we suggest, greater weight to those theories which separate the dates of composition. Therefore, following Baron and Hale, additions being added in 1515 1515. Even if evidence one which date II Principe 1516, and the Discorsi to sets aside the above mentioned suggests that Machiavelli amendments to 11 Principe at The or we as a a date work of 1513 with no earlier than late arguments, there remains compelling began the Discorsi in 1515, adding that time. simplest, and perhaps most conclusive confirmation which separates the dates of II Principe and the Discorsi may be found in the dedicatory letter of the Discorsi. can be found in two related pieces of evidence. The first essendo, non so quale di noi si abbia ad essere meno obligato all'altro: o io voi, che mi avete forzato a scrivere quello che io mai per me medesimo non arei scritto; o voi a me, quando, scrivendo non vi abbi sodisfatto. [Dedicatory II che a Epistle]22. Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi Sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio. Introduzione di Gennaro Sasso, Note di Giorgio Inglese., (Milano: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1999), 53. For original see Niccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses of Niccolo Machiavelli 2 Vols. Trans. Lesley J. Walker (London, Routledge, 1950). See Vol. 1. Dedicatory Epistle, 201. 'If this be so, I know now which of us is less obligated to the other, I to you, for having forced me to write what I should never have written of my own accord, or you to me, if what I have written foils to satisfy you'. " 'Patria' in 'II Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 23 Machiavelli dedicated his Discorsi to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo three became fast friends at Rucellai's gardens, the Orti these scholarly gathering which he hosted in his OricellarP. Machiavelli to Rucellai. The only became associated with Buondelmonti and Rucellai after going meetings. Furthermore, he first referred to the Orti in a letter dated 17 December 1517. giorno insieme con Rv.m<> de'Salviati, Filippo Nerli, Rucellai, Cristofano Carnesechi, e qualche volta Antonio Francesco delli Albizi, e attendete a fare buona cera, e vi ricordate poco di noi qui, poveri sgraziati, morti di gielo e di sono. Pur, per parere vivi, ci troviamo qualche volta, Zanobi Buondelmonte, Amerigo Morelli, Batista della Palla et io, e ragioniamo di quella gita di Fiandra con tanta efficacia.. ,24 So che vi trovate cost! tutto el Cosimo In light of this letter, it is possible that Machiavelli did not begin attending the Orti until 1517, pushing the date of the Discorsi back to that year, if one believes that his friends 'forced' him to write the work. This late date is not probable. On the contrary, it likely that Machiavelli began visiting the Orti in 1515, almost two expulsion from political life, when he finally streets of his beloved Florence. that the Discorsi are a may or after his have felt comfortable walking the From this evidence and that set forth work of late 1515 years seems above, it appears early 1516. 23 For discussions of Machiavelli's time at the 'Orti' see Gilbert, 'Machiavelli's Discorsi'-. 136-156; and Hexter, 'Missing Translation': 75-96. For a history of the 'Orti' before Machiavelli's involvement, see Felix Gilbert, "Bernardo Rucellai and the Orti Oncellari: A Study on the Origins of Modern Political Thought," in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 12(1949): 101-131. 24 Niccolo Machiavelli, Machiavelli and His Friends: Their Personal Correspondence, trans, and eds. James B. Atkinson and David Sices (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996), Letter 254, December 17 1517, p. 318. 'I know that you find yourself there all day long together with the Most Reverend de 'Salviati, Filippo Nerli, Cosimo Rucellai, Cristofano Carnesecchi, and sometimes Antonio Francesco degli Albizzi, that you devote yourselves to eating heartily, and that you remember little of us poor wretches here dying of cold and lack of sleep. Nevertheless, so that we can appear to be alive, Zanobi Buondelmonti, Amerigo Morelli, Battista della Palla, and I sometimes get together and discuss that excursion to Flanders with so much energy...' For Italian original see Niccolo Machiavelli, Qpere di Niccolo Machiavelli. Volume Terzo. Lettere. A cura di Franco Gaeta (Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1984), Letter 254, December 17, 1517: pp. 498-499. - 'Patria' in 'II Such a date structure for II Principe Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 24 and the Discorsi may open interesting possibilities. For example, if II Principe was written in 1513, a period of two years intervened before he one might precisely, argue, a began his treatise republics, the Discorsi. In that time period, Machiavelli's political thought became more expansive. particular occasione would allow on - or brief window of opportunity - was at And more hand, that Italy to be free from foreign occupation and united politically under a republican government. This could see a temporary unification of Florentine and Roman interests; Medici Capitano, Lorenzo at Florence, and Leo X, Medici Pope, at Rome. Indeed, it seems VI's action in that Machiavelli extensive Chapter VII of II Principe coverage of Cesare Borgia's and Alexander was meant to The united interests of the Medici Lorenzo and Leo. be a blue-print of sorts for family and the opportunity this presented for Italian unification, could have led Machiavelli, in the intervening period between writing 11 Principe and the Discorsi, to add a 25 final Chapter to the former . Famously, this Chapter calls for the liberation of Italy from the barbarians at the hands of up a swift, papal sanctioned, dictatorial prince. Perhaps Peter Laven's words sum this point best: necessity of the times limited the possible field of effective action. desperate solution was the emergence of a tyrannical law-giver, who would be prepared to adopt extreme measures such as those of Cesare Borgia in order to force his will on Italy, and, having done so, would be willing to hand on his dictatorially-ordered state to a republican government based on the example of the Roman republic. With the Papacy and Florence under the control of the Medici, he looked to that family for such a leader, especially to Leo X26. The Machiavelli's "5 Hans Baron, "The Principe and the Puzzle of the Date of Chapter 26," Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 21 central 26 Peter importance to (1991): 83-102. We shall return to this subject our argument. in a later Chapter where it will be of Laven, Renaissance Italy: 1464-1534. (London: B.T. Batsford, 1966), 155. Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 25 'Patria' in 'II Laven then argued that Machiavelli did not in reality believe that a unifying prince would actually give up his after such power a successful drive to free Italy from foreign invaders. However, out of duty we propose that the reason the prince would relinquish his power, was to the patria. prendero una provincia dura e piena di tanta difficulty, che mi abbandonarla con vergogna, o seguirla con carico; volendo difendere una cosa, la quale, come ho detto, da tutti gli scrittori e accusata. Ma, comunque si sia, io non giudico ne giudichero mai essere difetto difendere alcuna opinione con le ragioni, sanza volervi usare o l'autorita o la forza. [Libro I. 58.2]27. Io non so se io mi convenga o interpretation, Machiavelli In this idealist who wanted to under see may his patria, be viewed, not cynical realist, but as a as an Florence, and the whole of Italy, free and united republican government. This must be tested against the texts that Machiavelli a wrote. \\. La Patria and II In Principe examining patria in II Principe second the genre limited - one must consider first, for whom it in which it resides. Machiavelli's work audience and his work fits squarely into a was written for particular an introduction to its intended recipient. dedicatory epistle to Lorenzo de' Medici. For this Machiavelli's call for Italian liberation and ~7 This can specific - and a good guide by be found in the work's reason, as we perhaps unification a written and of political treatise. genre Regarding intended audience, Machiavelli gives the reader offering was hypothesised above, was aimed primarily at Discorsi. 1999.1.58.2.. p. 180. For translation see Discourses. 1950.1.58.2.. p. 341. 'I know not whether am about to adopt will prove so hard to uphold and so full of difficulties that I shall have either the view I shamefully to abandon it attack, as or laboriously to maintain it; for 1 propose to defend a position which all writers I have said. But however that may be, I think, and always shall think there can be no harm in defending an opinion by argument so long as one has no intention of appealing either to authority or force'. 'Patria' in 'II Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 26 of Machiavelli's Lorenzo, and also to Leo X as Peter Laven argued. We know that some closest friends were asked to read cannot know for sure we Principe considerations early draft of II Principe, but other than these few, who read it, or how far its audience extended"8. Given that II published until 1532, anything beyond the minimal data presented was not above would be an speculation and is therefore not pursued. are much easier to map On the other hand, genre and have been studied by prominent scholars, particularly Allan Gilbert. In his Machiavelli's Prince and Its that Machiavelli's short treatise on Forerunners, Gilbert argued meticulously principalities exceedingly long line of advice books for princes glance, Gilbert's attention to historical detail on closer or was indeed one treatise in de Regimine Principum appears to 29 . an At first devalue Machiavelli's genius, but inspection, he merely contextualises and historicises Machiavelli's genius in order to illustrate from whom he borrowed and indeed from which historical trends and values he deviated What one must 30 To develop each of these topics would require another volume. take away from Gilbert's magisterial assessment is that Machiavelli's II . evolving continuum of advice books. However, where Principe developed within an others the long tradition of advice books to princes, Machiavelli sought to carry on Najemy, Between Friends. Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993): 176-214. Therein, Najemy discusses the evolution of II Principe in the context of the Machiavelli-Vettori letters of 1513. For further interesting discussion of these exchanges see Peter Godman's From Poliziano to Machiavelli: Florentine Humanism in the High Renaissance. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998): 256-258. Also see Brian Richardson, "The Prince and its Early Italian Readers," in Niccolo Machiavelli's 'The Prince': New Interdisciplinary Essays, ed. Martin Coyle (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995): 19-39. 29 John 1513-1515. Gilbert, Machiavelli's 'Prince1 and Its Forerunners: 'The Prince' as a Typical Book 'de (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1938). Ibid. For Gilbert's discussion of possibly devaluing Machiavelli's genius, see his 'Conclusion': 231-237. Allan H. Regimine Principum' 30 'Patria' in 'II sought to turn the whole subject its head, pulling the philosophical rug from under the predecessors and Cicero in particular '1. feet of his humanist Principe, according to Maurizio Viroli, lacks all the language normally II politics in the Quattro and Cinquecento. For example, one will not find associated with any on Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 27 'politico-rooted words' therein, because '11 Principe is not which would entail, J.H. Whitfield Principe came are - according to Viroli, built to a a a discourse on distillation of republican political language similar conclusion when he noted that the Discorsi upon words such the city', as - 32 . not II 'il vivere civile' and 'il vivere politico'; republican vocabulary and language". Viroli's measured judgements of II Principe help to illustrate that there is distinct difference between the aims of II Principe former is intended for a the maintenance of his as a treatise the 'bene on comune'34. use of personal 'stato' or one and the Discorsi. For example, the will find words that relate to the 'stato' republics and republican values Viroli's considerations different prince. Therefore, are In analysing words such on II as over prince and which he lords. The Discorsi, concerned with the public good and 'stato' and 'politico-rooted terms' language, thus pulling the works apart. We 31 propose that this separation and content, but that it need not be Maurizio Viroli, From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquisition and Transformation of Politics. 1250-1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992): 128-133. 33 a Principe and the Discorsi successfully demonstrated their should be maintained, both in time, genre 32 a an of the Language Ibid. 128-129. J.H. Whitfield, 'Machiavelli and the Problem of the Prince'' in Discourses on Machiavelli (Cambridge, Heffer, 1969):17-35. 34 Machiavelli's use of the term 'stato' has been often written about; did he refer to the 'status' of the prince or the 'modem state'? Following Viroli's argument, we suggest that at times it may mean both, but given linked with the person of the prince. See note 3 above for in II Principe. the genre of the work, most frequently, it is articles relating to Machiavelli's use of'stato' 'Patria' in 'II chasm33. unbridgeable On the contrary, patria Keeping these ideas in mind, let us turn to may Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 28 be the link between these two works. the text of II Principe itself and analyse how and where Machiavelli used the term patria. Machiavelli's might argue of patria use he desired to achieve in II Principe - may correspond with the goal which the liberation and unification of Italy. Perhaps the rousing conclusion of the piece illustrates the point. At this point it illustrate where Machiavelli used patria length, including Chapter headings. One will find times in eight one may prove helpful to The work is 27,860 words in in II Principe. The treatise is divided into twenty-six Chapters. patria in only four of these twenty-six Chapters; twice in Chapter six, three Chapter eight, twice in Chapter nine and occurrences. Each occurrence may, once in Chapter twenty-six for a total of however, be far more important than this small frequency would indicate. The author has taken the editorial decision to include all references to patria Principe in the Appendix to this Chapter. The reader will find inspection. Each reference to patria below will contain the reader to the prove as listed for number in 'brackets' to guide appropriate quotation in the Appendix. Keeping this in mind, it may helpful to define patria in the context of II Principe. George Bull translated patria 'country' and 'native city', which translations, but one may 'Fondatore' 'vivere..sicuro' be able to add are conventionally accepted and satisfactory nuance to these accepted translations. [1], 'ne fu nobilitata'[2], 'diventa principe' [3] and [6], Tiberta' [4], [5], 'difese contro' [7]: these words seven occurrences 35 a every occurrence in II of patria Viroli, Reason of State. 129. are linked with patria in the first in II Principe. Interestingly, each occurrence refers to an 'Patria' in 'II Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 29 exceptional virtuoso who successfully founded, treed, or defended their patria by own means, or their by popular consent. Might these instances suggest that Machiavelli wanted to illustrate that radical action could produce not only a free, but a new, united patria in Italy? The examples that Machiavelli set forth, could show the new Florentine Romulus and Nabis had done before him. and we cooperation, and Add to this the possibility of papal funding have highlighted Machiavelli's plan to unite Italy. Here, suggest, the last Chapter of II Principe finds an intriguing place. Therein Machiavelli wrote that he one may prince how to seize the occasione as 'questa patria ne referring to his native, answer or is difficult and may Denys Hay once sia nobilitata'. When Machiavelli wrote 'questa patria', local patria, Florence, indicate that Machiavelli or Italy was - a was communal patria? The speaking of both. observed that: Italians, patria meant, not the entire peninsula, but those narrower they had immediate sentimental and political ties. Yet, however oblivious in practice to the demands of larger loyalties, literate Italians were forever referring to the land as a whole. It is hard to find a poet or historian, or writer of any kind, who does not offer observations or reflections which might For most localities with which be used to illustrate a view of Italy36. Machiavelli, like all Italians, had 'immediate sentimental and political ties' with Florence his patria - - but, particularly after the French invasions of 1494, as Hay pointed out, loyalties, especially noticeable in Machiavelli, expanded to include all of Italy and its 5 Denys Hay, 'The Italian view of Renaissance Italy', in Florileeium Historiale: Essays Presented to (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971): 3-17. See p. 4. Hay's insightful comment provides a potent distillation of Roman republican and 'Renaissance' Italian patriotic theory in a mere three sentences. For example, see Marcus Cicero, De re publica et De legibus. trans. Clinton Walker Keyes (Cambridge, Mass..: Harvard University Press, 11th edn., 1994). 'De legibus', II. 2.5.: pp. 374-375 'Surely I think that he and all natives of Italian towns have tow fatherlands, one by nature and the other by citizenship'. 'Ego mehercule et illi omnibus municipibus duas esse censeo patrias, unam naturae, alteram Wallace K, Ferguson. civitatis...' Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 30 'Patria' in 'II need for freedom'7. In 1515, the year Chapter to II Principe, what the Spanish38. as a whole was For all practical divided into three purposes, capable of dealing with either foreign the Machiavelli's local patria was, international power - the camps: powers papacy. occasione per tanto, esser papacy, was the papacy's into Italy in the first a place'9. peninsular and an The fragile and brief occasione which Machiavelli provided by the Medici. Lorenzo was was the unique link between prince and capitano of papal throne. According to Machiavelli, 'Queste feciono questi uomini felici, e la eccellente virtu loro fece quella conosciuta'40. Thus, with clever rhetorical ambiguity, which related patria to Florence and and the last Italian institution due to Medici control, linked with Florence and his uncle, Leo X sat on the occasioni, the French, the level footing. Yet it power on a presented to Lorenzo in the last Chapter of II Principe, Florence and Rome have authored the last under the control of the was papacy was political affairs that brought foreign involvement in may the situation in Florence and in Italy? regional patria, which he loved, Machiavelli's Medici, and Italy was in which Machiavelli Italy, he called on we propose Lorenzo to 'ennoble' both; Florence, by making it the centre of a united Italy, and Italy itself by expelling and defeating Spain and France. Patria, as used the first seven times it appears in It Principe, set out historical examples which Lorenzo and Leo X could imitate. Seizing the occasione which united the interests of Florence and Rome, Lorenzo could, one 8 39 40 might Hay, "Renaissance Italy", 13 Garrett Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy (New York: Dover, 1988), 142. This See topic will be developed in detail in the following Chapter. Appendix One, 'Patria in 11 Principe', number 2. argue, set out not only to 'Patria' in 'II expel Italy's foreign oppressors, Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 31 but also unite the peninsula, creating a united Italian patria - under a republican government. III. La Patria and the Discorsi Like Principe, the Discorsi II Machiavelli's death. the Given this date of readership of the text are, were or not published until 1532, five years after publication, be we cannot sure of the extent of when individuals read the Discorsi before that date. There however, three notable exceptions to this statement. The Discorsi, like II Principe, contain dedicatory epistle. The former is not to a friends in scholarship letter has - a prince, but to two of Machiavelli's Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai. A portion of this already been cited. Given that the work was dedicated to them, and that they perhaps gently coerced Machiavelli to put his ideas in writing, we can be fairly sure that they read the manuscript. One might also conclude that Francesco Guicciardini not only read, but produced a commentary on death41. exception of these three, With the extended the privilege of reading his treatise In terms of genre, rather in II more 41 like a the Discorsi one cannot on be one year sure to after his friend's whom Machiavelli republics. are at once a history and a political handbook, work of Florentine civic humanism than the voracious attacks thereon Principe42. Maurizio Viroli filled with the Discorsi, in 1528, demonstrated that unlike II Principe, the Discorsi are "politico-rooted' words, which in the Florentine context, placed the Discorsi in Guicciardini, "Considerazioni intorno ai Discorsi del Machiavelli sopra la Primi Deca di Tito Livio," in Opere 7: Scritti politici e ricordi A cura di Roberto Palmarocchi (Bari: Laterza, 1933): 1-65. 4" For an interesting discussion of Machiavelli's view of and approach to history see Felix Gilbert, Francesco Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965): 153-235. 'Patria' in 'II Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 32 those histories written by Bruni and Salutati43. While some of the ideas present in II Principe are present in the Discorsi, the expansiveness of the latter and its a similar genre as source as materials Viroli along with its political vocabulary differ from II Principe. Furthermore, illustrated, the Discorsi are first and foremost a book concerned with the language and practicalities of civic life, political life and republicanism, markedly different from II Principe These different upon sources and its focus and indeed, on princes44. the language of the advice books to subject matter, one might suggest, enacted changes the term patria in the Discorsi, expanding it, yet retaining certain qualities. This expansion and continuation, between the may add weight to the hypothesis that patria is link starkly contrasting subjects of Machiavelli's two most famous treatises. Patria and its derivatives appear in the Discorsi seventy-nine times. The work, including Chapter headings, is 118,693 words in length. Libri. The first is divided into divided into a They sixty individual discorsi about a divided into three are given subject. Libro II is thirty-two discorsi and the third book contains forty-nine. Patria occurs 17 times, in twelve of the first book's sixty Chapters; 20 times in ten of book two's thirtythree and forty-two times in book three's forty-nine. Given the length of the Discorsi, patriots frequency of occurrence is minimal, though marginally Principe. Perhaps Machiavelli's writing took plan for Italian unification. The way seems to in II Principe focused specifically the Discorsi present a different and more varied 43 44 Viroli. Reason of State: 128-129 and 201. Ibid. frequent than in II patriotism as he developed a in which patria is used in the Discorsi, in comparison with its counterparts in II Principe Where patria on a greater more bear this out. on founding picture. Therein, or one uniting a patria, might generalise, 'Patria' in 'II Machiavelli associated patria occurrences occurrence of patria with a different set of verbs and modifiers. found in the Discorsi in the may At this a Appendix to this Chapter. number The selected indicating to the reader where the full be found in the Appendix. point, it Discorsi which are may prove helpful to examine those instances of patria in the similar to those used in II Principe. associated with those who 'defend' - 'difendere' 'become', 'diventare, diventa, etc.' founders or or its in order to found a republic One will find that these or a occur In II Principe, patria conjugations - was and those who princes of their patria. These words also used in the Discorsi in relation to those who seize, power, Like the in II Principe, the reader will find a complete list of those references cited below will also include quotation Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 33 are under exceptional circumstances, principality. four times in the Discorsi. They are: 18. Ma si vede bene come in quegli tempi che i Romani andarono a campo a Veio, la Toscana era libera; e tanto si godeva della sua liberta e tanto odiava il nome del principe che, avendo fatto i Veienti per loro difensione uno re in Veio, e domandando aiuto a' Toscani contro a' Romani, quegli, dopo molte consulte fatte, deliberarono di non dare aiuto a' Veienti, infino a tanto che vivessono sotto il re, giudicando non essere bene difendere la patria di coloro che l'avevano di gia sottomessa a altrui. E facil cosa e conoscere donde nasca ne' popoli questa affezione del vivere libero; perche si vede per esperienza le cittadi non avere mai ampliato ne di dominio ne di ricchezza se non mentre sono state in liberta. [Libro II. 2.1 ]45. considerassono come la ci permette la esaltazione e la difesa della patria, vedrebbono come la vuole che noi l'amiamo e onoriamo e prepariamoci a 20. Perche, se 45 Discorsi. 1999. n. 2.1., pp. 296-297. And Discourses. 1950. II. 2.1. (II. 2.1-2. in Walker), pp. 361.362. quite clear, however, that at the time when the Romans laid siege to Veii, Tuscany was free. Moreover, it enjoyed its freedom so much, and so hated the title of prince, that, when the people of Veii appointed a king in that city for the purpose of defence, and asked the Tuscans to help them against the Romans, the Tuscans after many consultations had been held, decided not to give help to the people of Veii so long as they lived under a king, since they held that they could not well defend a country whose people had already placed themselves in subjection to someone else. It is easy to see how this affection of peoples for self-governments comes about, for experience shows that cities have never increased either in dominion or wealth, unless they have been independent'. "18" refers to this quotation's place in Appendix One of this Dissertation. The same applies throughout. 'It is 'Patria' in 'II essere possiamo difendere. [Libro II. tali che noi la Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 34 2.2]46. 70. si debbe difendere ignominia o con Gloria, qualunque modo e bene difesa. Che la patria o con [Libro IE. Titolo e 41]47. in quello esercito, gli pareva da ogni modo. E che la patria e bene difesa in qualunque modo la si difende, o con ignominia o con gloria; perche, salvandosi quello esercito, Roma era a tempo a cancellare la ignominia; non si salvando, ancora che gloriosamente morisse, era perduto Roma e la liberta sua. E cosi fu seguitato il suo consiglio. [Libro III. 41.1]48. 72. Perche consistendo la vita di Roma nella vita di salvarlo in Compare these occurrences with number 7 in II Principe: Nabide, principe delli Spartani, sostenne la ossidione di tutta Grecia e di uno romano vittoriosissimo, e difese contro a quelli la patria sua et il suo stato: e li basto solo, sopravvenente il periculo, assicurarsi di pochi: che se elli avessi avuto el populo inimico, questo non li bastava. [Capitolo 9; Capoverso 5]49. 7. esercito These occurrences least where patria of patria illustrate that there is wishes Viroli's For example, II Principe is completely religion permits us to exalt and defend the fatherland, they would have love and honour it, and to train ourselves to be such that we may defend it'. Discorsi. 1999. III. 41. Titolo., p. 563. And Discourses. 1950. III. 41. Title., p. us to Country should be defended whether it entail Ignominy whatever'. 48 as Discorsi. 1999. II. 2.2., p. 299. And Discourses. 1950. II. 2.2 (II. 2.7. in Walker), p. 364. 'For, had they born in mind that 47 continuity between the works; at is used, but not where other political language is concerned research, previously cited, helped to illustrate. 46 some Discorsi. 1999. HI. 41.1., p. 563. or seen that it also 572. 'That one's Glory, and that it is Good to defend it in any way And Discourses. 1950. IE. 41.1., p. 572. 'For since the survival of depended on the survival of this very army, it should be saved in any way that offered; and that it is good to defend one's country in whatever way it be done, whether it entail ignominy or glory; for, if this army was saved, Rome might in time wipe out the ignominy; but that, if it were not moved but should die gloriously, Rome and its freedom would be lost. So Lentulus's advice was followed'. 49 Principe. 1999. 44. And Prince. 1995. 32. 'Nabis, prince of the Spartans, withstood the whole of Greece and a triumphant Roman army, and successfully defended his county [patria] and his own authority [stato] against them. All he had to do, when danger threatened, was to take steps against a few of his subjects; but this would not have been enough had the people been hostile towards him. Rome 'Patria' in 'II lacking in 'politico-rooted' words which in are Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 35 normally associated with republican politics Quattrocento and Cinquecento Florence, where the Discorsi are a filled with examples of these words. However, some continuity is provided by the term patria as the following examples illustrate. The following examples are from the Discorsi: dopo lui nel regno Cleomene, e nascendogli il medesimo gli ricordi e scritti ch'egli aveva trovati d'Agide, dove si vedeva quale era la mente e intenzione sua, conobbe non potere fare questo bene alia sua patria se non diventava solo di autorita, parendogli per l'ambizione degli uomini non potere fare utile a molti contro alia voglia di pochi; e presa occasione conveniente, fece ammazzare tutti gli Efori e qualunque altro gli potesse contrastare; dipoi rinnovo in tutto le leggi di Licurgo. [Libro I. 9.3] 3. Ma succedendo desiderio per . 11. E benche questo discorso sia disforme dal sopra scritto, parlando qui d'uno principe e quivi d'una republica, nondimeno, per non avere a tornare piu in su questa materia, ne voglio parlare brevemente. Volendo pertanto uno principe guadagnarsi popolo che gli fosse inimico, parlando di quelli principi che sono tiranni, dico ch'ei debbe esaminare prima quello che il popolo desidera, e troverra sempre ch'ei desidera due cose: l'una, vendicarsi contro a coloro che sono cagione che sia servo; l'altra, di riavere la sua liberta. A1 primo desiderio il principe pub sodisfare in tutto, al secondo in parte. [Libro I. 16.5]51. uno diventati della loro patria 31. E Annibale, il quale era tanto virtuoso ed aveva il suo esercito intero, cerco prima la pace che la zuffa, quando ei vidde che perdendo quella la sua patria diveniva serva, che debbe fare un altro di manco virtu e di manco isperienza di 511 se Discorsi. 1999. I. 9.3., p. 87. And Discourses. 1950. 1. 9.3. (9.5. in Walker's divisions), p. 235. 'But Cleomones, his successor in that kingdom, having learned from some records and writings of Agis which he had discovered, what was the latter's true mind and intention, determined to pursue the same plan. He realized, however, that he could not do this for the good of his country unless he became the sole authority there, and, since it seemed to him impossible owing to man's ambition to help the many against the will of the few, he took a suitable opportunity and had all the others killed and anybody else who might obstruct him. He then renewed in their entirety the laws of Lycurgus'. 51 Discorsi. 1999. I. 16.4., pp. 104-105. And Discourses. 1950.1. 16.5.. p. 254. 'Though to speak now of a prince, now of a republic is to distort the plan of this discourse, 1 propose, none the less, to talk of princes that I may not have to return to this topic. If, then, a prince wants to make sure of a populace that might be hostile to him I speak of such princes as have become tyrants in their own country — what I say is that he ought to first ask what it is that the people desire, and the he will always find that they desire two things: (i) to avenge themselves against the persons who have been the cause of their servitude, and (ii) to regain their freedom. The first of these demands the prince can satisfy entirely, the second in part'. 'Principe': doe Machiavelli's linking together of the 'principe' and the founding of the 'republica' indicate that the foundations of a patria and then a 'republica' must be laid by a 'principe'? - 'Patria' in 'II Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 36 gli uomini fanno questo errore, che non sanno porre termini alle speranze in su quelle fondandosi, sanza misurarsi altrimenti, rovinano. [Libro II. 27.2]52. lui? Ma loro; e Compare those examples with these from 11 Principe: Conveniva che Romulo non volere che diventassi re di Roma 1. [Capitolo 6; Capoverso 2. 1]5? capissi in Alba, fussi stato esposto al nascere, a e fondatore di quella patria. per tanto feciono questi uomini felici, e la eccellente virtu quella occasione esser conosciuta; donde la loro patria ne fu nobilitata e felicissima. [Capitolo 6; Capoverso l]54 Queste occasioni loro fece divento Ma, venendo all'altra parte, quando uno principe cittadino, non per o altra intollerabile violenzia, ma con il favore delli altri sua cittadini diventa principe della sua patria, il quale si puo chiamare principato civile (ne a pervenirvi e necessario o tutta virtu o tutta fortuna, ma piu presto una astuzia fortunata), dico che si ascende a questo principato o con il favore del populo o con il favore de' grandi. [Capitolo 9; Capoverso l]55 6. scelleratezza Each of these examples discusses historical examples king, prince founder of a republic. Again, this provides or these works, which Viroli and Baron appear to or a illustrate how certain sense have overlooked. one 'diventa' of continuity to This continuity is limited, but it is important because it is provided by the term patria. What one may find from further investigation into the term patria in the Discorsi, is that it not only occurs with greater frequency, but that given the republican nature of the Discorsi, should 5~ one 370. And Discourses. 1950. n. 27.2. (II. 27.6 in Walker), p. 441. 'If, then, efficient, and had his army still intact, preferred peace to war when he saw that, by losing, his country would be enslaved, what should a man do who has neither the efficiency nor the experience of Hannibal? Yet there are men who make this mistake, in that to their hopes they set no bound, and are ruined because they rely on such hopes and take no account of other things'. 53 Principe. 1999: 29-30. And Prince. 1995. 18. 'For Romulus to become king of Rome and founder of his country, he had to have left Alba and been exposed to death'. 54 Discorsi. 1999. II. 27.2., p. Hannibal, who was so Principe. 1999. 30. And Prince. 1995. 18. 'The opportunities given them enabled them to succeed, and exceptional prowess enabled them to seize their opportunities; in consequence their countries [patria] were ennobled and enjoyed great prosperity'. 55 Principe. 1999. 42. And Prince. 1995. 30. 'But now we come to the other case, where a private citizen becomes the ruler of his country [patria] neither by crime nor by any other outrageous act of violence but by the favour of his fellow citizens (and this we can call a constitutional principality, to become the ruler of which one needs neither prowess alone nor fortune, but rather a lucky astuteness). I say that one becomes a prince in this case with the favour of the people or of the nobles'. their own 'Patria' in 'II expect it to be linked with words that encourage or the 'bene Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 37 exhort citizens to promote or protect comune'56. Most often - seven times Machiavelli cited actions which - were as the compendium in the Appendix illustrates, good 'contro' the or survival of the patria. [See Appendix One, "patria in the 'Discorsi'", numbers 10, 41, 43, 50, 51, 54 and number 1 in the final section "'Patrie' in the illustrate what not to do in order to 'Discorsi'".] Machiavelli bring honour, prosperity and indeed, unity to one's The verb which is most associated with patria is 'liberare' patria. have wanted to may or its conjugated derivatives; used five times. [See "patria in the 'Discorsi'", numbers: 37, 44, 46, 48, 49.] Taken at face value the combination of these two words and the seem to indicate that Machiavelli wanted to teach his wanted Lorenzo to be honour upon one frequency of their readers, and we propose of them, how to act in a manner that would not their local patria, Florence, but also liberate their common use that he only heap patria, Italy; protecting and expanding the 'comune patria' and the 'bene comune'. Along with Tiberare' 20, 70(x2) and 72. one will find 'difendere' (discussed above) in numbers 18, That verb is followed closely in numbers of occurrences by 'occupare' (45, 52, 53, 66), 'salute' (39, 59, 67, 74) and 'rovinare' (14, 42, 58, 69). 'Abbandonare' (8, 23, appear 78), 'amore della patria' (9, 56, 76), and 'congiure' (50, 51, 53) three times each respectively [Full quotations in Appendix One], interesting collection of words, it act in order to It 56 that Machiavelli desired to show how bring honour to one's patria seems that those who Viroli, Love of Country, 'Discorsi'. seems p. 31. for as well as one should the contrary. bring honour to their respective patrie an From this are praised in the excellent discussion relating the 'bene comune' to patria in the 'Patria' in CI1 Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 38 Discorsi, whereas those who act selfishly, putting private interests before the 'comune patria' and the 'bene comune' Traitors are shown for what they against the patria also betray the rebellion common are - traitors against the patria. good, which for Machiavelli, entails against that form of government which best protects the 'bene comune - a republican government. il bene particulare ma il bene comune e quello che fa grandi le citta. bene commune non e osservato se non nelle republiche; perche tutto quello che fa a proposito suo si esequisce e, quantunque e' torni in danno di questo o di quello provato, e' sono tanti quegli per chi detto bene fa, che lo possono tirare innanzi contro alia disposizione di quegli pochi che ne fussono oppressi.' [Libro II. 2.1]37. ...perche E senza non dubbio questo Then, if one recalls that Machiavelli specifically linked the patria and a common good, the common prudent orderer of a republic, the hypothesis regarding Lorenzo and Leo X is increasingly probable: prudente ordinatore d'una republica, e che abbia questo animo, di volere giovare non a se ma al bene comune, non alia sua propria successione ma alia comune patria, debbe ingegnarsi di avere l'autorita, solo; ne mai uno ingegno savio riprendera alcuno di alcuna azione straordinaria, che, per ordinare un regno o constituire una republica, usasse. [Libro I. 9.2]58. Pero, uno If Machiavelli did devise Italy, one must context of the a plan for the expulsion of the barbarians and the unification of ask two further questions: how shall Discorsi, and what would dictatorial powers to a cause a one define 'republic' within the successful unifying prince to resign his republican government? 57 Discorsi. 1999. II. 2.1., p. 297. For translation see Discourses. 1950. II. 2.1. (II. 2.2. in Walker), p. 362. being of individuals that makes cities great, but the well being of the community; and it is beyond question that it is only in republics that the common good is looked to properly in that all that 'For it is not the well promotes it is carried out; and, however much this or that there are so many who benefit thereby that the common suffer in consequence'. private person may be the loser on this account, good can be realized in spite of those few who CO Discorsi. 1999.1. 9.2., p. 86. And Discourses, 1950.1. 9.2., p. 234. 'Wherefore the prudent organizer of whose intention it is to govern not in his own interests but for the common good, and not in the interest of his successors but for the sake of that fatherland which is common to all, should contrive to be a state alone in his authority. Nor will any reasonable man blame him for taking extraordinary, which may be of service in the organizing of a kingdom or republic'. any action, however 'Patria' in 'II Machiavelli is clear in his definition of example, Machiavelli theorised that Roman a Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 39 republican government. Following the republic should consist of three groups: Consuls, Senators and Tribunes each bound by strict constitutional Consuls were constitutionally sanctioned to take command of the government, should crisis dictate, whereas the Senate and Tribunes and uphold the rule of law Machiavelli believed Rome Roman limitations3}. The republican system more dictated by the constitution. as was a was, would, in peaceful times, legislate That is not to say that place of peace and tranquillity. On the contrary, the according to Machiavelli, filled with tension and strife that, perhaps paradoxically, led to and promoted greater freedom™. straordinarii, e quasi efferati, vedere il popolo al Senato, il Senato contro al Popolo, correre tumultuariamente per le strade, serrare le botteghe, partirsi tutta la plebe di Roma, le quali cose tutte spaventano, non che altro, chi le legge; dico come ogni citta debbe avere i suoi modi con i quali il popolo possa sfogare l'ambizione sua, e massime quelle citta che nelle cose importanti si vogliono valere del popolo: intra le quali, la citta di Roma aveva questo modo, che, quando il popolo voleva ottenere una legge, o e' faceva alcuna delle predette cose, o e' non voleva dare il nome per andare alia guerra, tanto che a placarlo bisognava in qualche parte sodisfarli... Debbesi, adunque, piu parcamente biasimare il governo romano; e considerare che tanti buoni effetti, quanti uscivano di quella republica, non erano causati se non da ottime cagioni. E se i tumulti furano cagione della creazione de' Tribuni, meritano somma laude, perche, oltre al dare la parte sua all'amministrazione popolare, fiirano constituiti per guardia della liberta romana, come nel seguente capitolo si mostrera61. E se alcuno dicessi: i modi insieme 59 gridare For Machiavelli's ideas erano contro concerning constitutions, see 34.1,2.;I. 55.8 ; H. Preface.4.; II. 19.2.; II! 22.9.; in. !! 60 See the Discorsi. 1999. I. 2-4., pp. constituent 61 Discourses. 1950. 64-72 for Machiavelli's discourses parts and the tensions between these. I. 2.2.; I. 3.1.; I. 9.1, 4.; I. on the Roman republic, its 71-72. And Discorses. 1950. I.4., p. 219. 'But, someone may object, the means extraordinary and almost barbaric. Look how people used to assemble and clamour against the senate, and how the senate decried the people who ran helter-skelter about the streets, how the shops were closed and how the plebs en masse would troop out of Rome - events which terrify all who read about them, not to mention others. To which I answer that every city should provide ways and means whereby the ambitions of the populace may find outlet, especially a city which proposes to avail itself of the populace in important undertakings. The city of Rome was one of those which did provide such ways and means in that, when the populace wanted a law passed, it either behaved in some such way as we have described or it refused to enlist for the wars, so that, to placate it, it had to some extent to be satisfied ..Critics, therefore, should be more sparing in finding fault with the government of Rome, and should reflect that the excellent results which this republic obtained could have been brought about only be Discorsi. 1999.1.4., pp. used were 'Patria' in 'II The Senate was balanced and held in check democratically elected by the Plebeians. It was Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 40 by the Tribunes6". The latter were their duty to plead the case of the populace during legislation. This careful balance of constitutionally sanctioned power and discord between the Senate and the Tribunes, uninterrupted period of Roman freedom and Machiavelli proposed, led to liberty63. an Later, after periods of internal the office of dictator created. Constitutionally struggles and external wars, sanctioned, through amendment, for decisive and necessarily limited action, the dictator was resigned his Chapter. an was appointed, carried out his duties to the patria and the bene office64. As we saw We shall return to above, the a common comune then discussion of this office in the following good is best protected by a republican government and the common good is, in Machiavelli, linked with the common patria. If Lorenzo were to take the steps that Machiavelli may have been calling him to take, he would find, in his patria, the della may of history To his dictatorial powers. 'Amore conclude, patria causes. since besides liberties, his name as a Lorenzo to resign his all- place within the hallowed halls Lycurgus and Brutus, two of Machiavelli's seems to be a term goes some way which provides continuity between II toward answering the problems highlighted Hence if tumults led to the creation of the giving the populace as we would find cause a examples. Principe and the Discorsi and excellent so, along with such prudent orderers favourite historical 64 up have been that which would powerful office. Having done 63 give patria' and the desire to promote the 'bene comune', which is best protected by republican government 62 reasons to shall show in the a next Discorsi. 1999.1. 3., pp. 69-70. Ibid. I. 4., pp. 70-72 tribunes, tumults deserve the highest praise, share in the administration, they served as the guardian of Roman chapter'. Discourses. 1950. See pp. 286-294 for and the benefits this office bestowed upon Machiavelli's discussions regarding the creation of the dictator Rome as well as the eventual harm it caused. 'Patria' in 'II Principe' and the 'Discorsi' 41 by Hans Baron at the outset of this Chapter. If the last Chapter of 11 Principe did, indeed, call for Lorenzo to seize the occasione and of Italy into next. a expel the barbarians from Italy, then unite all single patria, the Discorsi set out what Machiavelli hoped he would do He wanted Lorenzo to be the Italian want the united Italian patria Lycurgus, a latter-day Brutus to be founded upon religion. - but he did not Chapter Two Machiavelli's Secular 'Patria': His Sources, A Contemporary's View and the Call for Italian Unification Introduction Machiavelli's view of wide spectrum religion in II Principe and the Discorsi continues to provoke of reactions. In 1559 for example, both works, along with product of Machiavelli's pen were Index of Prohibited Books, and particularly anti-papal1. placed on every the Index librorum prohibitorum, a other or the by the Roman Inquisition which deemed them anti-Christian, In 1640 the first Anglophone translator of II Principe, with great eloquence, produced this subtle commentary: the firebrand. It may bee taken up at one end in being laid hold on, will cleave it to the very flesh, and the smart of it will pierce even to th heart. Sin hath the condition of the firy end, the touch of it is wounding with griefe unto the soule: nay it is worse; one sinne goes not alone, but hath many consequences. Your Grace [James Duke of Lenox, Earle of March, Baron of Setrington, etc.] may find the truth of this in your perusal of this Author2. Everything hath two handles, as the bare hand without hurt: the other end In 1950, Father Lesley Walker wrote that he found Machiavelli's 'advocacy of paganism...not only repulsive but absurd'3. Others, such Machiavelli's most subversive and morally questionable political language. Viroli 1 recently wrote that Machiavelli's views are as J.H. Whitfield, excuse Maurizio compatible with Christianity, and Godman, From Poliziano to Machiavelli: Florentine Humanism in the High Renaissance (Princeton: University Press, 1998): 303-333. Godman provides a concise, though detailed history of Machiavelli's works and their relationship with the Roman Inquisition in the sixteenth century. Peter Princeton 2 Nicholas Machiavel's Prince: Also 'The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Luca' and 'The Means Duke Valentino us'd put to death Vitellozzo Vitelli. Oliverotto of Fermo. Paul and the Duke of Gravina' trans. (Amsterdam: Da Capo, 1969 - facsimile of 1640 edition printed in London by Bishop and Hils). See pp. A3-A4. 3 Niccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses of Niccolo Machiavelli 2 Vols, trans. Lesley J. Walker (London: Routledge, 1950). See Vol. 1, p. 6 For a similar view of Machiavelli's paganism it may be useful to read Giuseppe Prezzolini's Machiavelli anticristo (Rome: G. Casini, 1954). Edward Dacres to The 'Secular Patria' 43 indeed such monumental individuals This Chapter avoids Instead, it view. politics handed down to the Florentines from part of the legacy of Christian are argues as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas4. any attempt to reprove or censure that Machiavelli's use Machiavelli's political of the term patria in II Principe and the Discorsi is secular and that his 'secular patria' may be the foundation of the new united Italy. The investigation into each work will include examples from Machiavelli's sources that will illustrate how he borrowed the term patria and how he modified their with the definitions; in effect, secularising religion. Machiavelli's Roman Livy, were from his ancient Roman ancestors sources, a term particularly the writings of Cicero and Titus scoured for the term patria and its derivatives with the production of the Appendices which map sometimes associated same tools utilised for the term in Machiavelli. In order to provide cinquecento context to Machiavelli's use of patria, we will examine a particular work written by one of his contemporaries. Contemporary source materials are purposely limited to Francesco Guicciardini's Considerazioni intorno ai Discorsi del Machiavelli sopra [1528], Fie was of Machiavelli's We both a close friend and, conveniently for this discussion, a staunch critic approach to history and of his ideas concerned with Italian unification. hope to show that Guicciardini was also secular in his approach to patria, but that he did not share in Machiavelli's dreams of Italy should remain 4 la prima deca di Tito Livio divided5. a united Italy. On the contrary, he argued that There is precedent for examining Machiavelli and Whitfield, Discourses on Machiavelli (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, 1969). In this collection of Whitfield provided a revised reading of Machiavelli which seeks to contextualise and 'excuse' his 'immorality'. Whitfield bases a good deal of his observation on Roberto Ridolfi's reading of Machiavelli J.H. essays (Roma: A. Berladetti lsl edn., 1954). Maurizio Viroli, Republicanism trans. Antony Shugaar (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux): 80-81. 5 Francesco Guicciardini, Opere 9 Vols. A cura di Roberto Palmarocchi (Bari: Laterza, 1929-36). See Considerazioni intorno ai Discorsi del Machiavelli sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio in Volume 8, Scritti in Vita di Niccolo Machiavelli The 'Secular Patria' 44 Guicciardini side by side. Felix Gilbert's famous Machiavelli and Guicciardini, is, perhaps, the best example of this precedent and has not been Gilbert's work criticised for not sufficiently7. Guicciardini Guicciardini's scholarship was comparing the differences between Machiavelli and By examining specific elements in Machiavelli's and political thought which may be rounded out. limited to Guicciardini's surpassed6. However, are related to Italian unification, Gilbert's For these substantive Considerazioni, as a means reasons, this investigation is of measuring Machiavelli's use of patria within the context of the first 30 years of the cinquecento. After and test examining more come to selection of Machiavelli's have devised a will seek to build upon plan for Italian liberation and unification which could fruition if 'amore della patria' argued, would sources, we searchingly the hypothesis stated in the previous Chapter; namely, that Machiavelli may only a cause was at its heart. This, the previous Chapter Lorenzo, Italy's unifying prince, to resign his dictatorial powers and allow for the creation of a united Italian republic. What follows sets out specifics of Machiavelli's plan for this unification and also illustrates that it more of the was secular in nature. e Ricordi (1933): 1-65. For a recent English translation see Francesco Guicciardini, Considerations in, The Sweetness of Power: Machiavelli's 'Discourses' and Guicciardini's 'Considerations' trans. James B. Atkinson and David Sices (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002), 1.12., pp. 404-405. 6 Felix Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965). See Gilbert's "Bibliographical Essays": 305-338 for a compendium of Italian scholarship on Machiavelli and Guicciardini. 7 J.H. Whitfield, "Three Reviews: 'Machiavelli and Guicciardini, Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence'", in Discourses on Machiavelli (Cambridge, Heffer, 1969): 241-243. Politici The 'Secular Patria' 45 I. II Principe and De officiis previous Chapter illustrated, patria in II Principe is not used in connection with As the religion of any sort, pagan or otherwise. On the contrary, it is used in association with things human and corporeal, particularly the 'fondatore' who becomes prince of his patria by using any and every means available, moral or immoral, just or bestial. For example, in II Principe, Machiavelli summarised: principe e necessario sapere bene usare la bestia e lo adunque uno principe necessitato sapere bene usare la bestia, debbe di quelle pigliare la golpe [volpe] et il lione8. Per tanto a uno uomo...Sendo Cicero on the other hand advised those who led their patria to act be decorous and human in very respect; virtus avoid acting like lead9. a beast and provide This altercation with Ciceronian more passages 8 a ruler or which would citizen ought to passages on or wishes to undoing of Cicero's arguments, the 'fox' and the 'lion' in II Principe. political and ethical philosophy provided in Machiavelli's treatise (see below Chapter pressing issues to entertain. Given that Machiavelli may prove - a way good example to those whom he leads Much has been written of Machiavelli's particularly relating to the famous lively a in other words in Five)10. was one of the most Flere, there are familiar with Cicero, it helpful to analyse how Cicero used patria and its related terms in De officiis Niccolo Machiavelli, 11 Principe e Altre Opere Politiche Introduzione di Delio Cantimori, Note di Stefano (Milano: Garzanti Libri, 1999), 67. For translation see Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince trans. George Bull (London: Penguin Group, 4th ed., 1995), 55. 'So a prince must understand how to make a nice use of the beast and the man... So a prince is forced to know how to act like a beast, he must leam from the Andretta fox and the lion'. Principe. 1999. 67. 9 Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis trans. Walter Miller (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 44-47.1.42, pp. 44-47. 10 Quentin Skinner, Machiavelli (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996): 40-47 for Skinner's discussion of Machiavelli's attitude toward Cicero in 'II Principe'. 1997): pp. The 'Secular Patria' 46 in order to understand whether Machiavelli altered and secularised the Ciceronian understanding of patria11. As in the case of II Principe and the Discorsi, it may be helpful to provide basic regarding patria and its derivatives in De officiis. The treatise is statistical information 34,200 words in length. It is divided into three books (libri). The first of these is divided into forty-five chapters capita; the second, twenty-five; and the third, thirty-three. Patria and its derivatives appear occur nine times and the other hand three. Book III are in Cicero's treatise distributed throughout five of the forty-five capita. Book II only contains on twenty-five times. In Book I, the words one reference to a derivative of patria, in caput twenty- the other hand contains fifteen references to patria or a synonymous derivative; and these are present in nine capita. Marginally, Book III contains the highest frequency of patria. This is particularly true of Liber III, caput 23. Therein that patria on and its derivative distribution of patria are used four times. Having examined the in Cicero's De officiis, it Cicero used the term(s) deviated from it. Each may prove one may see occurrences helpful to enquire into how {patria, patriam, patriae) and how, if at all, Machiavelli's occurrence of patria is catalogued in and an use Appendix to this Chapter, following the method adopted in Chapter One. As an inspection of the Appendix will illustrate, Cicero used patria in which linked it with societal and moral " obligations. a manner Among these obligations, Cicero Machiavelli, Niccolo father, possessed a copy of Cicero's De officiis at their family home was doing his Latin studies. It is likely that this early familiarity helped to shape Machiavelli's republican theory, but also honed his anti-humanist rhetoric. See Catherine Atkinson's interesting account of Bernardo Machiavelli's life and time which deals with these subjects. Debts. Bernardo when Niccolo Dowries. Donkev: The Diary of Niccolo Machiavelli's Father. Messer Bernardo, in Quattrocento Florence (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002): 137-152. The 'Secular Patria' 47 most often placed patria either above or equal to that obligation which one has to honour family and friends. one's parents, igitur patria praestat omnibus officiis? Immo vero, sed ipsi patriae pios habere cives in parentes. Quid? si tyrannidem occupare, si patriam prodere conabitur pater, silebitne filius? Immo vero obsecrabit patrem, ne id faciat. Si nihil proficiet, accusabit, minabitur etiam; ad extremum, si ad perniciem patriae res spectabit, patriae salutem anteponet saluti patris. [Liber 3, Caput 23.90.]l2. 5. Non conducit Given that De officiis advice in its pages. was written by Cicero to his How then, does Cicero's use son, one would expect to find such of patria differ, if at all, from that of Machiavelli in II Principe? Machiavelli, contrary to Cicero, does not place to whom he addressed his advice book. By the brushed aside Cicero's and the humanists' Ciceronian notion of what effettuale'13. 'what really its own realities way, moral obligation token, Machiavelli morality. - on the prince in II Principe - Machiavelli undermined the 'ought' to be die truth and replaced it with the 'verita These words have been translated happens' and 'the effective [See below, Chapter Five], uses as truth'14. helps to illustrate that Machiavelli purposely avoided linking his l" same any the 'effectual truth', the 'real truth', Each of these possible translations, in was not concerned with ideals, but with Furthermore, it also appears that Machiavelli of patria with religion, where Cicero, at least one time Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis trans. Walter Miller (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997). III. 23.90., pp. 364-367. '"Well, then, are not the claims of country paramount to all other duties?" "Aye, verily; but it is to our country's interests to have citizens who are loyal to their parents." "But once more if a father attempts to make himself kind, or to betray his country, shall the son hold his peace?" "Nay, verily; he will plead with his father not to do so. If that accomplishes nothing, he will take him to task; he will threaten; and in the end, if things point to the destruction of the state, he will sacrifice his father to the safety of the country"'. 13 Principe. 1999. 60. 14 Prince. 1640. 117; Prince. 1995. 48; Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince eds. Quentin Skinner and Russell Price (Cambridge: Cambndge University Press, 10th edn., 1998), 54 and Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. Angelo M. Codevilla (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 57. - The 'Secular Patria' 48 in De officiis placed the citizen's obligation to the patria below that of the 'diis immortal ibus'. ipsa autem communitate sunt gradus officiorum, ex quibus quid cuique praestet intellegi possit, ut prima diis immortalibus, secimda patriae, tertia 3. In parentibus, deinceps gradatim reliquis debeantur. [Liber 1, Caput It seems that Machiavelli had no time for religion - or 45.160]15. morality for that matter - in politics. That which would free his patria and perhaps unite all of Italy, he recognised, would require steps traditionally viewed Principe provides a as unjust or Chapter eight of II immoral. good example of this in Machiavelli: Ma, perche di privato si diventa principe ancora in dua modi, il che non si pud al o alia fortuna o alia virtu attribuire, non mi pare da lasciarli indrieto, ancora tutto piu diffusamente ragionare dove si trattassi delle repubbliche. Questi sono quando, o per qualche via scellerata e nefaria si ascende al principato, o quando uno privato cittadino con il favore delli altri sua cittadini diventa principe della sua patria. E, parlando del primo modo, si monstrerra con dua esempli, l'uno antiquo l'altro moderno, sanza intrare altrimenti ne' meriti di questa parte, perche io iudico che basti, a chi fussi necessitato, imitargli16. che dell'uno Political action in 7/ si possa Principe appears to successful, not whether his actions proposing that the prince do whatever and unification of makes up a Italy? are be based moral. upon In this was necessary to whether case, or not a prince is could Machiavelli be obtain two goals: the liberation As the discussion of Machiavelli's anti-ciceronian rhetoric large part of a later Chapter, we will not pursue it further here. The goal of 15 De Officiis. I. 45.160., pp. 164-165. 'Moreover, even in the social relations themselves there are gradations of duty so well defined that it can easily be seen which duty takes precedence over any other: our first duty is to the immortal gods; our second, to country; our third, to parents; and son, in a descending scale, to the rest'. 16 Principe. 1999. 38. For translation see The Prince. 1995: 26-27. 'As there are two ways of becoming a prince which cannot altogether be attributed either to fortune or to prowess, I do not think 1 ought to leave them out, even though one of them can dealt with at a great length under the heading republics. The two I have in mind are when a man becomes prince by some criminal and nefarious method, and when a private citizen becomes prince of his native city with the approval of his fellow citizens. In dealing with the first method, I shall give two examples, one from the ancient world, one from the modern, without otherwise discussing the rights and wrongs of this subject, because I imagine that these example are enough for anyone who has to follow them'. The 'Secular Patria' 49 presenting Cicero's of patria and its derivatives uses was to illustrate that he, at times, subjugated his Roman patria to religion. For Machiavelli, by was that which was ennobled, not by religion, but by to be expanded definition of patria., the Discorsi present an way of contrast, his patria itself17. Viewed in this way, one which details how a new prince could liberate and imify Italy and then resign his dictatorial authority to an elected We sought to illustrate that Machiavelli secularised the republican government. Ciceronian definitions of patria in 11 Principe, but did he do the same with Titus Livius in the Discorsil II. Patria in Titus Livius's Ab urbe condita Much has been written on Machiavelli's sources, the structure of the Discorsi conforms to the structure of Livy's history18. Scholars such Felix Gilbert and J.H. Whitfield have all treatise on republics19. produced studies As the as Principe. 1999. 98. 'questa patria ennobled'. 18 this facet of Machiavelli's 'bene comune, il vivere politico and previous Chapter illustrated, the latter words do not appear in 11 Principe, because its subject does not call for the 17 Father Lesley Walker, However, where political vocabulary is concerned, patria has been overlooked in favour of other terms such constituzioni'20. on as and how it ne use of such language. They appear sia nobilitata'. And The Prince. 1995, 84. '... our country may in be Atkinson, Debts: 126-152. See Atkinson's interesting discussion of Bernardo's library and its contents. He owned Livy Ab urbe condita. Machiavelli. For this 19 term see Livy's books may The Prince. 1995. 6, note. have been an 'addentellatto' for the young Lesley J. Walker, 'The Structure of the 'Discourses", in Niccolo Machiavelli The Discourses of Niccolo trans. Lesley J. Walker (London: Routledge, 1950): 59-65; Felix Gilbert, "ReviewDiscussion: The Composition of Machiavelli's Discorsi," Journal of the History of Ideas 14 (1953): 136156; and J.H. Whitfield, "Gilbert, Hexter and Baron" in Whitfield's Discourses on Machiavelli (Cambridge, Heffer, 1969): 181-206. 211 J.H. Whitfield, 'Machiavelli and the Problem of the Prince' in Discourses on Machiavelli (Cambridge, Heffer, 1969): 17-35. Maurizio Viroli, From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquisition and Transformation of the Language of Politics. 1250-1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992): Machiavelli Vol. 1. 128-133. The 'Secular Patria' 50 because, Maurizio Viroli argued, the Discorsi least in one cannot speak of republican values, at Florence, without having sixteenth century underpinned its one vocabulary21. Patria on the other hand might suggest, greater continuity to them. recourse to appears For this the words which in both works, providing, reason, we examine the term and its derivatives in the Discorsi in relation to the from which it Discorsi the as was drawn in order to see This he did in II Principe. Before condita, one a may help one to investigation into Machiavelli's appropriation, Livy. It is not within the in sources or scope use understand and perhaps reconcile may help to illustrate that for the Discorsi to Livy's Ah nrhe examples from Livy appears are original22. At this point, it re-appropriation of the given terms differs from that of of this Chapter feasible to list every occurrence occurrence. of patria Therefore, representative cited in the text below while the complete list of these in the Appendix to this Chapter. The first ten books of Livy's history are 159,656 words in length, somewhat longer than Machiavelli's commentary (118,693 words). Livy's ten Books thus: Book I, may of the term patria in order to illustrate how, if at all, Livy's first ten books due to the frequency of its occurrences in the important reference to Polybius's history of Rome must be examined, useful to proceed to Livy's Machiavelli's materials plan for Italian unification. though, perforce in translation rather than the Greek prove source whether Machiavelli secularised patria differing views of II Principe and the Discorsi and in turn it Machiavelli had shall continue to are divided sixty capita; Book II, forty-five; Book III, seventy-two capita; Book IV, sixty-one; Book V, fifty-five capita; Book VI, forty-two capita; Book VII, forty-two Viroli, Reason of State: 128-133. And for a more expansive treatment of the Viroli, Machiavelli (Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1998): 148.174. 22 The author does not possess a working knowledge of the Greek language. same subject see, Maurizo The 'Secular Patria' 51 capita; Book VIII, forty capita; Book IX, forty-six capita; and Book X, forty-eight One will find patria and its capita. exception of Book X, which has term terms, fifteen times. or Book II these terms occur contains these terms synonymous none. These are In Book I derivatives in each book with the on the other hand one will find this distributed in six of the book's sixty capita. In thirteen times in five of the book's eight times, and they are forty-five capita. Book III distributed in five out of seventy-two capita. The frequency of occurrence continues to decline in Book IV, with only six uses in three of The low ebb of Book IV is followed by Book V which sixty-one capita. contains the highest rate of occurrence; capita. Book VI once again has Book IV; thirteen six occurrences, occurrences other hand contains rather seven references to patria are uses in similar to that of Book VII contains or a on the related term in four of the book's will find these terms used nine times; distributed in no reference to any of these terms. These drawn from the Appendix to this Chapter which provides context to each of the terms in and its one forty-six capita. Book X contains dry statistics occurrence, distributed in four of forty-two capita. Book VIII forty capita. Finally, in Book IX, three out of low frequency of distributed in three of forty-two capita. of patria only a very thirty-one times distributed in six of fifty-five Livy's history. What follows is a variety of examples of patria Livy, particularly those which relate it to religion. civibus in patria posse: ut relinquant patriam atque subacturam, et T. Sicinium — is enim ex tribunis plebis rogationis eius lator erat — conditorem Veios sequantur, relicto deo Romulo, dei filio, parente et auctore urbis Romae. [Liber V. Caput 24.1 I ]2\ 5. Postremo se relinqui cives nullam vim unquam a Titus Livy, Ab urbe condita Vol. III. trans. B O. Foster (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 7th edn., 1996). V. 24.11., pp. 84-85. 'In fine, it was conceivable that they should be left behind in their native city by their fellow Romans; but to forsake their country and their fellow-citizens no violence should ever force them; they had no mind to follow Titus Sicinius - the tribune of the plebs who had proposed the bill 23 The 'Secular Patria' 52 ...sed nefas ducere desertam 6. ac relictam ab dis immortalibus incoli urbem, et captivo solo habitare populum Romanum et victrice patria victam mutari. [Liber V. Caput 30.3]24. in In both of these examples, Livy linked the patria with religion. reaffirmed the divinity of Rome's founder, Romulus how the These condita. while in the latter Livy recounted gods withdrew their support from the Romans for their admiration and use of the term, a a brief time, hoping to regain distillation of patria in Livy's Ab urbe careful reading of the Appendix often associated with those who act either for or to indicate that Cicero's definitions of patria term to religion and Livy's definitions are Machiavelli differed from both in his secular which linked, similar. This single confirm, is most This may or subordinated this also illustrate that interpretation of patria. was purposely set aside until this occurrence appears to link patria with religion in interesting reference to patria in the Discorsi point in the discussion. may against their patria. These examples seem An a praise. examples from Livy provide Livy's In the former, he Machiavelli's Discorsi. considerassono come la religione ci permette la esaltazione e la difesa vedrebbono come la vuole che noi l'amiamo ed onoriamo, e prepariamoci a essere tali che noi la possiamo difendere. [Libro II. 2.2]2:>. Perche, se della patria, How shall we deal with this influences in Machiavelli? example? Is it an aberration Maurizio Viroli or a symptom of larger religious certainly thought the latter to be true. Referring to the quotation cited above, Viroli wrote, 'while the political writings of the as their founder, abandoning the god Romulus, the son of a god, the Father and Author of the city'. "4 Livy, Ab urbe. V. 30.3., pp. 106-107. 'But he thought it an offence against Heaven that a city deserted and forsaken by the immortal gods should be inhabited, and that the Roman People should dwell on conquered soil, exchanging their victorious City for a vanquished one'. "5 Discorsi. 1999. II. 2.2., p. 299. Discourses. 1950. II. 2.2 (II. 2.7. in Walker), p. 364. 'For, had they born in mind that religion permits us to exalt and defend the fatherland, they would have seen that it also wishes us to love and honour it, and to train ourselves to be such that we may defend it'. to Veii, Roman The 'Secular Patria' 53 scholastics were his favourite reading and he rarely went to church, even recognised the existence of Machiavelli themes not among lived'26. usually viewed In another of his works, Viroli mentions that in Florence, religion was on as an itinerant supporter was VI. point we shall examine of religion, 56, which Machiavelli used Polybius, Roman over a religions had those in power a . Guardedly, it secular in nature. one may prove appears to confirm Rather than present might suggest that the above and those who would dare follow it deserve the title, illustrate this 27 the former point, for the latter hypothesis that Machiavelli's patria Machiavelli Christian patriotism in which the Roman subordinate to, and separate from politics as interesting to take issue with Viroli the a passage 'Machiavellian'28. cited In order to portion of Polybius's Histories, particularly Book as a source for Discorsi I. 12. millennium before Machiavelli's birth, dared to suggest that the no basis in fact or reality; in order to control those who on the contrary, they were not; instilling in the were created by masses a fear not only of temporal punishment for the breaking of laws, but of eternal damnation that would follow. always fickle, filled with lawless desires, unreasoning anger passions, they can only be restrained by mysterious terrors or other dramatizations of the subject. For this reason I believe that the ancients were by no means acting foolishly or haphazardly when they introduced to the people various notions concerning the gods and belief in the punishment of Hades, but rather that the moderns are foolish and take great risks in rejecting them29 But as the masses are and violent "6 Maurizio 80-81. 27 Viroli, Republicanism trans. Antony Shugaar (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002), Maurizio Viroli, Machiavelli (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 166. another distinctive theme of Florentine patriotism - namely, comes before our obligations to the Church's commands'. the idea that our pp. '[Machiavelli] reiterates obligation to our country Religion", in Federico Chabod, Machiavelli and the Renaissance trans. David (London: Bowes and Bowes, 1958): 93-94. 29 Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire (Selections), trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert (London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1979), VI. 56., p. 349. See "Machiavelli and Moore The 'Secular Patria' 54 The selection from Discorsi I. 12, Polybius, makes Machiavelli one think once cited above, read in light of this passage from again of the temporary union of Rome and Florence. Is referring to the papal sanction under which Lorenzo would operate in order to liberate and unify Italy? Did he want Lorenzo to operate under the cloak of religion? With those questions still fresh, Francesco Guicciardini. Machiavelli's one may turn 30 to a contemporary of Machiavelli's, What, if anything, did he have to say about patria, religion and proposals for a liberated and united Italy? III. Patria in Guicciardini's Considerazioni Guicciardini's friendship with Machiavelli provides some of the most memorable literary exchanges of the cinquecento. Through letters the two would meet and discuss topics varied as end. Having made crucial errors leading up to After writing of histories '2. Might one political life came to a bitter the sack of Rome and having lost his governorship of the Romagna, Guicciardini retreated, for 30 day31. playwriting and the challenges facing the Italy of their Machiavelli's death, and the sack of Rome, Guicciardini's as a time, into the study and be tempted to ask whether the 'unified Romagna' which advocacy of such a practice, see Principe. 1999. 83. Discussed below. Twenty-seven of their letters survive. These span a time beginning on 17 May 1521 and ending on 12 November 1526. The best complete edition of Machiavelli's correspondence was compiled and edited by Franco Gaeta. See hts Niccolo Machiavelli, Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli. Volume Terzo. Lettere A cura di Franco Gaeta (Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice, 1984). Giorgio Inglese's edtion, though limited in the letters it contains is also good. See Niccolo Machiavelli, Lettere a Frencesco Vettori e a Francesco Guicciardini A cura di Giorgio Inglese (Milano: R.C.S. Libri & Grandi Opere, 1996). 32 Felix Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965): 274-275. 'At the time of the great crisis of Guicciardini's life, after the Sacco di Roma and the liberation of Florence from the Medici rule, when he did not have position or influence with either the Pope or the Florentines, he imagined that he might be called before the 31 For Machiavelli's which had been established by the Florentines to .judge the enemies of the republic'. According to Gilbert Guicciardini overestimated his own importance in Florence; see note 12 on p. 275 in Gilbert's work. Citing Roberto Ridolfi, Gilbert noted that, 'In 1530, Guicciardini was called mto the court, and, in absentia condemned'. See Roberto Ridolfi, : Vita di Niccolo Machiavelli (Roma: A. Belardetti, 1954): 332 court ff. The 'Secular Patria' 55 Machiavelli lauded in 11 Principe and which Guicciardini governed had, in reality, just after Cesare Borgia's returned to its lawless roots death?33 Perhaps this personal experience with the brigands of the Romagna tainted Guicciardini's assessment of Machiavelli's political theory with a hint of bitterness? This may prove to be the case. As they 1528, for example, he produced a commentary on Machiavelli's Discorsi. provide a first-hand account of Guicciardini's opinions, untainted by the thought of bringing offence to his friend, we shall examine how patria and religion therein, and what, if anything, Guicciardini had to unification. information But before say are viewed about Italian liberation and progressing to this, it will be helpful to provide statistical regarding the Considerazioni. Guicciardini's commentary on words in In Machiavelli's Discorsi is length34. Rather than provide a comment or a short work, 19,375 critique of each of Machiavelli's Discorsi, Guicciardini selected thirty-nine discourses on which to pass judgement. For example, he commented twenty-eight out of the sixty Chapters of Machiavelli's first on book; eight out of thirty three from book two; and only three of forty-nine in the final book of the Discorsi. So, it exhaustive commentary on may appears that Guicciardini did not have in mind to write an his recently deceased friend's Discorsi. On the contrary, it be that he selected certain chapters for specific reasons. In particular, one might suggest, Guicciardini sought to undermine Machiavelli's arguments relating to Italian unification and liberation by a dictatorial lawgiver. Guicciardini's use of patria appears John Larner, Lords of the Romagna (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1965). Larner's work provides an excellent history of the Romanga's troubles and internal conflicts. 4 Sydney Anglo, "Machiavelli as a Military Authority. Some Early Sources", in Florence and Italy; Renaissance Studies in Honour of Nicolai Rubinstein eds. Peter Denley and Caroline Elam (London: Committee for Medieval Studies, Westfield College, 1988): 321-334. See p. 328 where Anglo discusses Guicciardini's Condsiderazioni as a 'commentary' on Machiavelh's Discorsi. The 'Secular Patria' 56 to bear this out. Patria appears chapters. All of these are sufficient to illustrate the in the Considerazioni eight times and in only three of its listed in the Appendix to this Chapter. Three examples may be point at hand. lo autore confonde gli esempli, bisogna la tirannide nella patria libera abbia tale necessita di farlo, o, se ha necessita, che sia causata sanza colpa sua, talmente che gli resti colore alcuno di giustificazione. [Libro I. Capitolo 10. Capoverso l]3 1. Ma perche e' casi considerare che rare sono volte vari, occorre e che chi occupa . quale caso sarebbe molto laudabile chi preponessi l'amore della patria alia particulare; ma perche questo amore o questa fortezza si desidera negli uomini piu presto che la si truovi, merita essere assai scusato chi e mosso da tale cagione, e tanto piu se el governo contro al quale va e disordinato, perche molte sono chiamate spesso liberta che non sono. [Libro I. Capitolo 10. Capoverso l]36. 2. Nel salute sua questi si truova pochissimi, o forse nessuno, che sanza necessita l'abbino lasciata; ne e maraviglia, perche chi e nutrito in una tirannide non ha occhi da cognoscere quella gloria che si acquista di mettere la patria in liberta, ne considera questo caso con quello gusto che fanno gli uomini privati, perche, assuefatto a quello modo di vivere, giudica che el sommo bene sia nella potenzia, e non cognoscendo el frutto di quella gloria, nessuna altra ragione gli pud persuadere a lasciare la tirannide. [Libro I. Capitolo 10. Capoverso 2.]37 6. These examples from Guicciardini's Considerazioni 'verita 35 Di effettuale', where Machiavelli Considerazioni. 1.10., p. 19. was For translation may indicate that he understood the deluded. According to Guicciardini, the very see Francesco Guicciardini, Considerations in, The Sweetness of Power: Machiavelli's 'Discourses' and Guicciardini's "Considerations' trans. James B. Atkinson and David Sices (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002), p. 401. 'But because cases vary and the author mixes examples together, we must consider that it rarely happens that a man who seizes tyrannical power in a free country does so out of such need; if he does, it is rare for him not to have some responsibility for it, so he remains tinged with some sort of justification'. (Abbreviated hereafter as Guicciardini, Considerations.) 36 Considerazioni. 1.10., p. 19. And Considerations. 1:10., p. 401. 'In this case anyone who put love of country before his personal safety would be worthy of great praise. But because this love or strength is more often wished for than to be found in men, one can readily excuse someone who is inspired by such a motive; the more so if the government he opposes is disorganized, because many things called freedom often 7 are not'. Considerazioni. 1.10., 20. have relinquished a tyranny And Considerations. 1.10., p. 402. 'There are very few, perhaps none, who without being forced to, nor is that surprising, since a man who is brought up under tyranny has no eyes to recognize what glory can be gained by liberating one's native land. Fie does not consider the possibility with the same enthusiasm as private citizens because, accustomed to that way of life, he judges that the highest good lies in power; because he is unaware of the fruits of glory, no other reason can convince him to renounce tyranny'. The 'Secular Patria' 57 idea that a dictatorial than wishful in his lawgiver would resign his office after unification thinking. It imagination, not as seems they that Machiavelli were was was speaking about things in reality and Guicciardini was not little as more they were about to let him get away with it. That said, however, Guicciardini's thereof. use of patria is not altogether different from surprising in that Guicciardini's work is Machiavelli's use This is not commentary. One will find similar adjectives and modifiers used in conjunction with a patria in Guicciardini and in Machiavelli's Discorsi. 'Rovina' (1, 3, 4, 5, 8) and words and phrases which amount to 'ruin' (i.e. 'occupa la tirannide nella patria'' to cite example); 'liberta' (6, 7), 'amore della patria' (2) discussed in the are all present in the Discorsi and previous Chapter [All numbers correspond to Appendix One]. however, the similarities between Machiavelli and Guicciardini We suggest that Guicciardini Machiavelli's was come to an to end. powers, even as was unifying prince and taking into consideration 'amore patria', Guicciardini thought laughable. If one keeps this thought in mind and turns Guicciardini's comments may Here, familiar with, and indeed recognised impossibly impractical in reality. The thought of Lorenzo acting della were plan for Italian liberation and unification, but that he thought it magnanimously laying aside his dictatorial one on Book I, Chapter Twelve of Machiavelli's Discorsi, one find this developed by Guicciardini. Non si pud dire tanto male della corte romana che non meriti se ne dica piu, perche e una infamia, uno esemplo di tutti e' vituperi ed obbrobri del mondo. Ed anche credo sia vero che la grandezza della Chiesa, cioe la autorita che gli ha data la religione, sia stata causa che Italia non sia caduta in una monarchia; perche da uno canto ha avuto tanto credito che ha potuto farsi capo, e convocare quando e bisognato principi esterni contro a chi era per opprimere Italia, da altro essendo spogliata di arme proprie, non ha avuto tante forze che abbia potuto stabilire dominio temporale, altro che quello che volontariamente gli e stato dato da altri. The 'Secular Patria' 58 infelicita di glorioso al nome di Italia e felicita a quella citta che dominassi, era all'altre tutte calamita, perche oppresse dalla ombra di quella, non avevano faculta di pervenire a grandezza alcuna, essendo el costume delle republiche non participare e' frutti della sua liberta ed imperio a altri che a' suoi cittadini propri38. Ma non so gia se el non venire in una monarchia sia stata felicita o questa provincia, perche se sotto una republica questo poteva essere Even in Guicciardini of a one finds the transition from republic ('republiche'). Guicciardini, the thought of a simply not possible in reality. light the on the hypothesis which However, as unifying prince a single ruler ('una monarchia') to that the quotations above illustrated, for or dictator laying down his arms was His assessment of Machiavelli, though stinging, sheds we are seeking to demonstrate - Machiavelli believed that special occasione which linked the interests of Florence and Rome could see Italy liberated and united Guicciardini's sentiments have much in [above, Chapter One], Nevertheless perhaps naively - idealist who with Peter Laven's arguments seek to illustrate that Machiavelli believed that his plan for unification would work. By able to view Machiavelli in an one can common clung so a different so doing, one light. The picture that is beginning to desperately to the idea of an might be emerge ennobled Florence and - a is of united Italy, that he became blind to the impracticalities of his goals. This naivete has, for the most ~'8 part, gone unnoticed, with the majority of scholars seeking to uncover in Considerazioni. 1.12., pp. 22-23. And Considerations. 1.12., p. 404. 'It is impossible to speak so much ill of the papal court that it does not deserve worse: it is a disgrace, an example of all the ignominy and opprobrium in the world. And I also believe that the Church's greatness that is, the power that religion has given it, has been the reason why Italy has not fallen into a monarchy, because on the one hand it has had such influence that it has been able to become the leader and summon foreign princes when necessary against those who were going to attack Italy, and on the other hand, since the Church lacked its own armies, it did not have enough forces to enable it to establish temporal dominion aside from what others were willing to grant it. But I do not really know whether Italy's not coming under a monarchy has be fortunate or unfortunate for this land. For if this might have brought glory to the name of Italy and fortune to the city that dominated, it would have been disastrous for all the others; oppressed by the shadow of one, they would have had no means of achieving any greatness whatever, since it is the custom of republics not to share the fruits of their freedom and power with any but their own citizens'. The 'Secular Patria' 59 Machiavelli the first glimpse of modern political realism. That is not to Machiavelli's ideas do not contain for excuses say that Niccolo tantalising hints of such realism and its shocking immorality for which he has been much maligned. Indeed, by the very same token, the political necessity in Machiavelli's plan for Italian unification would cause the princely unifier to reject all morality for the sake of the common good - the liberation and unification of Italy. IV. Necessita and the Secular Patria In Machiavelli's concept Discorsi new of political necessity, which is at the heart of II Principe and the both, Christian and pagan morality are left by the wayside to be replaced by type of morality that focuses completely on the maintenance of the common good and thus, the patria39. must be considered a Machiavelli used the In Machiavelli's new morality, political good and therefore a any action that benefits the patria political necessity. In II Principe, examples of two Spaniards, Ferdinand of Aragon and Cesare Borgia, to illustrate his concept of political necessity. Both secular goal - political unification40. Ferdinand used the Spain swiftly and mercilessly. Borgia's unification father, Pope Alexander VI Ferdinand's unification of - - men used religion to attain a 'cloak of religion' to unify with the financial backing of his of the Romagna cannot be compared in scale with Spain, but because the goals and outcomes were identical, and Machiavelli admired their successes, both must be examined. While the Discorsi 39 a provide Viroli, Machiavelli. 156. Viroli states, 'we can see that he [Machiavelli] endorsed and kept alive some of important features of the conventional language of patriotism, particularly the interpretation of love of country as a charitable love of the common good of the republic'. Also see by the same author, Love of Country. 19 for a discussion of the historical precedents that linked the common good and the patria. 40 See Chapters 21 and 7 of'11 Principe' for a description ofFerdinand's and Cesare's actions. the The 'Secular Patria' 60 an excellent example of Machiavelli's belief in political necessity, drained of all forms of necessary, in order to lay the foundations for the discussion of the Discorsi, which conclude this Chapter, to examine political necessity in II religious consideration. It is Principe. Any deed that benefits the patria Ferdinand of can be judged to be good, as the examples of Aragon and Cesare Borgia in II Principe indicate. Concerning Ferdinand, Machiavelli wrote: principe, quanto fanno le grandi imprese e il esempli. Noi abbiamo ne' nostri tempi Ferrando d'Aragona, presente re di Spagna. Costui si pud chiamare quasi principe nuovo, perche d'uno re debole e diventato per fama e per gloria el primo re de' Cristiani; e, se considerrete le azioni sue, le troverrete tutte grandissime e qualcuna estraodinaria. Lui nel principio del suo regno assalto la Granata; e quella impresa fu el fondamento dello stato suo. Prima, e' la fece ozioso, e sanza sospetto di essere impedito: tenne occupati in quella li animi di quelli baroni di Castiglia, li quali, pensando a quella guerra, non pensavano ad innovare; e lui acquistava in quel mezzo riputazione et imperio sopra di loro, che non se ne accorgevano. Posse nutrire con danari della Chiesa e de' popoli eserciti, e fare un fondamento con quella guerra lunga alia milizia sua, la quale lo ha di poi onorato. Oltre a questo, per possere intraprendere maggiori imprese, servendosi sempre della relligione, si volse ad una pietosa crudelta, cacciando e spogliando el suo regno de' Marrani; ne puo esser questo esemplo piu mirabile ne piu raro. Assalto sotto questo medesimo mantello l'Alfica; fece l'impresa di Italia; ha ultimamente assaltato la Francia; e cosi sempre fa fatte et ordite cose grandi, le quali sempre hanno tenuto sospesi et ammirati li animi de'sudditi, et occupati nello evento di esse. E sono nate queste sue azioni in modo l'una dall'altra, che non ha dato mai, infra l'una e Faltra, spazio alii uomini di potere quietamente operarli contro41. Nessuna dare di 41 cosa se fa tanto stimare un rari Principe. 1999. 83. For translation see Prince. 1995. 70. 'Nothing brings a prince more prestige than great campaigns and striking demonstrations of his personal abilities. In our own time we have Ferdinand of Aragon, the present king of Spain. He can be regarded as a new prince, because from being a weak king being, for fame and glory, the king of Christendom. If you study his achievements, you will At the start of his reign he attacked Granada; and this campaign laid the foundation of his power. First, he embarked on it undistracted, and without fear of interference; he used it to engage the energies of the barons of Castile who, as they were giving their minds to the war, had no mind for causing trouble at home. In this way, without their realizing what was happening, he increased his standing and his control over them. He was able to sustain his armies with money from the Church and the people, and, by means of that long war, to lay a good foundation for his standing army, which has subsequently won him renown. In addition, in order to be able to undertake even greater campaigns, still making use of religion, he turned his hand to a pious work of cruelty when he he has risen to find that they were all magnificent and some of them unparalleled. The 'Secular Patria' 61 Do Ferdinand and Cesare provide examples that Machiavelli hoped Lorenzo would imitate? The occasione there to be seized, if was only Lorenzo would ask Pope Leo X to support his drive for unification as the papacy had done in the Spanish reconquista. Ferdinand achieved his often insisted Lorenzo to on its goals he turned on the papacy. not want replace the Roman Church with religious institutions answerable to him Ferdinand had done with the establishment of the Lorenzo to Thereafter, the Spanish monarchy Church42. Machiavelli did independence of the Roman After remove of the patria seems that he wanted religion from politics and thus the patria altogether. The protection and bringing honour to it formed the centrepiece of Machiavelli's notion of He knew that in order to unite Florence and Italy, Lorenzo would political necessity. have to act in Inquisition. It as a manner Perche elli e that went against Christian and pagan morality. He wrote: tanto discosto da come si vive a come si doverrebbe vivere, che colui quello che si fa per quello che si doverrebbe fare, impara piu tosto la preservazione sua: perche uno uomo, che voglia fare in tutte le parte professione di buono, conviene rovini infra tanti che non sono buoni. Onde e necessario a uno principe, volendosi mantenere, imparare a potere essere non buono, et usarlo e non usare secondo la necessita43. che lascia ruina che la and Et io so che ciascuno confessera che sarebbe laudabilissima trovarsi di tutte le chased soprascritte qualita, quelle che sono principe tenute buone: ma, perche cosa uno out the [Marranos] and rid his kingdom of them: there could not have been a more pitiful or striking enterprise. Under the same cloak of religion he assaulted Africa; he started his campaign in Italy; he has recently attacked France. Thus he has always planned and completed great projects, which have always kept his subjects in a state of wander, and intent on their outcome. And his moves have followed closely upon one another in such a way that he has never allowed time and opportunity in between times for people to plot quietly against them'. Bull's edition read 'Moriscos', which is not as accurate as Codevilla's translation. See Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. Angelo M. Codevilla (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 81, n. 361. 'Marranos means pigs. Ferdinand rid himself of those who would not eat pig, that is, of the Muslims and Jews. These were the subjects of his 'pious cruelty'. J" Garrett Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy (New York: Dover, 1988): 119-124. There, Mattingly provides background to Ferdinand's diplomatic and military successes. 11 Principe. 1999: 60-61. For translation see Prince. 1995. 48. 'The gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done learns the way to self-destruction rather than self-preservation. The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. Therefore if a prince wants to maintain his rule he must learn how not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need'. The 'Secular Patria' 62 non interamente osservare, per le condizioni umane che non li e necessario essere tanto prudente, che sappia fuggire Tinfamia torrebbano lo stato, e da quelle che non gnene tolgano guardarsi, possibile; ma non possendo, vi si pub con meno respetto lasciare andare44. si possono avere, ne lo consentono, di quelle che li se The elli course e of action that Machiavelli proposes for the new prince in the quotations above, mirrors the actions of Cesare Borgia. Borgia united the Romagna with the money his father43. his political considerations. The Church had was After he achieved and prestige of Pope Alexander VI - unification, Cesare completely removed the Church from replaced by political necessity as the no means place in Cesare's united Romagna. It of promoting the common good as the example of Remirro de' Oreo illustrates. Machiavelli wrote: E, perche conosceva le rigorosita passate averli generate qualche odio, per li animi di quelli populi e guadagnarseli in tutto, voile monstrare che, se crudelta alcuna era seguita, non era nata da lui, ma dalla acerba natura del ministro. E, presa sopr'a questa occasione, lo fece mettere una mattina, a Cesena, in dua pezzi in sulla piazza, con uno pezzo di legno et uno coltello sanguinoso a purgare canto46. Machiavelli went on to write that, 'non saprei reprenderlo' despite all of his brutality; Borgia's understanding of political necessity brought about his rise to importantly the unification of the 44 power and more Romagna47. These famous examples from II Principe Principe. 1999. 61. And Prince. 1995. 49. 'I know everyone will agree that it would be most laudable if prince possessed all the qualities deemed to be good among those I have enumerated. But, because of conditions in the world, princes cannot have those qualities, or observe them completely. So a prince has of necessity to be so prudent that he knows how to escape the evil reputation attached to those vices which could lose him his state, and how to avoid those vices which are not so dangerous, if he can; but, if he cannot, he need not worry so much about the latter'. 45 Gennaro Sasso, Machiavelli e Cesare Boraia: Storia di un giudizio (Roma: Edizioni dell'Anteneo, 1966). This book is a compilation of Sasso's work on Borgia and Machiavelli. It provides a good all-round history and context to Borgia, Machiavelli and the Romanga. 46 Principe. 1999. 35. For translation see Prince. 1995: 23-24. 'Knowing that the severities of the past [necessities of unification] had earned him [Cesare] a certain amount of hatred, to purge the minds of the people and to win them over completely he determined to show them that if cruelties had been inflicted they were not his doing but prompted by the harsh nature of his minister. This gave Cesare the pretext; then, one morning, Remirro's body [Cesare's minister] was found cut in two pieces on the piazza at Cesena, with a block of wood and a bloody knife beside it'. 47 Principe. 1999. 37. And Prince. 1995. 25. 'I cannot possibly censure him'. a The 'Secular Patria' 63 contain Machiavelli's explicit advice for the new Is there similar advice to be prince. found in the Discorsil Vickie B. definitions of political harshness of his adding it Sullivan 'Come e a uno necessity therein, Machiavelli 'suggests there is teaching'4*. Sullivan's study is secular notion of worth recently wrote that in Machiavelli's Discorsi and the Sullivan a for the measured analysis of Machiavelli's politics. However, patria does not play as a new an excuse role in her study and it is a dimension49. intently focuses on Book Three, Chapter Twelve of the Discorsi entitled capitano prudente debbe imporre ogni necessita di combattere a' suoi soldati, quegli degli inimici, tori a00. She notes that Machiavelli 'entirely ignores the divine realm'51. Necessity, as detailed by Machiavelli and expanded upon by Sullivan, in Book Three, Chapter Twelve of the Discorsi, is the necessity not only of brutal warfare, but also the condition of constant offensive. preparedness that enables an army Only in preparedness, brutality and strength does keeping himself alive. Patriotic sentiment, in the Discorsi as a instantly to take the soldier have the chance of in the closing Chapter of II Principe enables and intensifies selflessness and heroism in warfare. One this scenario and place the occasion, brutality, Machiavelli is not are same form of necessity on can juxtapose the patria. Preparedness and political necessities that enable the patria to survive. calling for a consistently bloodthirsty citizenry, but a on Yet, citizenry that is willing to die to protect its patria. 48 Vickie B. Sullivan, Machiavelli's Three Romes: Religion. Human Liberty, and Politics Reformed. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996), 190. 49 Ibid: 181-190, 'Machiavelli's Praise of Necessity'. 50 Discourses. 1999. HI. 12. p. 502. For translation see Discourses. 1950. III. 12., p. 505. 'That a Prudent General should make it absolutely necessary for his own Troops to fight, but should avoid forcing the enemy to do so'. 51 Sullivan, Three Romes. 188. The 'Secular Patria' 64 Military preparedness is necessary when the survival Machiavelli's that or a constant in Machiavelli's theory, yet brutality is only the unification of the patria is in question. Therefore, political necessity is strictly bound by political morality; moral in the sense 'good' is that which benefits the patria and 'evil' is that which brings harm to it. So, Machiavelli sets up a distinct contrast between that which is perceived in Christian and pagan morality and that which is 'good' or as 'good' or 'evil' 'evil' in his concept of political necessity. prudente ordinatore d'una republica, e che abbia questo animo di volere al bene commune, non alia sua propria successione ma alia commune patria, debbe ingegnarsi di avere l'autorita solo; ne mai uno ingegno savio riprendera alcuno di alcuna azione straordinaria che per ordinare un regno o 52 constitute una republica usasse Pero uno giovare non a se ma . Political necessity in Machiavelli's political works requires straordinaria' but it does not thirst for the Machiavelli's require a a certain measure of 'azione thirst for blood3'. On the contrary, it requires security and prosperity offered by a a unified secular patria. Paradoxically, prince needed to accept the necessity of brutality to achieve peace. The question that needs to be addressed at this point is, why did Machiavelli hope that Lorenzo, after unification, would completely remove the church from the political arena? The answer Machiavelli provides is as follows: adunque stata la Chiesa potente da potere occupare la Italia, ne che un altro la occupi, e stata cagione che la non e potuta venire sotto uno capo, ma e stata sotto piu principe e signori, da' quali e nata tanta disunione e tanta debolezza che la si e condotta a essere stata preda, non Non essendo avendo permesso Discorsi- 1999. I. 9.2., p. 86. For translation see Discourses. 1950. I. 9.2., p. 234. 'Wherefore the prudent organizer of a state whose intention it is to govern not in his own interests but for the common good, and not in the interest of his successors but for the sake of that fatherland which is common to all, should contrive to be alone in his authority. Nor will any reasonable man blame him for taking any action, however extraordinary, which may be of service in the organizing of a kingdom or republic'. 53 See Chapter 8 of'11 Principe'. The 'Secular Patria' 65 potenti, la Chiesa, solamente de' barbari abbiamo This passage, Principe, obligo perhaps sums up an di qualunque Tassalta. Di che noi altri Italiani altri54. intensification of similar sentiment set out in Chapter of XI of II was the root had not only refused to popes ma e non con Machiavelli's view of the mingly of politics and religion. mixture, he argued, and con cause cease Such a of Italy's disunion and despair because successive meddling in the secular world, but had invited looting plundering hordes and invasion after invasion according to Machiavelli, politically as well as across the Alps. The papacy was, geographically responsible for the division of Italy. Garrett causes Mattingly's classic survey of Machiavelli's distaste for the papacy as pursuit of his ambitions, to employ the left of Renaissance diplomacy, summed arms follows: 'each the contradiction in the root compelled, in pope was of foreigners against Italians, Italy weaker than he found it'. Echoing Guicciardini, Mattingly went up so that each on to papal politics, for each, while working with foreign describe powers, was simultaneously struggling to keep the central papal states free from foreign control. The referred to popes 1521). are Alexander VI (1492-1503), Julius II (1503-1513), and Leo X (1513- Machiavelli admired all of them to cleverness, military strength, the barbarians. or a varying degree, due to their political because they offered a chance for Italy to be freed from Yet, he hated them precisely for these same reasons, because they, working like instruments of the barbarians, allowed Italy to be further shattered. these 54 sought to extend the temporal power of their own office. The Discorsi- 1999. I. 12.8., p. 97. And Discourses. 1950. I. 12.8., pp. 245-246. papacy All did nothing 'The Church, then, has the whole of Italy, nor has it allowed anyone else to occupy it. Consequently, it has been the cause why Italy has never come under one head, but has been under many princes and signori, by whom such disunion and such weakness has been brought about, that it has now become the prey, not only of barbarian potentates, but of anyone who attacks it'. neither been able to occupy The 'Secular Patria' 66 for the good of Italy. This concept of the instrument of foreign papacy as an power is a key concept that must be discussed33. The early sixteenth century popes, all to a varying degree, worked with the foreign occupiers, Spain and France; sometimes with made the office office in an 'evil' cohort of the barbarian, yet Italy capable of maintaining a one or with both. it also made the papacy once the only balance of power in the peninsula. Machiavelli, realizing the opportunity this presented for freeing Italy, seized Lorenzo and This at upon both notions. Leo, working in tandem, mirroring Cesare Borgia and Alexander VI, could bring about successful Italian unification centred at Florence. In II Principe Machiavelli summed up the successes and failures of Alexander and his Con lo instrumento del duca Valentino son as follows: de' che io discorsi di sopra nelle azioni del duca. E, benche l'intento suo non fussi fare grande la Chiesa, ma il duca, non di meno cio che fece torno a grandezza della Chiesa; la quale dope la sua morte, spento el duca, fii erede delle sue fatiche56. Franzesi, tutte quelle e con la occasione della passata cose Why would Machiavelli take the time to detail the successes and the also the failures of Cesare and Alexander? Did he want to instruct Lorenzo and Leo how to avoid the same V. From mistakes while at the same time far repeating surpassing the Borgia's successes? Dictatorship to Republic? Theory and Practice Scrutiny of Machiavelli's republican political theory may help one to understand the significance of the transitionary phase, from principality to republic, within Machiavelli's 55 5<> Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy. 142. Principe, 1999. 49. For translation invasion of the French see Prince. 1995. 37. 'With Duke Valentino as his instrument and the occasion, he brought about all those things 1 discussed above regarding the duke's activities. Although his [Alexander's] aim was the aggrandizement of the duke, not of the Church, none the less what he did increased the greatness of the Church; and after his death, when the duke had been destroyed, the Church inherited the fruits of his labours'. as his The 'Secular Patria' 67 political theory for Italian unification. overall investigation may previously that the him to renounce help to new his new token, such line of a It has been argued prince's obligations to it, would position, thereby returning political a same the questions asked above. Italian patria, and the citizenry. In theory, such and answer By the power cause to a new, unified Italian plan sounds plausible, particularly in light of the persuasive stirring rhetoric in which Machiavelli couched his theory: mandi qualcuno che la redima da queste crudelta ancora tutta pronta e disposta a seguire una bandiera, pur che ci sia uno che la pigli. Ne ci si vede al presente in quale lei possa piu sperare che nella illustre casa vostra, quale con la sua fortuna e virtu, favorita da Dio e dalla Chiesa, della quale e ora principe, possa farsi capo di questa redenzione. II che non fia molto difficile, se vi recherete innanzi le azioni la prega Dio che le et insolenzie barbare. Vedesi Vedesi e come vita dei soprannominati57. Clearly, Machiavelli tried to draw attention to the Florentine/Church link in the Such a union, and the occasione it represented, would necessitate Florentine and Church interests for the purpose in his theory, Machiavelli makes no a temporary passage. melding of of unification. However, after unification mention of a united church and patria. On the contrary, there is evidence in II Principe's epilogue that Machiavelli desired the opposite. Machiavelli, Italian unification For Because, as of a supported by 'iustizia grande', Livy wrote, 'iustum enim est bellum quibus necessarium, et pia nulla nisi in armis spes arms was a cause est'58. Machiavelli's hope united Italian citizen army, was not in the divine but in captained by Lorenzo de' Medici. arma ubi arms] the The special 57 Principe. 1999. 95. And Prince. 1995. 81. See how Italy beseeches God to send someone to save her how eager and willing the country is to follow a banner if only someone will raise it. And at the present time it is impossible to see in what she can place more hope than in you illustrious house, which, with its fortune and prowess, favoured by God and by the Church, of which it is now the head, can lead Italy to her salvation. The task will not be hard, if you will call to mind from those barbarous cruelties and outrages; see the actions and lives of the 58 men 1 have mentioned. Principe. 1999. 95. For translation see Prince. 1995. 81. 'Because where there is hope only in arms, those arms are holy'. a necessary war is a just war and The 'Secular Patria' 68 occasione that existed in Lorenzo and Leo X's familial prestige such a bond offered, the church into his appear to be the only reasons that Machiavelli introduced plan for Italian unification. As the previous Chapter argued, it that Machiavelli wanted Lorenzo's effectively making Lorenzo the Discorsi may a dictator. The specifics of the dictator's role articulated in help further to illustrate the secular nature of Machiavelli's patria and hopelessly idealistic. was appears unificatory push to work in cooperation with Leo X, Lorenzo's role in the unification process, theory bond, along with the wealth and epilogue to II Principe may but it may also illustrate that Machiavelli's The following quotation, when read in light of the demonstrate this: quelli Romani che trovarono in quella citta Dittatore, come cosa che fosse cagione col tempo della tirannide di Roma, allegando come il primo tiranno che fosse in quella citta la comandd sotto questo titolo dittatorio, dicendo che, se non vi fusse stato questo, Cesare non arebbe potuto sotto alcuno titolo publico adonestare la sua tirannide. La quale cosa non fu bene, da colui che tiene questa opinione, esaminata, e fu fuori d'ogni ragione creduta59. E sono stati dannati da alcuno scrittore il modo di Machiavelli creare il clearly viewed the office of dictator the Roman republic: 'perche e' Roma, fu l'autorita ma neither the name nor presa non fu nome ne dai cittadini per beneficial rather than detrimental to il grado del Dittatore che facesse were continued with the discourse dictatorships: Discorsi. 1999. I. 34.1., p. 134. on serva la lunghezza dello imperio' ['For it the rank of the dictator that made Rome servile, but authority of which the citizens 59 as deprived by the length of his was the loss of rule']60. Machiavelli For translation see Discourses. 1950. I. 34.1., p. 289. 'Those Romans responsible for the institution of a dictatorship in Rome are condemned by some Roman writers who find in the dictatorship the cause which eventually led to tyranny in Rome. They point out that the person who became tyrant, had authority there in virtue of his title as dictator, and assert that, if it had not been for this, Caesar would not have succeeded under any other public title in making his tyranny look honest and above board. This case, however, was not well examined by the person who held this view, and the view has been accepted without good ground'. 60 Discorsi. 1999. .1.34.2, pp. 134-135. And Discourses. 1950, 1.34.2, p. 289. who were The 'Secular Patria' 69 Dittatore, mentre fu dato secondo gli ordini publici e non per propria, fece serapre bene alia citta. Perche e' nuocono alle republiche i inagistrati che si fanno e Tautoritadi che si danno per vie istraordinarie, non quelle che vengono per vie ordinarie: come si vede che segui in Roma in tanto processo di tempo, che mai alcuno Dittatore fece se non bene alia republica.61. E si vede che '1 autorita In that the quotation, Machiavelli makes appointed office of dictator. powers, was the patria. a clear distinction between Caesar Machiavelli drew between a the tyrant - and The dictator, while his office possessed extensive bound by his obligation to the rule of law, the The following - passage dictator and may a common good and therefore, help illustrate the inherent differences tyrant. tempo e non in perpetuo, e per owiare solamente a quella cagione mediante la quale era creato; e la sua autorita si estendeva in potere deliberare per se stesso circa i rimedi di quello urgente pericolo, e fare ogni cosa sanza consulta, e punire ciascuno sanza appellagione; ma non poteva fare cosa che fussi in diminuzione dello stato, come sarebbe stato torre autorita al Senato o II Dittatore era fatto a Popolo, disfare gli ordini vecchi della citta e fame de nuovi. In modo che, tempo della sua dittatura e le autorita limitare che egli aveva e il popolo romano non corrotto, era impossibile ch'egli uscisse de' termini suoi e nocessi alia citta; e per esperienza si vede che sempre mai giovo. 62. al raccozzato il breve Again, Machiavelli specifies that the dictator's role is necessary, yet the republic and to his patria: the exact opposite of a tyrant who the common 61 good and the patria for his own limited by duty to spurns the rule of law, selfish interests. The dictator, as a prudent And Discourses. 1950. 1. 34.3., p. 289. 'It is clear that the dictatorship, long as it was bestowed tn accordance with public institutions, and not assumed by the dictator on his own authority, was always of benefit to the state. For it is magistrates that are made and authority that is given in irregular ways that is prejudicial to a republic, not that which is given in the ordinary way, as is clear from the fact that during a very long period in Rome's history, no dictator ever did anything but good to that republic'. 62 Discorsi. 1999. 1.34.5., p. 135. For translation see Discourses. 19950. I. 34.5., p. 290. 'Furthermore, a dictator was appointed for a limited time, and for the purpose of dealing solely with such matters as had led to the appointment. Fie had authority to make what decisions he thought fit in order to meet definite and urgent danger, and to do this without consultation; and anyone he punished had no right of appeal. But he could do nothing to dimmish the constitutional position of the government, as would have been the case if he could have taken away the authority vested in the senate or in the people, or have abolished the ancient institutions of the city and made new ones. Wherefore, in view of the short duration of the dictatorship, of the limited authority which the dictator possessed, and of the fact that the Roman people were not corrupt, it was impossible for the dictator to overstep his terms of reference and to do the state harm. On the contrary, experience has shown that the dictatorship was always useful'. so Discorsi. 1999. I. 34.3., p. 135. The 'Secular Patria' 70 orderer, in stark contrast to the tyrant, acknowledges that the republic are directly linked with the common common good and the patria. Reflecting the Ciceronian tradition from which such sentiment is drawn, Machiavelli wrote63: prudente ordinatore d'una republica, e che abbia questo animo di giovare non a se ma al bene comune, non alia sua propria successione ma alia comune patria, debbe ingegnarsi di avere l'autorita solo; ne mai uno ingegno savio riprendera alcuno di alcuna azione straordinaria che per ordinare un regno o constituire una republica usasse. [Libro I. 9.2]64. 2. Pero imo volere Indeed, Machiavelli clearly separates the true dictator and the tyrant masquerading as dictator. ragioni evidentissime. Prima, perche a volere che un cittadino offendere e pigliarsi autorita istraordinaria, conviene ch'egli abbia molte qualita le quali in una republica non corrotta non pud mai avere: perche gli bisogna esere ricchissimo e avere assai aderenti e partigiani, i quali non puo avere dove le leggi si osservano65. Di che ce ne sono possa This brief passage appears to The fact that this quotation be a concise condemnation of the Medici and of Florence. appears in Machiavelli's discourse on dictators presents a 63 Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis trans. Walter Miller (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997). I. 17.57., pp. 58-61. 'Sed cum omnia ratione animoque lustraris, omnium societatum nulla est gravior, nulla carior quam ea, quae cum re publica est uni cuique nostrum. Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares, sed omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa est, pro qua quis bonus dubitet mortem oppetere, si ei sit profuturus? Quo est detestabilior istorum immanitas, qui lacerarunt omni scelere [patriam] et in ea funditus delenda occupati et sunt et fiierunt'. Ibid. I. 17.57., pp. 58-61. 'But when with a rational spirit you have surveyed the whole field, there is no social relation among them all more close, none more dear than that which links each one of us with our country. Parents are dear; dear are children, relatives, friends; but one native land embraces all our loves; and who that is true would hesitate to give his life for her, if by his death he could render her a service? So much the more execrable are those monsters who have torn their fatherland to pieces with every form of outrage and who are and have been engaged in compassing her utter destruction'. 64 Discorsi- 1999.1. 9.2., p. 86. And Discourses. 1950.1. 9.2., p. 234. 'Wherefore the prudent organizer of a state whose intention it is to govern not in his own interests but for the common good, and not in the interest of his alone in his successors but for the sake of that fatherland which is common to all, should contrive to. be authority. Nor will any reasonable man blame him for taking any action, however extraordinary, which may be of service in the organizing of a kingdom or republic'. This quotation is drawn from The Appendix to Chapter One. 65 Discorsi. 1999, 1.34.4., p. 135. And Discourses. 1950. I. 34.4., pp. 289-290. The reasons for this are obvious. First, if a citizen is to do harm and is to obtain extraordinary authority, he must have many attributes which in a republic that is not corrupt it will be impossible for him to acquire; for he will need to be very rich and to have numerous adherents and partisans, which he cannot have so long as the laws are observed'. The 'Secular Patria' 71 dilemma. How one can reconcile such an secular Italian unification which is based upon Machiavelli painfully was aware machination, which either kept them in admission with Machiavelli's the Medici occasioned of the Medici power or family's penchant for consistently close to it in Florence. Indeed, with their powerful connections and the prestige attached to their Medici to power, came above66. This highlights and unification. each time, in precisely the a theory for manner name, the that Machiavelli described definite problem in Machiavelli's theory for Italian liberation Why would Machiavelli expect Lorenzo to act any differently if he attempted to re-order Florence and then all of Italy? In order to get around this problem, it seems that, naively, Machiavelli reasoned that the bound like every office once citizen to his patria. This would unification was republican government under new cause prince, or orderer, would be him to resign his all-powerful complete allowing for the creation of a a united Italian united 'secular patria\ Conclusion The occasione of a Medici pope and Florentine Capitano provided, according to Machiavelli, the best opportunity for such unification since Cesare Borgia and Alexander VI had unified the Romanga. In light of the epilogue to II Principe and the the Discorsi which deal with the office of the dictator, it seems that Lorenzo and Leo, after unification, would separate See Machiavelli's Florentine Histories, in the in that Machiavelli thought Church and patria. separation, combined with Lorenzo's abdication of dictatorial 66 passages powers Such a would allow for the particularly Book 4, where he described the tumults in Florence early 'quattrocento' that allowed the Medici to gain control of Florence. The 'Secular Patria' 72 creation of a united Italy under 'secular patria' and a diverge. Such The interests of Florence and Rome would separation of Church and patria, creating based 'secular patria,\ the two would flawed. Guicciardini, was republican regime as detailed in Furthermore, with the end of Lorenzo's office, the occasione would end. the Discorsi. genius, a a departure would allow for the religious centred Church and a never again be mixed. a politically This vision, despite its the realist, recognised this, and pulled the ever rug from under his friend's feet. If Lorenzo and Leo achieved such success, Guicciardini nothing that could induce other than force. and the John Hale gave Medici01. When had Florentine government out Never. fact; in II appears more on a Medici later voice to Guicciardini's Medici prince ever - to give up his arms in his Florence concerns willingly given up headship of the have escaped Machiavelli the realist. increasingly to be the idealist whose plans were based hopes than realities. Machiavelli's political vision, Principe and the Discorsi, was not as more on theory made manifest applicable to the context in which it was ultimately illustrate the naivety of his vision, paradoxically, highlights his genius. The might particularly was of goodwill and feelings of duty toward Florence's citizens? formulated. While this may it also a - This time, the 'verita effettuale' appears to Rather, he than unifying prince a argued that there 'modernity' of Machiavelli's theory which separated Church and patria, argue, is a one daring and precocious conceptual experiment in the history of secular nationhood, recognisable to contemporary historians and political scientists, but utterly alien to his contemporaries. unification? Machiavelli's 67 John By what answer was a means was Lorenzo to prosecute Italian citizen army. Here too, his blindness Hale, Florence and the Medici: The Pattern of Control (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977). or The 'Secular Patria' 73 aloofness to present overzealous Italian circumstances in the cinquecento, induced perhaps, by patriotism, led him to theorise about equally recognisable, though thoroughly impractical solutions to Italy's ills. The Chapter Three Secretary and the Citizen Army: Theory and Practice Introduction Building upon the discussions of Chapters One and Two, which illustrated the secularism of Machiavelli's view of patria in II Principe and the Discorsi, and also the impracticality of his plan for unifying Italy under that patria, it examine additional aspects were irreconcilable with demonstrated previously, of that plan. Hans Baron argued that Machiavelli's two works one another due to their an accurate assessment. content1. This is not, as was Rather, II Principe and the Discorsi, majority of their political vocabulary, while different in the helpful to may prove are united by Machiavelli's concept of the 'secular patrial2. One might be tempted to ask, further undermining Hans Baron's assertions, whether the similarities between II Principe and the Discorsi end there. In seeking to answer this question, it Machiavelli's two most famous further provide the it also may In a seems to means shed light on a works, II Principe and the Discorsi, appear to be linked army. indicate that 'the citizen army', in Machiavelli's theory, for Italian liberation and unification under a secular patria; but further short-coming of his political vision. further assertion of Machiavelli's lack of realism, one lost contact with what 1 beneficial to demonstrate that by military considerations and particularly the subject of the citizen Indeed, this continuity would may prove was actually happening on might argue the battlefields of Italy. It that he had seems that Chapter One, note 1. Maurizio Viroli, From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquisition and Transformation of the Language of Politics. 1250-1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992): 128-133 for Viroli's discussion of 2 See political vocabulary. 75 The Citizen Army he developed such an infatuation with the idea of the citizen army and how such an army unify Italy that he became blinded to the practicalities and realities of warfare in could the first quarter guerra, of the cinquecento. This is borne out in the pages of the Arte della written just after the Discorsi. In the Arte Machiavelli argued that a citizen army provided superior defensive and offensive capabilities, but he absurdly discounted the necessity of artillery and gunpowder This the battlefield3. Chapter shall examine Machiavelli's ideas concerned with the citizen Principe, the Discorsi and the Arte, demonstrating in II political works will be are on placed - on and a II Principe; particularly Chapters VII, XII, XIII and XXVI because they military considerations in that book and the groundwork which similar considerations in the Discorsi and Arte are upon based. The chief protagonist in Chapters is Cesare Borgia. His ruthless, secular unification of the Romanga which operated under the guise of Church cooperation, provided new distinct continuity in his further shortcoming of his political vision. The greatest emphasis central to Machiavelli's these a army prince could unify Italy. Borgia's his reliance on a success, blueprint of sorts by which One might suggest that Machiavelli Borgia's example, but on a national scale. The last Chapter of II Principe, read in light of Chapters VII, XII and XIII, which focus Borgia, prove appears to upon demonstrate this point. After the examination of II Principe, it helpful to examine passages a Machiavelli argued, could be traced to citizen army, not mercenary troops. wanted Lorenzo de' Medici to follow a from the Discorsi and the Arte which may are Sydney Anglo, Machiavelli: A Dissection (London: Victor Gollancz, 1969). By the same author see as a Military Authority. Some Early Sources", in Florence and Italy: Renaissance Studies in Honour of Nicolai Rubinstein eds. Peter Denley and Caroline Elam (London: Committee for Medieval Studies, Westfield College, 1988): 321-334. This Chapter will use the following edition of Machiavelli's "Machiavelli treatise. Niccolo Machiavelli, Dell'Arte della guerra in Tutte le cura di Guido Mazzoni e Mario Casella (Firenze: G. Machiavelli A opere Storiche e Letterarie di Niccolo Barbera, 1929): 263-374. The Citizen Army complementary to those in Machiavelli's treatise demonstrate Machiavelli's examples least on distinct a paper, principalities. These passages will continuity between these three works, while also exemplifying inability to may on 76 come to terms with the warfare of his day. Indeed, all of these illustrate that Machiavelli's theory for the creation of a citizen army, at appeared to be practicable, but in reality, laughable. Utilising the scholarship of Michael Mallett, Sydney Anglo, and Machiavelli's contemporary Guicciardini, it may be shown that Machiavelli's writings concerned with the citizen army were not the theory4. This may be because major works, II Principe, the Discorsi and the Arte, all of his sent into grounded in practice, but only in were written after he was exile, cutting him off from the ins-and-outs of politics in Florence (the subject of following Chapter). It is equally probable that his unending praise of ancient which he studied sources relentlessly in exile, led to the exclusion and derision of modern (cinquecento) warfare, its practicalities and its tactics in exchange for outdated and outmoded musings. Moreover, Machiavelli's refusal to acknowledge the importance and successful deployment of when one wars proves to be all the more shocking Republic, under Soderini, fell to Spanish acting under the auspices of the Pope Julius II and the Medici family. When adds to this bloody concoction that Florence and Florentine citizen army 4 in the Italian realises that Prato and the Florentine mercenaries one mercenary troops which Machiavelli was poor Prato were 'defended' by a instrumental in constituting, the absurdity Michael Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Europe (London: Bodley Head, 1074); Michael Mallett, "The Theory and Practice of Warfare in Machiavelli's Republic", in Machiavelli and Republicanism eds. Gisela Bock, Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993): 173-180. Anglo, Dissection: Anglo, "Military Authority". And, Francesco Guicciardini, Considerations in, The Sweetness of Power: Machiavelli's 'Discourses' and Guicciardini's 'Considerations' trans. James B. Atkinson and David Sices (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002). The Citizen Army of his vision is brought to the experience during the Pisan were wars It may a small band of well-trained the Medici restoration and have been Machiavelli's and Florence's (1498-1509) that cowardly, but the Florentine citizen faced with from fore5. 77 army mercenary troops in their employment proved to be equally unreliable when Spanish mercenaries (1512)6. This defeat led to eventually to Machiavelli's exile. Disaffected and detached political life in Florence, his political and military theory filled 'il capo di castellucci'7. I. The Theory of the Citizen Army in II Principe, the Discorsi and the Arte della guerra Chapters VII, XII, XIII and XXVI of II Principe contain specific advice ought to place one's hopes in On 5 examination, it seems a citizen army rather than in mercenary or that Machiavelli's theory for the citizen army on why one auxiliary troops. begins with his a citizen army at Florence, the fall of Republic, see John Hale, Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy (London: Lowe and Brydon, 3rd edition, 1966): 88-96, 127-140. Roberto Ridolfi, : Vita di Niccolo Machiavelli (Roma: A. Belardetti, 1954): 117-134, 183-201. Maurizio Viroli, Niccolo's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli trans. Antony Shugaar (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000): 77-86, 119-130. For Machiavelli's description of the sack of Prato see Niccolo Machiavelli, Qpere di Niccolo Machiavelli. Volume Terzo. Lettere A cura di Franco Gaeta (Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice, 1984), 357. 'Tanto che l'altro giorno poi venne la nuova essere perso Prato, e come li Spagnuoli, rotto alquanto di muro, comonciorno a sforzare chi difendeva et a sbigottirgli, in tanto che dopo non molto di resistenza tutti fuggirno, e li Spagnoli, occupata la terra, la saccheggiorno, et ammazomo li uomini di quella con miserabile spettocolo di calamita. Ne a V S. ne referiro i particolari per non dare questa molestia d'animo; diro solo che vi morirno meglio che quattromila uomini, e le altri rimasono presi e con diversi modi costretti a riscattarsi; ne peronarono a vergini rinchiuse ne' luoghi sacri, i quali si riempierono tutti di stupri e di sacrilegi'. For translation see Niccolo Machiavelli, Machiavelli and his Friends: Their Personal Correspondences trans. James B. Atkinson and David Sices (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996): 215-216, Letter 203 of 16 September 1512. 'The news of Prato's capture arrived...and the Spaniards, having broken through some of the walls, began to force the defenders back to terrify them. So that, after slight resistance, they all fled and the Spaniards took possession of the city, put it to sack, and massacred the city's population in a pitiable spectacle of calamity. In order to spare your Ladyship cause for worry in your spirit, I shall not report on the details. I shall merely say that better than four thousand died; the remainder were captured and, through various means, were obliged to pay ransom. Nor did they spare the virgins cloistered in the holy sites, which were all filled with acts of rape and pillage'. 6 Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince trans. George Bull (London: Penguin Group, 4th ed., 1995), 43. 7 Lettere. 367-368, Letter 208, 9 April 1513. 'the head with little castles', or 'castles in the air'. The For discussions of Machiavelli's involvement in the creation of Prato and the Florentine author's translation. The Citizen discussions of Cesare Borgia and reaches a crescendo in the work's final Chapter. Did Machiavelli want Lorenzo to follow Cesare's conclusions of the successes example on a previous Chapters and the attention paid - national scale? Given the in II Principe mistake of relying for too long on the prestige afforded him by the fortuna di altri' contains Machiavelli's description of Borgia's rise to An mercenary or arms auxiliary of his Borgia's military strategy own. are - con le armi e power8. The title of Chapter is somewhat misleading. Machiavelli does not praise Borgia's would need papacy. Principe will help to illustrate this. Chapter VII of II Principe, 'De' principati nuovi che s'acquistano - to Cesare's example. However, Machiavelli did not want Lorenzo to repeat Cesare's examination of 11 arms - and his ultimate failure, it seems that Machiavelli indeed desired Lorenzo to follow Cesare's the Army 78 use of foreign but his recognition that in order to be successful he The reasons Machiavelli set forth for this switch in clear. Acquistata adunque el duca la Romagna, e sbatutti e' Colonnesi, volendo quella e procedere piu avanti, lo 'mpedivano dua cosa: Tuna, l'arme sua che non li parevono fedeli, l'altra, la volunta di Francia: cio e che l'arme Orsine, delle quali s'era valuto, li mancassino sotto, e non solamente li 'mpedissino lo acquistare, ma gli togliessino Tacquistato, e che il re ancora non facessi el simile. Delli Orsini ne ebbe uno riscontro, quando, dopo la espugnazione di Faenza, assalto Bologna, che li vidde andare freddi in quello assalto...onde che il duca delibero non dependere piu dalle arme e fortuna d'altri9. mantenere 8 Niccolo Machiavelli, II Principe e Altre Qpere Politiche: Introduzione di Delio Cantimori, Note di Stefano (Milano: Garzanti Libri, 1999), 32. For translation see Prince. 1995. 20. 'New Principalities Acquired with the Help of Fortune and Foreign Arms'. 9 Principe, 1999. 34. Prince, 1995. 22. 'When the duke had won the Romagna, and the Colonna had been crushed, two things prevented him from consolidating his position and advancing further: first, the loyalty of his troops was doubtful, and second, there was the policy of France. To explain this, it seemed that the Orsini troops, of which he had made use, might betray him, not only halting his progress but robbing him of what he had won; and it seemed that the king [of France] might do the same. He had one confirmation of these fears when, after the capture of Faenza, he assaulted Bologna and saw the Orsini troops go into battle half-heartedly... So the duke determined to rely no longer on the arms and fortune of others'. Andretta The Citizen Array Based upon was this passage, one may entirely made up re-ordered. As Borgia that even as a example, which to result Indeed, it - according to II Principe - the Romagna became so loyal to mese'10. Borgia never returned and his armies dissolved, forth by Machiavelli, nonetheless may provide a good place from investigation11. may mercenary troops as which Borgia later used he lay stricken with syphilitic complications in Rome, 'che la as set develop this army of citizens from the provinces and cities that he had conquered and Romagna Taspetto piu d'uno but his be led to believe that the 79 be helpful to examine why, in II Principe, Machiavelli viewed utterly undependable. He provides the answer in Chapter XII of the treatise. La cagione di questo e, che le non hanno altro amore ne altra cagione che le tenga che un poco di stipendio, il quale non e sufficiente a fare che voglino in campo, morire per te12. According to Machiavelli, mercenaries are their counterparts are too - auxiliary soldiers - pericolosa la ignavia, nelle ausiliarie la differentiating between not 10 as XIII of II Principe indicates and brave; 'In virtu'1 . somma, nelle mercennarie Machiavelli makes a e piu point of and auxiliary troops. His distinction between these is altogether clear. Principe. 1999. 37. For translation over a 11 mercenary cowardly month'. see Prince. 1995. 25. 'the [people of the] Romagna waited for him for an interesting discussion of Cesare's downfall see J. Lucas-Dubreton, The Borgias trans. Philip John (London: Staples Press, 1954): 220-252. 12 Principe. 1999. 50. And Prince. 1995, 38. 'There is no loyalty or inducement to keep them [mercenaries] on the field of battle apart from the little they are paid, and this is not enough to make them want to die for you'. 13 Principe. 1999. 56. Prince. 1995. 43. 'To sum up, cowardice is the danger with mercenaries, and valour with auxiliaries'. See Richard Mackenney, Sixteenth-Century Europe: Expansion and Conflict (London: Macmillan, 1993), 237 for a brief history of the Italian battles and wars in which mercenary troops played a For Stead decisive role. The Citizen For example, mercenaries above illustrated. But from mercenary ausiliarie, che arme sue in one sono or forced to pay the troops? ti venga form are are means those troops for which by which auxiliary troops l'altre armi inutili, ad aiutare army are Machiavelli defined auxiliary troops e sono defendere'14. other for the services of the one pays as an quando si chiama In both army. directly; with auxiliaries, cases, obtained as Army 80 the quotation any different follows; 'L'armi uno potente che con the host is being made to With mercenaries a government a le pay government is is forced to pay that government which lent the troops with allegiance or cash. Given this consistency, there does not seem to be a need to provide separate definitions for mercenary and auxiliary troops in Machiavelli's theory. This seems to be illustrated in II Principe. allegare Cesare Borgia e le sue azioni. Questo duca intrd Romagna con le arme ausiliarie, conducendovi tutte gente franzese, e con quelle prese Imola e Furli. Ma, non li parendo poi tale arme sicure, si volse alle mercennarie, iudicando in quelle manco periculo; e soldo li Orsini e Vitelli. Le quali poi nel meneggiare trovando dubbie et infideli e periculose, le spense, e volsesi alia proprie. E puossi facilmente vedere che differenzia e infra Tuna e l'altra di queste arme, considerato che differenzia fu dalla reputazione del duca, quando aveva Franzesi soli e quando aveva li Orisini e Vitelli, a quando rimase con li soldati sua e sopr'a se stesso e sempre si troverra accresciuta; ne mai fu stimato assai, se non quando ciascuno vidde che lui era intero possessore delle sue Io dubitero mai di non in arme15. Borgia, according to Machiavelli, only became famous and respected after he had assembled his 14 own armies. Principe. 1999. 54. Prince. 1995. 42. 'Auxiliaries, the other useless kind of troops, are involved when call upon a powerful state to come to your defense and assistance'. 15 Principe. 1999. 56. For translation see Prince. 1995: 43-44. 'I shall never hesitate to cite Cesare Borgia and his conduct as an example. The duke used auxiliaries in his invasion of the Romagna, going there at the head of French troops. With those, he took Imola and Forli. But then he decided that they were unsafe, and he turned to mercenaries in the belief that less risk was involved, hiring the Orsini and the Vitelli. In making use of these, he found them to be suspect, disloyal, and dangerous; so he got rid of them and raised his own forces. And one can easily the difference between these forces by considering the difference between the standing of the duke when he had only the French, when he had the Orsini and the Vitelli, and he relied only on his own forces and himself He grew in stature at each stage; and he was held in real respect only when everyone saw that he was the absolute master of his armies'. you The Citizen Indeed, as the quotation from II Principe implies, Borgia and the Romagna prospered because both placed their trust for in the hands of a Machiavelli, the are Army 81 citizen army. common defence as well as military offence Such solid military foundations, at least according to precursors to an equally solid set of laws. E'principali fondamenti che abbino tiitti li stati, cosi nuovi, come vecchi o misti, sono le buone legge e le buone arme. E, perche non puo essere buone legge dove non sono Providing buone arme16. distinct contrast to his definitions of hired troops, Machiavelli elaborated a 'good arms' or on 'buone arme'. esperienza si vede a' principe soli e republiche armate fare progressi grandissimi, et alle arme mercennarie non fare mai se non danno. E con piu difficulta viene alia obedienza di uno suo cittadino una repubblica armata di arme 17 proprie, che una armata di arme di esterne E per . With the example of Cesare Borgia still fresh in his mind, it may be that Machiavelli hoped another prince would arise and succeed where Cesare had failed, by successfully throwing off the yoke of reliance XXVI of II E Principe certainly non e maravaglia se on seems foreign arms, for native Italian troops. Chapter to call for such a prince. alcuno de' prenominati Italiani non ha possuto fare quello che si pud sperare facci la illustre casa vostra, e se, in tante revoluzioni di Italia, et in tanti maneggi di guerra, e' pare sempre che in quella la virtu militare sia spenta. Questo nasce, che il ordini antichi di essa non erano buoni, e non ci e suto alcuno che abbia saputo trovare de' nuovi: e veruna cosa fa tanto onore a uno uomo che di nuovo surga, quanto fa le nuove legge e li nuovi ordini trovati do lui. Queste cose, quando sono bene fondate et abbino in loro grandezza, lo fanno reverendo 18 non manca material da introdurvi ogni forma mirabile: et in Italia ■ e . 16 Principe. 50. For translation see Prince. 1995. 38. 'The main foundation of every state, new states as as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms because you cannot have good laws without good arms'. 17 Principe. 1999. 51. And Prince. 1995. 39. 'Experience has shown that only princes and armed republics achieve solid success, and that mercenaries bring nothing but loss; and a republic which has its own citizen army is far less likely to be subjugated by one of its own citizens than a republic whose forces are not its well own'. 18 Principe. 1999. 96. And Prince. 1995. 82. 'It is not marvelled at that none of the Italians I have named has succeeded in doing what, it is I hope, your illustrious house will do, or that in so many revolutions in Italy and so many martial campaigns it has always seemed that our military prowess has been extinguished. The Citizen Machiavelli did not stop Army 82 there. On the contrary, he exhorted the reader of his 11 Principe, perhaps Lorenzo [as discussed in Chapter One], to rely on 'la virtu italica' to liberate Italy. dunque la illustre casa vostra seguitare quelli eccellenti uomini che provincie loro, e necessario, innanzi a tutte l'altre cose, come vero fondamento d'ogni impresa, prowedersi d'arme proprie; perche non si puo avere ne piu fidi ne piu migliori soldati. E, benche ciascuno di essi sia buono, tutti insieme diventeranno migliori, quando si vedranno comandare dal loro principe, e da quello onorare et intrattenere. E necessario, per tanto, prepararsi a queste arme, per potere con la virtu italica defendersi dalli esterni19. Volendo redimirno le the term 'italica', which in itself carries connotations of antiquity, Machiavelli introduced the idea of regaining or restoring what had been lost By carefully choosing to use since the Romans dominated the Italian 'italica' is unique among Interestingly, this the reader for the call to unite Italy with a 20 . citizen of Such army quotation from Petrarch which ends 11 Principe. Both of these, Machiavelli's 'virtu italica' and Petrarch's 'virtu' and 'antico valore', act as reference the reader's mind back to the Lorenzo's occurrence the political and literary works written by Machiavelli deliberate word selection prepares and also the peninsula. leadership? It points, drawing glory of ancient Rome. Could such glory be regained under seems that Machiavelli thought so. debba, adunque, lasciare passare questa occasione acrid che l'ltalia, dopo tempo, vegga uno suo redentore. Ne posso esprimere con quale amore e' Non si tanto This is because the old military systems were bad and there has been no one who knew how to establish a nothing brings a man greater honour than the new laws and new institutions he establishes. When these are soundly based and bear the mark of greatness, they make him revered and admired. Now, in Italy the opportunities are not wanting for thorough reorganization'. 19 Principe: 96-97. For translation see Prince. 1995: 83. 'Therefore if your illustrious House wants to emulate those eminent men who saved their countries, before all else it is essential for it to raise a citizen army; for there can be no more loyal, more true, or better troops. Taken singly, these troops are good; acting as a united army, when they find themselves under the command of their own prince and honoured and maintained by him, they are still better. It is necessary, therefore, to raise such an army, in order to base our defence against invaders on Italian strength'. 211 'Italica' is used in a dialogue which some attribute to Machiavelli. Perhaps this strengthens the case for his authorship? This topic and others are discussed in Chapter Five, Six and Seven. new one. And The Citizen Army quelle provincie che hanno patito fussi ricevuto in tutte per queste 83 illuvioni esterne; con che sete di vendetta, con che ostinata fede, con che pieta, con che lacrime. Quali porte se li sarrerebbano? quali pouli li negherebbano la quale invidia se li opporrebbe? quale Italiano li negherebbe Tossequio? A ognuno puzza questa barbaro dominio. Pigli, adunque, la illustre casa vostra questa assunto, con quello animo e con quella speranza che si pigliano le impresse iuste; accio che, sotto la sua insegna, e questa patria ne sia nobilitata, e sotto li suo auspizii si verifichi quel detto del Petrarca: obedienza? Virtu contro Predera Tarme; e a furore fia el combatter corto; Che l'antico valore Nelli italici Machiavelli's belief in the citizen army, morto.21 cor non e ancor which was rooted in his belief of the inherent strength and virtu of Italians, led him to deride all other types of soldiers. It he wanted Lorenzo to Machiavelli wanted trust in the power adopt Italy's of the a new similar approach to warfare. may be that However, it is clear that unifier to avoid Cesare's mistake of putting too much papacy. accusarlo nella creazione di Iulio pontefice, nella quale lui ebbe elezione; perche, come e detto, non possendo fare uno papa a suo modo, poteva tenere che uno non fussi papa; e non doveva mai consentire al papato di quelli cardinali che lui avessi offesi, o che, diventati papi, avessino ad avere paura di lui. Perche li uomini offendono o per paura o per odio... Erro adunque el duca in questa elezione, e fu cagione dell'ultima ruina sua22. Solamente si pud mala 21 Principe. 1999: 97-98. And Prince. 1995. 84. 'In order therefore that Italy, after so long a time, may saviour, this opportunity must not be let slip. And I cannot express with what love he would be welcomed in all those provinces which have suffered from these foreign inundations, with what thirst for vengeance, with what resolute loyalty, with what devotion and tears. What doors would be closed to him? What people would deny him their obedience? What envy would stand in his way? What Italian would refuse him allegiance? This barbarous tyranny stinks in everyone's nostrils. Let your illustrious House undertake this task, therefore with the courage and hope which belong to just enterprises, so that, under your standard, our patria may be ennobled, and under your auspices what Petrarch says may come to pass: Vertue 'gainst fury shall advance the fight/ And it i' th' combate soone shall put to flight:/ For th'old Romane voalour is not dead,/ Nor in th' Italian brest exstinguished'. 22 Principe. 1999: 37-38. For translation see The Prince. 1995. 26. 'The duke deserves censure only regarding the election of Pope Julius, where he made a bad choice. As I said, not being able to get a pope to his liking he could have kept the papacy from going to one who was not; and he should never have behold its allowed the election of one who was not; and he should never have allowed the election of one of those cardinals he had injured, or one who would have cause to fear him. So the duke's choice was a mistaken . one; and it was the cause of his ultimate ruin'. . 84 The Citizen Army Pope Alexander VI lived, he succeeded in unifying the Romagna While Cesare's father and advancing his take notice of his of his to the successor own cause across the peninsula; causing the Spanish and French to actions2'. However, after his father's death, and the unexpected death Pope Pius III, Cesare panicked, allowing Giuliano della Rovere to ascend papal thrown as Julius II. With this election, might one suggest that the Borgia occasione ended? After Julius's election, Cesare was squeezed from obscurity. Any chance for further secular unification Julius in a was power and forced into crushed by the Church, leaving position of ever-increasing strength. Julius took up the cause of liberating Italy from foreign oppression, re-imbuing Cesare's secular drive for unification with religiosity. As 'esempli freschi', these distinct Machiavelli's of Italy. own theory concerning the citizen In - and the liberation and unification light of the previous Chapter's conclusions, this on religion or Machiavelli carried on ofpatria the Church, liberators and unifiers of Italy. appears to was exhorting One own may use appears but upon the to be the case. Indeed, 'buoni soldati' as the find this sentiment in the Discorsi where of mercenary soldiers and exhorting a prince troops to gain wealth and reputation for his patria. Hale, Machiavelli: 53-74. insightful study on the pontificate of Julius II for Pope (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1993). See Christine Shaw's - have prompted him to exhort Lorenzo to or upon money, disparaging the temporary dictator to use his II: The Warrior have informed lasted?24 Machiavelli's secular notion 23 army, may quickly while the union of Medici Pope and Florentine Capitano Medici occasione or and their actions Could it be that in the last Chapter of II Principe that Machiavelli Lorenzo to act rely, not men a an overview of this period; Julius The Citizen Army Book Two, guerra, Chapter 10 of his Discorsi, entitled 'I danari secondo che e la comune discussions of mercenary troops opinione', provides one non sono il nervo 85 della of the most concentrated and their shortcomings in Machiavelli's oeuvre. cominciare una guerra a sua posta ma non finirla, debbe uno principe, avanti che prenda una impresa, misurare le forze sue e secondo quelle governarsi. Ma debbe avere tanta prudenza che delle sue forze ei non s'inganni; e ogni volta s'ingannera quando le misuri o dai danari o dal sito o dalla benivolenza degli uomini, mancando, dalfaltra parte d'armi proprie. Perche le cose predette ti accrescono bene le forze, ma ben non te le danno, e per se medesime sono nulla e non giovono alcuna cosa sanza l'armi fedeli. Perche i danari assai non ti bastano sanza quelle, non ti giova la fortezza del paese; e la fede e benivolenza degli uomini non dura, perche questi non ti possono essere fedeli, non gli potendo difendere. Ogni monte, ogni lago, ogni luogo inaccessibile diventa piano, dove i forti difensori mancano. I danari ancora, non solo non ti difendono, ma ti fanno predare piu presto. Ne pud essere piu falsa quella comune opinione che dice che i Perche ciascuno pud danari sono In this passage, money il nervo della guerra25. Machiavelli attempted to set aright those who 'mistakenly' believe that is the 'sinew of war' and thus that mercenaries or gold can buy peace, liberty or victory. He set himself the difficult task of trying to change 'common opinion'. Dico pertanto non l'oro, come grida la comune opinione, essere guerra, ma i buoni soldati; perche l'oro non e sufficiente a trovare ma i buoni soldati sono bene sufficienti a trovare l'oro26. In order to illustrate his *5 point, Machiavelli referred to Livy's earlier il nervo della i buoni soldati, work27: Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi Sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio. Introduzione di Gennaro Sasso, Note di Giorgio Inglese., (Milano: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1999). 11.10. p. 316. Discourses. 1950. 11.10, p. 383. 'Money Is not the Sinews of War, as it is commonly supposed to be'. 'Since it is open to anyone having the requisite authority to begin a war but not t end it, a rule before committing himself to such an undertaking should calculate what forces he has at his disposal and act accordmgly. Moreover, he should also take good care not to make any mistake about such forces, as he will do every time he bases his calculations on money or on the terrain or on the goodwill of men, but, on the other hand, lacks troops of his own. For though such things undoubtedly add to your strength, they certainly do not provide you with it; and, as such, are nought and of no avail without faithful troops. For, without these no amount of money will suffice you: the natural strength of the country will not help you; now will the goodwill of men last, since they cannot remain faithful to you unless you are able to protect them. Every mountain, every lake, ever inaccessible fastness, becomes as a plain, when strong defenders are lacking. Money, too, not only affords you no protection, but makes you the sooner fall a prey. Nor can any opinion be more false that that which asserts that money is the sinews of war'. 26 Discorsi. 1999. 11.10. p. 318. Discourses. 1950. II. 10 Seep. 384. 'I assert, then, that it is not gold, as is acclaimed by common opinion, that constitutes the sinews of war, but good soldiers; for gold does not find good soldiers, but good soldiers are capable of finding gold'. The Citizen Array 86 e di questa opinione piu vero testimone che alcuno altro, dove, discorrendo, se Alessandro Magno fussi venuto in Italia, s'egli avesse vinto i Romani, mostra essere tre cose necessarie nella guerra; assai soldati e buoni, capitani prudenti e buona fortuna; dove, esaminando quali o i Romani o Alessandro prevalessero in queste cose, fa dipoi la sua conclusione sanza Ma Tito Livio ricordare mai i danari28. The victorious Romans army was others. made of their own quotation above The army crosses In both up under the - Republic - were successful precisely because their native and naturalised citizens and not the hired seems to arms of indicate that Machiavelli's theory of the citizen the boundaries between the Discorsi and II Principe drawing them together. works, Machiavelli exhorted his reader to abandon the practice of hiring troops to One wage war. may conclude that Machiavelli hoped Lorenzo, following Cesare Borgia's example on a unite it. One may find that Written in national scale, would raise native Italian army, liberate Italy and similar theme links these works with the Arte della guerra. 1519, the Arte provides the fore in 11 Principe Machiavelli's a a a complementary picture to that which and the Discorsi. plan for restoring a citizen army came to It is dedicated entirely to unpacking in Italy and shunning the practice of hiring troops. Written in the form of a dialogue, its protagonists are: Cosimo Rucellai, Fabrizio di Colonna, Zanobi Buondelmonti, Battista della Palla and Luigi Alamanni. Zanobi, Battista and Luigi act voice in the "7 Arte) reflects upon as Cosimo, sounding boards off which Colonna (Machiavelli's the virtues of the ancients and the superiority of a citizen For the passage to which Machiavelli refers, see Titus Livy, Ab urbe condita Vol. 4. trans. B.O. Foster (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1926). pp. 224-231. Book IX. 17. 1-17. "8 Discorsi. 1999. II. 10. p. 319. Discourses. 1950. 11.10. See pp. 385-386. 'On this point Titus Livy is a better witness than anybody else. 1 refer to the passage in which he discusses whether, if Alexander the Great had come to Italy, he would have beaten the Romans. In it he points out that three things are necessary for war; plenty of good soldiers, wise generals, and good luck; and then, having enquired whether the Romans or Alexander was the better off in these things, he draws his conclusion without any mention of money'. The Citizen army. Army 87 A few examples from the Arte will demonstrate that it expands upon the topic of the citizen army For introduced in II Principe and the Discorsi29. example: principe o una republica durera fatica e mettera diligenza in questi esercitazioni, sempre awerra che nel paese suo saranno buoni soldati; ed essi fieno superiori a' loro vicini e saranno quegli che daranno e non riceveranno le leggi dagli altri uomini. Ma, come io vi ho detto, il disordine nel quale si vive fa che si straccurano e non si istimano queste cose; e pero gli eserciti nostri non son buoni; e se pure ci fusse o capi o membra naturalmente virtuosi, E quando ordini non Four years army as e uno in queste la possono dimostrare30. after he completed II Principe, Machiavelli continued to praise the citizen this quotation illustrates. However, when becomes clear that he realised Lorenzo would young Medici died in 1519, the year one never reads the final line cited above, it do what he Machiavelli wrote the Arte. When closing lines of the Arte in this knowledge, they sound occasione lost, as a hope of things to hoped. as much like a Indeed, the one reads the lament at an come. qualunque di quelli che tengono oggi stati in Italia prima questa via, fia, prima che alcuno altro, signore di questa provincia; e interverra alio stato suo come al regno de' Macedoni, il quale, venendo sotto a E io vi affermo che entrerra per Filippo che aveva imparato il modo dello ordinare gli eserciti da Epaminonda tebano, divento, con questo ordine e con questi esercizi, mentre che l'altra Grecia stava in ozio e attendeva a recitare commedie, tanto potente che potette in pochi anni tutta occuparla, e al figliuolo lasciare tale fondamento, che poteo farsi principe di tutto il mondo. Colui adunque che dispregia questi pensieri, s'egli e 29 30 Anglo, Dissection. 84. Arte. 299, column B. For translation see Niccolo Machiavelli, The Art of War trans. Ellis Farneworth (New York: Da Capo Press, 1990), 74. 'So, if any prince or republic would take the trouble to establish this discipline and these exercises, they would always have enough good soldiers in their dominions to make them superior to their neighbours and to enable them to give law to others instead of receiving it from them. But such is the degeneracy of the times we live in that these things are so far from being in any esteem at present; indeed, they are totally neglected and laughed at, which is the reason that our armies are now good for nothing; and if there are still any officers or men among us who are naturally virtuous, they are not able to exhibit it'. The Citizen Army 88 principe, dispregia il principato suo; s'egli e cittadino, la sua citta. E io mi dolgo della natura, la quale o ella non mi dovea fare conoscitore di questo, o ella mi doveva dare faculta a poterlo eseguire. Ne penso oggimai, essendo vecchio, poterne avere alcuna occasione; e per questo io ne sono stato con voi liberale, che, essendo giovani e qualificati, potrete, quando le cose dette da me vi piacciano, ai debiti tempi, in favore de' vostri principi, aiutarle e consigliarle. Di che non voglio vi sbigottiate o diffidiate, perche questa provincia pare nata per risuscitare le cose morte, come si e visto della poesia, della pittura e della scultura. Ma quanto a me si aspetta, per essere in la con gli anni, me ne diffido. E veramente, se la fortuna mi avesse conceduto per lo addietro tanto stato quanto basta a una simile impresa, io crederei, in brevissimo tempo, avere dimostro al mondo quanto gli antichi ordini vagliono; e sanza dubbio o io l'arei accresciuto con gloria o perduto sanza vergogna It seems Arte as 1. that the conclusion of the work draws together II Principe, the Discorsi and the Franco Fido intimated: relationship between The Prince, the Discourses on Livy, and the Art of them as panels of a triptych on the art of founding, governing, and defending the state, respectively. In fact, in this sense, the Art of War represents a conciliation of the first two, inasmuch as, like the Discourses on Livy, it extols the harmonious and lawful cooperation of all the components of the social organism and, at the same time, stresses the necessity of a unified military command that is reminiscent of the concentration of all power in one person expounded in The Prince32. The clear War may tempt one to see 1 columns A-B. And Art. 212. 'I shall venture to affirm that the first state in Italy that will take this method and pursue it will soon become master of the whole province; things will turn out in his state as they did in Philip of Macedon who, having learned the right method of forming and disciplining an army from Epammondas the Theban, grew so powerful - while the other Greek states were buried in indolence and luxury, and wholly taken up with plays and banquets - that he conquered all in a few years and left his son such a foundation to build upon that the son was able to conquer the whole world. Therefore, whoever despises this advise, whether he be a prince or the governor of a commonwealth, has but little regard for himself or his country. For my own part, I cannot help complaining of fate, which either should not have let me know these things, or given me power to put them in execution; this is something I cannot hope for now that I am so far advanced in years. Hence, I have freely communicated my thoughts on this matter to you as young men well qualified not only to instill such advice into the ears of your princes, if you approve of it, but to assist them in carrying it into execution whenever a proper opportunity arises. Let me urge you not to despair of success since this province seems destined to revive the arts and sciences which have seemed long since dead, as we see it has already raised poetry, painting and sculpture - as it were - from the grave. As to myself, I cannot expect to see so happy a change at my time of life. Indeed, if fortune had indulged me some years ago with a territoiy fit for such an undertaking, I think I should soon have convinced the world of the excellence of the ancient military discipline, for I Arte. 367, up would either have increased my own disgrace'. ,2 Franco Sullivan Fido, 'The Politician as dominions with glory, or, at least not have lost then with infamy and Writer', in The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli ed. Vickie B. p. 145. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000): 138-158. See The Citizen right to point out the relationship between Machiavelli's works. But Fido is acting as a conciliatory work, the Arte is as Army 89 as well as much Machiavelli grasping for legitimacy through ancient texts. Indeed, the originality of 11 Principe and the Discorsi gave way to exceedingly long, often unaltered quotations from the ancients in the Arte. Might one suggest that Machiavelli, rather than communing briefly and fruitfully with the ancients, as in II Principe and the Discorsi, their company, for his own A gave himself over to them completely in the Artel In perhaps, he found solace for the occasione lost, and possible vindication failed political particular career. passage in the text may personal experience with the failed citizen which he provide army at a brief glimpse into Machiavelli's Florence33. Referring helped to create at Florence, and perhaps trying to failure, Machiavelli linked Florence's citizen army excuse to that army its cowardice and with those of ancient Rome and Carthage. gia, per questo, ch'ella non possa essere vinta, perche furono vinti tante gli eserciti romani, e fu vinto lo esercito d'Annibale; tale che si vede che non si puo ordinare uno esercito, del quale altri si prometta che non possa essere rotto. Pertanto questi vostri uomini savi non deono misurare questa inutilita dallo avere perduto una volta, ma credere che, cosi come e' si perde, e' si possa vincere e rimediare alia cagione della perdita. E quando ei cercassero questo, troverebbono che non sarebbe stato per difetto del modo, ma dell'ordine che non aveva la sua perfezione; e, come ho detto, dovevano prowedervi, non con biasimare l'ordinanza, ma con ricorreggerla; il che come si debbe fare, lo intenderete di mano in mano34. Non dico volte 1 ;4 See note 5 in this Chapter. See Book I. p. 277, column A-B. For translation see Art. p. 30. 'I shall not venture, however, to assert that any army composed of such men is invincible, for even the Roman legions were often routed, and Hannibal himself was at last conquered. So, you see, it is impossible to model any army so as to Arte. being defeated. Therefore, the wise and able men of whom you speak should not be so peremptory in pronouncing such forces altogether unserviceable because they lost one batter; although they may happen to be defeated once or twice, they may be victorious when they have discovered the causes that prevent it from contributed to their defeat and provide remedies for them'. The Citizen It seems that Machiavelli's reliance comfort. Since Rome's and Florence's could do the citizen army, as same. on the ancients may Army 90 have provided him with some Carthage's citizen armies could fail then rebound, surely Perhaps the young Medici could have united Italy with the final Chapter of II Principe suggested. a If only Lorenzo had successfully implemented Machiavelli's theory, might Italy have been liberated and united and the exiled Secretary restored? (See below, Chapter Four) However, Machiavelli's hopes proved to be misplaced. By the time he sat down to write the Arte, Lorenzo dying, along with Medici occasione and Machiavelli's chance for political was redemption. It seems that Machiavelli's fixation with grand dreams and speculations about liberation and unification caused his from political and military vision to break away reality. II. Practice versus Theory in II Principe, the Discorsi and the Arte The work of Machiavelli's contemporary, of Michael Mallett and the actual Sydney Anglo enables us to compare practice of warfare in the Italy of his day. Machiavelli's II about Francesco Guicciardini, and, in Principe, Guicciardini commented military considerations in the Arte; and we upon our own time, Machiavelli's theories with Mallett commented upon the Discorsi and Anglo wrote shall set out their assessments in that order. As the quotations cited above from II Principe indicated, Machiavelli actually believed that Cesare his own Borgia shunned the hiring of mercenary troops and preferred to troops. Michael Mallett reflected that such views not based in reality: were use terribly misguided and The Citizen Army 91 experience of the condottieri was largely in Italy which had failed to achieve the permanence and professionalism of those of the other major states. He admired the army of Cesare Borgia but believed mistakenly that its strength lay in a high proportion of militia, whereas the bulk of Borgia troops were mercenaries like any other army '3. Machiavelli was limited to the Indeed Mallett went one so Florentine whose a army far as to his solutions unrealistic... his suggest that Machiavelli's views were 'anachronistic and preoccupation with problem of national strength blinded him to the namely the use of mercenary troops36. It also suggests as set out more the solution to the realistic alternatives of the time'; use some native This assessment of Machiavelli's theory of that Machiavelli's theory for the liberation and unification of in II Principe was fatally flawed. May one say According to Francesco Guicciardini, undoubtedly, the as in 11 Principe starkly set out Machiavelli's lack of realism in military the citizen army Italy national militia As Mallett indicated, Borgia did troops, but the majority were mercenaries. matters. a the same of the Discorsil one must answer 'yes'. As previous Chapter illustrated, Guicciardini reserved intense criticism for Machiavelli. This instance is no different. first-hand, Guicciardini mercenary troops was As an individual who had experienced the horrors of war perhaps better able to comment and the 'common opinion' which states that Chi fu autore di on money the effectiveness of is the sinew of war. quella sentenzia che e' danari siano el nervo della guerra, e chi poi seguitata, non intese che e' danari soli bastassino a fare la guerra, ne che e' fussino piu necessari che e' soldati, perche sarebbe stata opinione non solo falsa, ma ancora molto ridicula; ma intese che chi faceva guerra aveva bisogno grandissimo di danari, e che sanza quelli era impossibile a sostenerla, perche non solo sono necessari per pagare e' soldati, ma per provedere le arme, le vettovaglie, le spie, le munizione e tanti instrumenti che si adoperano nella guerra; e' quali ne ricercano tanto profluvio, che a chi non l'ha provato e impossibile a immaginarlo. E se bene qualche volta uno esercito carestioso di danari con la virtu sua e col favore delle vittorie gli provede, nondimeno a' tempi nostri massime sono esempli rarissimi; ed in ogni caso ed in ogni tempo non corrono e' danari drieto agli eserciti se non dappoi che hanno vinto. Confesso che chi ha soldati propri fa la Ilia 35 6 Mallett, Mercenaries: 196-197. Mallett, Mercenaries. 259. The Citizen Army 92 danari che non fa chi ha soldati mercennari, nondimeno ed bisognano a chi fa guerra co' soldati propri, ed ognuno non ha soldati propri; ed e molto piu facile co' danari trovare soldati che co' soldati trovare danari. Chi adunche interpreterra quella sentenzia secondo el senso di chi la disse e secondo che communemente e intesa, non se ne maravigliera, ne la dannera in guerra con manco anche danari modo alcuno37. Guicciardini's Considerzioni intorno ai Discorsi del Machiavelli sopra Tito la prima deca di Livio, his commentary on Machiavelli's Discorsi, contain a systematic unravelling of Machiavelli's discourse on Guicciardini refuted. For money and war'8. Each instance that Machiavelli example, where Machiavelli said that it was set forth, easier for soldiers get or find money, Guicciardini countered with advice to the contrary. to Machiavelli's unrealistic lack of approach to mercenaries and citizen armies experience in actual warfare. This may was linked to his help to explain why he held beliefs in the face of the failure of Florence's citizen army, Perhaps on to and indeed why he held his on to those beliefs until the end of his life. The Arte della guerra Machiavelli's perverse as clinging Sydney Anglo has, that this Italy; " provides on to may 'Machiavelli...concentrates a later and altogether the theory of the citizen more startling glimpse into army. One might suggest, be explained by his dreams and desires for upon the means a united whereby conditions might be And Considerations. 11.10. pp. 426^427. 'Whoever was the author of money and those who later repeated it did not mean that money alone was enough to wage war, or that it was more necessary than soldiers, for that would have been not only a false belief but also a quite ridiculous one. It meant that those who waged war had a very great need of money and that without money it was impossible to keep it going, because it is necessary not only for paying soldiers but for providing weapons, provisions, spies, ammunition, and much equipment used in warfare. These things are required in such superabundance that it is impossible for those who have not experienced it to imagine it. Although an army lacking in money sometimes provides it by its virtu and with the aid of victories, nevertheless, such examples are extremely rare, especially in our day; in every case and at all times money does not run after armies until after they have won. I grant that those who have their own soldiers wage war with less money than those who have mercenaries; nevertheless, those who wage war with their own soldiers also need money, and not everyone has his own soldiers; it is much easier to get soldiers with money than to get money with soldiers. So anyone who construes the maxim according to the meaning of the one who said it, and according to how it is commonly understood, will not be surprised by it or in any way condemn it'. ,8 Anglo, "Military Authority", 328. There Anglo discusses the Considerazioni as a 'commentary' on Considerazioni. 11.10. pp. 50-51. the maxim that the sinews of war Machiavelli. are The Citizen established which would enable such Italy'39. ruins of contemporary a [republican] government to develop from the However, the means completely impracticable. In seeking to devise and give it greatness with a Army 93 a which Machiavelli set forth plan to save were Italy from the barbarians united republican government, Machiavelli lost sight of the realities of warfare in the cinquecento. This 'blindness' on classical such as source as Mallett called it, may materials. be traced to Machiavelli's over-reliance Indeed, Machiavelli's almost slavish cribbing of writers Vegetus and Frontinus in the Arte led Anglo to conclude that 'this classical tradition compromised every one of Machiavelli's major "discoveries" in the realm of civil-military relations, and purely military organisation....[which] had not escaped the attention of commentators - even as that Machiavelli's method of early as the thirteenth century'40. That is copying the ancients, sometimes verbatim, not to say was out of the ordinary for writers of his time. In fact, employing such a technique, Machiavelli is following in the footsteps not merely of his Italian predecessors, Valrutius ad Cornazano, but also of such transmontane and "medieval" barbarians as Christine de Pisan, the authors of Le Livre de Iouvencel and Le rosier des gnerres, and indeed of almost every writer who had attempted to deal with military affairs41. In However, in applying the ancient methods of warfare, unchanged, to Italy of his day, Machiavelli's theory for the creation of a citizen impracticable. 39 40 41 down to began to sound out-of-touch and One might cite his shunning of artillery and gunpowder as a prime example of this. was army one The reason central for Machiavelli's lurch reason: Anglo, Dissection. 129. Anglo, "Military Authority", 132. Anglo, Dissection: 131-132. 'Machiavelli was away from reality, Anglo argued, blinded to military realities by his The Citizen colossal antipathy to the mercenary Army 94 captains whom he deemed responsible for most ills'42. modern Such blindness led to: E' non e cosa che facci maggiore confusione in uno esercito che iinpedirgli la vista; onde che molti gagliardissimi eserciti sono stati rotti, per essere loro stato impedito il vedere o dalla polvere o dal sole. Non e ancora cosa che piii impedisca l'artiglieria nel trarla; pero io crederrei che fusse piii prudenza lasciare accecarsi il nimico da se stesso, che volere tu, cieco, andarlo a trovare. Pero o io non la trarrei, o (perche questo non sarebbe approvato, rispetto alia riputazione che ha l'artiglieria) io la metterei in su' corni dell'esercito, accio che, traendola, con il fumo ella non accecasse la fronte di quello; che e la importanza delle mie genti4'. la vista che '1 fumo che fa As if such admission an was to discuss how he would not damaging enough to his credibility, Machiavelli went on organise his troops in order to deal best with incoming artillery volleys. He advised his readers that their troops armoured. If one or were should be tightly organised and well- trying to protect one's troops from the cavalry charges, such advice would have been sound. ravages To suggest that arrangement would protect against an artillery barrage is absurd. conclude that Machiavelli had well placed canon conclude, had he open 4' never actually ball could do to ever a seen of arrows artillery in action, Indeed, or the tightly grouped infantry unit. or a similar one carnage Nor, pikes might that a one can taken part in trying to secure the enemy's artillery in either siege or warfare. Ibid, 152. Arte. Book 111. p. 311, column A. Art: 96-97. 'There is nothing that occasions greater confusion and embarrassment among a body of men than having their sight dazzled or obstructed; this is a that has been the ruin of many gallant armies blinded either by the sun or by clouds of dust; circumstance and what can contribute more to that than artillery smoke? I would be more prudent, therefore, to let the enemy blind themselves than to go seeking them blindfolded. Thus, I would either not use any artillery at all, or if I did avoid censure now that large guns are in such credit - I would place it along my flanks so that when it was fired, the smoke might not blind my men in front, where I would have the flower of my army'. - The Citizen pud fare che noi temiamo tanto quella, quanto quegli che stringono gli uomini insieme. Oltre a questo, se non mi sbigottisce l'artiglieria de' nimici nel pormi col campo a una terra dov'ella mi offende con piii sua sicurta (non la potendo io occupare per essere difesa dalle mura, ma solo col tempo con la mia artiglieria impedire di modo ch'ella pud raddoppiare i colpi a suo modo), perche la ho io a temere in campagna dove io la posso tosto occupare? Tanto che io vi conchiudo questo: che l'artiglierie, secondo l'opinione mia, non impediscono che non si possano usare gli antichi modi e mostrare l'antica virtu44. great realist, the father of modern political science, and many of his other Con cio sia The cosa che niuno ordine appellations, at least in this respect, to be Army 95 a romantic, dare to compare Carthage as misplaced43. Rather, Machiavelli a man appears of his genius Florence's measly military might with the grandeur of ancient Rome and or brush aside artillery be that his belief in identities and be dreamer, anything but realistic. Why else would illustrated above, It may argued46. a seem to a citizen security in the present, army, was as a hindrance to warfare? which has become well before its time so central to national as some scholars have Flowever, within the context of the early cinquecento his ideas, while apparently sincere, are absurd. On the fields surrounding Pisa, among the crumbling walls of Prato and in the aftermath of the Medici restoration, Machiavelli had been witness to the effects of war and he detested them, as his poem on Ambizione indicates: Rivoglia gli occhi in qua chi veder vuole fatiche, e riguardi se ancora 130 L'altrui Cotanta crudelta mai vidde il sole. 133 44 Chi '1 padre morte e chi '1 marito plora; Arte. Book M. p. 312, column B. Also see Art. 99. 'Furthermore, if we are not terrified by the enemy's lay siege to a town, when it may annoy us with the greatest security, when we can neither come at it nor prevent its effects because it is protected by walls, and when we must endeavor to dismount it with our own cannon, which may perhaps require much time, and expose us to continual fire all the while; then why should we fear it so much in the field where we can immediately make ourselves master of it or put a stop to its firing? Therefore, the invention of artillery is no reason, in my opinion, why we should not imitate the ancients in their military discipline and institutions, as well as in their virtii 45 '[Machiavelli's] judgement was that of a scientist and a technician of political life'. See Ernst Cassirer's Myth of the State (Garden City: Doubleday Anchor, 1955), 194. Also see Fredi Chiappelli, Studi sul linguaggio del Machiavelli (Florence: Bibliotechina del saggiatore, 1952): 59-73, where Chiappelli artillery while we . discusses Machiavelli's scientific nature. Barbara Spackman, "Politics on the Warpath: Machiavelli's Art of War", in Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature eds. Albert Russell Ascoli and Victoria Kahn (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 46 1993): 179-193. The Citizen Army 136 139 142 96 QueH'altro mesto del suo proprio tetto, Battuto e nudo, trar si vede fora. O quante volte, avendo il padre stretto In braccio il figlio, con un colpo solo E suto rotto a Tuno e Taltro il petto! Quello abbandona il suo paterno solo Accusando gli Dei crudeli e ingrati, Con la brigata sua piena di dolo. O esempli mai piii nel mondo stati! Perche si vede ogni di parti assai Per le ferite del lor ventre nati. 145 Drieto a la figlia sua piena di guai Dice la madre: «A che infelici nozze, A che crudel marito ti servai!» le fosse e l'acque teschi, di gambe e di rnani, Di sangue son 148 Piene di E d'altre membra laniate 151 154 e mozze. Rapaci uccei, fere silvestri, cani Son poi le lor paterne sepolture: O sepulcri crudei, feroci e strani! Sempre son le lor faccie orride e A guisa d'uom che sbigottito ammiri Per nuovi danni o Dovunche 157 Di lacrime la terra E Taria scure, subite paure. gli occhi tu rivolti, miri e sangue pregna, d'urla, singulti It is doubtful that he had sozze, ever seen a e sospiri47. battle, particularly one in which artillery played significant role, first hand. The following anecdote, though possibly apocryphal, a may 47 Niccolo Machiavelli, I capitoli: Dell'ambizione. in Tutte le opere Storiche e Letterarie di Niccolo Machiavelli A cura di Guido Mazzoni e Mario Casella (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929): 849-853. For quotation see p. 852. For translation see Machiavelli, The Chief Works and Others. Volume 2, trans., Allan Gilbert, (Durham, 1965). See p. 738. '130 Let him turn his eyes here [to Italy] who wishes to behold the sorrows of/ others, and let him consider if ever before now the sun has looked upon such savagery./ 133 A man is weeping for his father dead and woman for her/ husband; another man, beaten and naked, you see driven in/ sadness from his own dwelling./136 Oh how many times, when the father has held his son tight in/ his arms, a single thrust has pierced the breasts of them both!/ 139 Another is abandoning his ancestral home, as he accuses cruel/ and ungrateful gods, with his brood overcome with sorrow./ 142 Oh, strange events such as never have happened before in the/ world! Every day many children are born through sword cuts/ in the womb./ 145 To her daughter, overcome with sorrow, the mother says: 'For/ what an unhappy marriage, for what a cruel husband have I kept you!/ 148 Foul with blood are the ditches and streams, full of heads, of/ legs, of arms, and other members gashed and severed,/ 151 Birds of prey, wild beasts, dogs are now their family tombs - /Oh tombs repulsive, horrible and unnatural!/ 154 Always their faces are gloomy and dark, like those of a man/ terrified and numbed by new injuries or sudden fears./ 157 Wherever you turn your eyes, you see the earth wet with tears/ and blood, and the air full of screams, of sobs, and sighs'. Cited in Maurizio Viroli, Machiavelli (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 16, n. 19. Also cited by Sebastian De Grazia in his Machiavelli in Hell (New York: Vintage Books, Random House, 1994): 165166. The Citizen Army 97 help to illustrate this point. Matteo Bandello recalled watching Machiavelli's botched attempt to drill Giovanni de Medici's troops Machiavelli stood in the blazing sun that time, Niccolo had not even organised his 3,000 troops in Machiavelli's - for two hours trying to order Giovanni's begun to organise them, of minutes a matter military incompetence. nonchalance about the relative ease he would have been able better to 48 . so goes men. that After Giovanni stepped in and Surely this story illustrates If Machiavelli had been anything other than it would have been hard 'armchair soldier' the 'bande nere'. The story with which to one an imagine him speaking with such could take organise Giovanni's an enemy's cannon; and troops4". Conclusion The sincerity and the naivety of when one examines his some of Machiavelli's thinking theory of the citizen each of the three works examined in this believed in what he wrote. Discorsi and the the appearance was anny adds nuance to brought to the fore Given that this subject Chapter, it Arte, provide the three works with subject of the citizen identity which In turn, army. are appears appears in that he wholeheartedly of the subject in II Principe, the a distinct continuity. Indeed, the his theory for the creation of an Italian national discussed in the previous Chapters. Perhaps, as the final Chapter of II Principe indicates, Machiavelli wanted Lorenzo and Leo to unite Italy politically and militarily, following Borgia's example in the Romagna, which was detailed so thoroughly 48 Anglo, "Military Authority": p. 321 and note 1 on p. 331. There Anglo cites RidolfTs The Life of Niccolo Machiavelli (London, 1963): 229-230 where Ridolfi discusses Matteo Bandello's description of Machiavelli's handling of Giovanni's troops. 49 Anglo, "Military Authority", 321 where Anglo refers to Machiavelli as an 'armchair' soldier. Also see Mallett, "Machiavelli's Republic", 174, where Mallet wrote 'Machiavelli was never present at a serious battle nor had he been on campaign with a large army'. The Citizen in Chapter VII. However, Machiavelli's vision of Cesare's false premise. Native citizens made as was standard practice at the time, Machiavelli's over-reliance realities of cinquecento up a small percentage of his based army; on classical one sources the majority, may have blinded him to the ask whether in his exile, stripped of standing Chancery, he became so existence, that the tenuous negotium he conjured drew desirous to end the otium of his more and more from the world of the ancients and detached him further and further from the realities of Italian warfare? upon a were mercenary troops. warfare. Might and office in the Florentine only success was Army 98 politics and Chapter Four Machiavelli's Road to Exile Introduction The theme of exile is from Florence woven tightly throughout Machiavelli's writings after his expulsion Christine Shaw have focused prominently in their on exiles in Italy, but research1. John Najemy, on his recent work to Machiavelli's life in exile just Machiavelli's letters to Vettori, which exile in the time lead we leading up to provide have been helpful to focus on shall proceed to been written, as was the other hand, dedicated after his many recently Machiavelli does not figure a chapter in expulsion2. Najemy focuses on insights into Machiavelli's view of his writing II Principe. This Chapter, following Najemy's an end to the practice of exile. In order to illustrate this it Machiavelli's life in exile as roughly a two-year may he described it in his letters. Then, the dedicatory letter and epilogue of II Principe, which may have proposed previously, just before Machiavelli began his Discorsi. Written from his small farm at Sant'Andrea, Machiavelli's letters period'. They reveal an accumulate in service to his patria. from exile span intensely political individual stripped of everything: political office, standing and the 1 more investigates whether part of Machiavelli's theory for Italian liberation and unification may be Randolph Starn and by the restored Medici in 1513. meagre But then, it wealth that he appears was able to that something happened to Randolph Starn, Contrary Commonwealth: The Theme of Exile in Medieval and Renaissance Italy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982); and Christine Shaw, The Politics of Exile in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). 2 John M. Najemy, Between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Mach lave 11 lVetto ri Letters of 1513-1515 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). 3 That period was central to Najemy's considerations. Road to Exile 100 Machiavelli. personal letters only reflect this change to His major political works may mirror it Although Machiavelli Republic, he was, was no was longer the Second Chancellor to the Florentine may was able to once again rendering service to unable to to return to direct political service through participation in its government; through his (his otium) he certain extent, but his precisely4. through his academic pursuits in exile While he his patria. more a serve own pursuits and diligent scholarly labour his patria, thus restoring his relationship with it. This have laid the groundwork for his return to active political service which he craved (negotium) This Chapter will argue Machiavelli's exile in mind when that it is essential to keep these two aspects of thinking of how he dealt with his life on the farm at Sant' Andrea. mind, this Chapter begins with With that in a detailed history of Machiavelli's political downfall and subsequent exile, which forms the whole discussion. Here, Peter Godman's research is fundamental3. utilised in the first part Machiavelli's exile. His scholarship is political descent from successful and favoured Second Chancellor to lowly own demonstrate that Machiavelli poorly thought through actions in the Chancery restored Medici's desire for into backdrop for the of this Chapter in order to contextualise the history of This first section will attempt to victim of his necessary political personal crisis is followed by wrote while in exile. These letters an vengeance. as was as he much was a of the This history of Machiavelli's descent examination of several key letters that Machiavelli provide a possible window into how he perceived his 4 Najemy, Between Friends: 176-214. Najemy focuses on 11 Principe as one example of this. See p. 176 particularly where he wrote, 'It has long been recognized that The Prince echoes and amplifies many of the themes Machiavelli addressed in the letters to Vettori'. 5 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. His research is the regard. most recent and perhaps the most insightful in this Road to Exile 101 own exile and how Machiavelli may have sought to end the practice of exile in Italy. In turn, that would be an essential part in the unification process broadly outlined in the epilogue of 11 Principe. In order to understand how Machiavelli's view of his exile changed it is in Florence. Godman's work has shed necessary light to study his fall from political an important figure in Machiavelli's political life; his superior at the Florentine Chancery, Marcello Virgilio Adriani. Machiavelli's service banishment6. grace Adriani played His actions and an new on important part in bringing about spiteful attitude toward Adriani early in their together cemented Adriani's dislike, which, combined with Machiavelli's outspoken and perhaps misguided patriotism, ultimately led to his downfall and exile. During his years in exile, Machiavelli retreated into the corridors of his mind, peopled with the ancients and their secrets while Adriani remained in the Palazzo Vecchio; the Florentine halls of power, filled with the Medici and their I. Machiavelli and Marcello Adriani and Machiavelli Adriani on 16 supporters7. Virgilio Adriani were appointed Chancellors to the Florentine Republic in 1498; February and Machiavelli on 2 June . Adriani was named the primo segretario fiorentino 'First Chancellor' and Machiavelli was installed under him, as the 5 Roberto Ridolfi, The Life of Niccold Machiavelli trans. Cecil Grayson (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1963): 18ff. Also see Giuseppe Prezzolini, Vita di Niccolo Machiavelli Fiorentino (Milano: Rusconi, 2nd edn., 1982): 31-33 for a brief description of Marcello di Virgilio Adriani's role in the Florentine Chancellery. Prezzolini's view of Adriani is similar to that of Ridolfi. More recently, Sebastian de Grazia completely neglected Adriani in his Machiavelli in Hell (New York: Vintage Books, Random House, 1994). Maurizio Viroli, in the most recent biography of Machiavelli, only mentioned Adriani four times and each of these is in a positive light. See Viroli's Niccolo's Smile: A Biography of Niccolo Machiavelli. trans. Antony Shugaar (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000): 30, 31, 105 and 120. 7 Nicolai Rubinstein, The Palazzo Vecchio: 1298-1532: Government. Architecture, and Imagery in the Civic Palace of the Florentine Republic (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995). 8 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 145. Godman uses the terms 'Chancellor' and 'Segretario' interchangeably. Road to Exile 102 secondo segretario fiorentino Chancellors worked or 'Second Chancellor'. restoration of the Medici. Machiavelli's came 14-year period both a together until Piero Soderini's increasingly unstable republican government collapsed in 1512, under intense pressure Adriani Over political career from Julius II. This led to the did not survive the transition, yet through the tumult unscathed with his position and honour intact. Why did Adriani succeed where Machiavelli failed? Roberto 'neutral'9. Ridolfi argued that Adriani Ridolfi's assessment is Machiavelli. well as his sense successful because he remained complemented by Giuseppe Prezzolini's biography of Now dated but still appearance as was useful, it contains a vivid depiction of Adriani's of self-importance. Prezzolini wrote: [Adriani] of ours was called in for baptisms and funerals or for any eloquent or semaphoric occasion...Lungs he had, and a belly abundant to ply the bellows; a face impressively void, wreathed in a patriarchal beard, and all the appearances with none of the substance of dignity. Doughty, with a broad forehead, a pair of fine eyebrows, transparent and obtuse, behold him; behold that forearm and its sweeping gestures reaching to the last row, farther than his words can carry, behold how it fires applause, when at the end of a peroration it smites the table resoundingly, and through your spyglass you note the mouth closed and the face uplifted in expectation of the forthcoming and irresistible cheers10. This Marcello other More recent but he was scholarship has illustrated that Adriani did indeed like to 'ply the billows', far from neutral, indeed he was high self-opinion, Adriani possessed a self-serving and large measure egocentric11. Along with his of astute political savvy; knowing precisely when and where to voice his opinions. By contrast, Machiavelli often found it hard to keep his opinions to not conducive to 9 himself12. His patriotic, zealous and outspoken character was political survival in Soderini's teetering republic or under the restored Ridolfi, Life of Niccolo. 131. 1(1 Giuseppe Prezzolini, Niccolo Machiavelli: The Florentine trans. Ralph Roeder (London: G. Putnam's Sons, 1928): 31-32. The quotation above is Prezzolini's own vivid portrayal of Marcello Virgilio Adriani. 11 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. Chapter V: 180-234 for Godman's discussion ofVirgilio's cunning. 12 Ibid, 181. Road to Exile 103 If Medici government. differences between them lost the relationship between these two individuals, the one traces are startling and it may become easier to see why Machiavelli everything he loved and why Adriani prospered even after the Medici restoration. As Second Chancellor Machiavelli was, in theory, Adriani's subordinate. However, in practice, Machiavelli, not Adriani, was given the duties usually afforded to Therefore, he the First Chancellor. While the First Chancellor Machiavelli sent was on was was 'dubbed Soderini's "mannerino" poring left diplomatic missions. In over papers a or puppet'13. in the Palazzo Vecchio, letter dated 14 October 1502 Agostino Vespucci in Florence, wrote to Machiavelli at the court of Cesare Borgia, about Adriani. Vespucci jested: 'Nicholae, salve. Scribam obest; si scripsero, In these vereor ne ne an non scribam, nescio: si non, maledicus habear, et presertim in Marcellum et neglientia Riccium'14. opening lines Vespucci begins to poke fun at Adriani, but he saved the joke for the next line: 'Marcellus tanquam rei, hoc est officii tui, neglector, scribendi reiecit'13. In this 'aside', Vespucci slipped in caused both him and Machiavelli to Machiavelli's work. That Adriani Vespucci's letter 13 on jab at Adriani that must have laugh at the thought of Adriani having to do was Machiavelli's absence is evident in a onus a feeling overworked and abused letter he wrote to Machiavelli as a result of shortly after 7 November 1502. Hale, Florence and the Medici: The Pattern of Control (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977), 92. Machiavelli, Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli. Volume Terzo: Lettere A cura di Franco Gaeta, (Torino: Umone tipografico-editrice torinese, 1984), 121, Letter 33, 14 October 1502. For translation see Niccolo Machiavelli, Machiavelli and his Friends: Their Personal Correspondences trans. James B. Atkinson and David Sices (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996), 49, Letter 33, 14 October 1502. 'Niccolo, greetings. I do not know whether to write or not. If not, I shall be accused of negligence, but if I do write, I fear that I shall be called a slanderer, especially against Marcello [Virgilio Adriani] and 14 John Niccolo Ricci'. 15 Lettere. 121, Letter 33, 1502. 14 October 1502. And Personal Correspondences. 49, Letter 33, 14 October 'Marcello, the negligent one in the matter (that is, of your duty), has refused the burden of writing'. Road to Exile 104 Spectabilis vir etc. II Gonfalonieri stamani mi ha detto che non li pare a verun cotesto luogo vacuo modo che tu ti parta, per non li parere ancor tempo, e lasciare di qualche segno di questi citta; per avervi a mandare un altro, non sa chi si potessi essere piii a proposito, rispetto a molte cose. Pero mi ha detto ch'io ti scriva cosi, e ti avvertisca a non partire; e se io lo fo volentieri, Dio lo sa, che mi truovo con le faccende sequire il Duca Vale16. o non, mie, con le tue e con la lezione addosso. E se tu arai a andando a Rimine, per la publica ti si dira piu appunto. le tue The words in italics above, 'con reasons as Adriani to was Not why Adriani was not la lezione addosso', may did Adriani say related to Machiavelli what he references to his as was be the central only jealous of Machiavelli, but also able to remain in the service of the Medici while Machiavelli once subordinate, e con what he thought about Machiavelli. instructed to say. Yet, why reasons was exiled. Adriani only Adriani slipped in conspicuous personal views. His distaste and jealousy at having to do the work of his well as his own, clearly wore on Adriani's patience. Despite Adriani's protests and bluster, one can only imagine what the political ramifications might have been if Adriani, rather than Machiavelli, had been sent Cesare Borgia. One cannot help but feel thankful that he remained trapped in the Palazzo Vecchio while Machiavelli was in Florence 16 was away on the first Florentine mission to travelling to the most prestigious courts in Italy. However, Adriani would have been Machiavelli on more comfortable, despite his jealousy, when diplomatic missions. For when Machiavelli and Adriani together, matters were even worse were for the First Chancellor. Lettere. 146, Letter 51, 7 November 1502. And Personal Correspondences: 66-67, Letter 51, 'Notable man, etc. The gonfalonier told me this morning that it does not seem right November 1502. 7 in him that you should depart, since he does not feel it is time, and leave that place devoid of any representative of our city; since he would have to send someone else there, he does not know who could be more suitable, in respect to many things. Therefore he has told me to write you thus and advise you not to leave; the Lord knows whether I do so willingly, since I find myself with my business, yours, and my teaching on my hands. Whether you have to follow the duke or not when he goes to Rimini, you will be told more precisely by [through] public [channels] later'. Portions of this letter are also cited in Godman any way to Poliziano to Machiavelli. 182, n. 4. Road to Exile 105 Adriani three was facetious Buonaccorsi'17. their wags, on clique of headed by Machiavelli along with Vespucci and Biagio The three friends were united in their dislike of Adriani, often making superior the butt of ill-humoured jokes, which amounted to little attacks as left out of the circle of friends in the Palazzo Vecchio; 'a more than personal Adriani18. Machiavelli, Vespucci and Buonaccorsi began these 'jokes' as early 1499, which Adriani left unrequited, until November 1512, when all three of the 'wags' were uncovered stripped of their political offices and exiled. Godman's recent research has important factors that and all of them can may have led Machiavelli and his friends to be exiled be traced to Adriani. Along with the figurative knives that Machiavelli, Vespucci and Buonaccorsi slid into the back of Adriani, citizens. As Godman puts they were also outspoken critics of prominent Florentine it: Like Marcello Virgilio [Adriani], Machiavelli was an elected official who depended on the approval of the Signoria for renewal of his post. That, in the eyes of the cautious colleague [Adriani], ought to have entailed a discretion that [Machiavelli], with his two confederates in satirical provocation flouted19. In silence, Adriani was forced to follow Machiavelli around putting out all of the fires that his subordinate had started. Ominously, perhaps, for Machiavelli, Adriani often instigated Machiavelli into fanning the embers of political discontent in Florence. For example, in 1504 Machiavelli wrote which many of Florence's leading citizens which caused 17 18 19 a 'comedy' entitled Le Maschere in the recipients of great deal of embarrassment to the First Godman, Poliziano Ibid: 239-240. were a pro vocational satire, Chancellor20. Unfortunately, to Machiavelli. 239. Ibid, 241. Ibid, 241. Machiavelli's merciless attack on Florence's leading citizens caused Giuliano de' Ricci and Niccolo the younger to suppress Le Maschere. 20 Road to Exile 106 little is known of the de' Ricci's may now Priorista21. be helpful to see lost work beyond a comment on A portion of the Priorista was it which survives in Giuliano printed by Pasquale Villari. It what he and Ricci's work have to say about Le Maschere. quegli anni d'accoppiare spesso l'ironia e quotidiano lavoro degli affari, ed alle severe meditazioni politiche; giacche e assai probabile che allora appunto componesse anche un secondo lavoro letterario, il quale sfortunatamente ando perduto. Era un'imitazione delle Nuvole e di altre commedie d'Aristofane, intitolata Le Maschere. Tutto quello che ne sappiamo e che la scrisse ad instigazione di Marcello Virgilio, e che pervenne con altre sue carte e lavori nelle mani di Giuliano de'Ricci, il quale non voile copiarla, come aveva fatto di tante altre cose inedite del suo illustre antenato, perche era ridotta in frammenti appena leggebili, e perche l'autore « sotto nomi finti va lacerando e maltrattando molti di quelli cittadini, che nel 1504 vivevano.» Dopo di che lo stesso scrittore aggiunge: « Fu Niccolo in tutte quante le sue composizioni assai licenzioso, si nel tassare persone grandi, ecclesiastiche e secolari, come anche nel ridurre tutte le cose a cause naturali o fortuite.» E veramente questo spirito satirico e mordente fu quello che gli procure molti nemici, molti dispiaceri nella vita...22 Pare che il Machiavelli si dilettasse in la satira al Adriani, it seems, put up with the embarrassment (of which he was the original cause instigator, knowing the sharp-witted character of Niccolo) for revenge - Machiavelli's exile. It appears that Adriani was a and time, preparing his prepared to bide his time, 21 Giuliano de' Ricci was Niccolo's grandson. Ricci was given the task of preparing and purging the complete works of Machiavelli by the Inquisition in the 1570's. He and his role in editing Machiavelh are discussed in detail in the following Chapter. His Priorista. with the exception of a few relatively short passages, remains unpublished. Perhaps an edition of this work would prove helpful to Machiavelli studies? Giuliano de'Ricci, Priorista MS. Palatino E.B. 14.1. in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. Pasquale Villari, Niccolo Machiavelli e i suoi tempi 3 Volumi (Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 2nd edn., 1895). 492. Villari's biography and assessment of Machiavelli, despite its age, remains helpful. see Pasquale Villari, Niccolo Machiavelli and his Times 4 Vols. Trans. Linda Villari (London: Kegan Paul, 1878-83). See Vol. DL, pp. 223-224. 'It would seem that Machiavelli frequently amused himself at this period by mingling irony and satire with his official daily work and his political meditations, for it was now that he must have composed a second literary work, which has unfortunately perished. This was an imitation of 'The Clouds' and other comedies of Aristophanes, entitled 'Le Maschere'. All that we know of it is that it was written at the instance of Marcello Virgilio and together with other papers and compositions of his came into the hands of Giuliano de'Ricci, who, though he had transcribed many other unpublished writings of his illustrious grandfather, declined to copy this, not only because it was reduced to barely legible fragments, but because the author had attacked in it, 'under feigned names, many citizens who were still living in the year 1504'. After which the same writer adds: - 'In all his compositions, Niccolo indulged in much license, as well as in blaming great personages, lay and ecclesiastical, as in reducing all things to natural or fortuitous causes'. Certainly this stinging satirical spirit of his produced him many enemies, and helped to embitter his life... 22 See Vol. 1., p. For translation , Road to Exile 107 suffering and scheming in silence; for Vecchio, he went out of his though Adriani supported the Medici outsider at the Palazzo act in a prudent manner so as not to to not be offensive to the so as was an offend anyone in More precisely, his actions, it appears, were carefully weighed Soderini's government. and balanced way to even - those same powerful Florentine families that still quietly families who he had only recently encouraged Machiavelli to slander. For years the Adriani had not only held the post of First Chancellor, he had also held distinguished Professor's Chair at the Florentine Studio, Poliziano, which lectern as a rulers of the 'la lezione was to Godman, Adriani used his 'private pulpit, [where] he transformed his lectures into Republic'24. His students included the best and brightest leading families - Adriani's lectures almost all of whom were about the marvellous no were, The for future of Florence's although quietly, Medici supporters23. were subtly tinged with support unnoticed by his students, who it Adriani26. sermons sons republican in content, yet they for the Medici. This did not go could make addosso'23. According held by Angelo once seems, told their parents sorely abused first Chancellor, despite his office, headway in Soderini's government, time in his lectures and studies, there preparing so he contented himself to bide his a place for himself in the next government, should Soderini's fall. 23 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 181. Adriani Studio in 1495. Also See n. appointed to Poliziano's Chair at the Florentine Machiavelli, where he wrote was 10 above for the text of Adriani's letter to concerning 'my teaching on my hands'. Ibid, 193. ~5 Ibid, 180. 'Princes formed the audience to which Marcello Virgilio's lectures were addressed: "Princes and kings who, at home and abroad, were to administer the Florentine Republic". An education less for scholars than for statesmen was offered, to the sons of the ruling elite, by the First Chancellor at the Studio, 24 from which his successful and sustained career had been launched'. Godman cited a line from one of Adriani's lectures at the Studio; in double quotation marks within the quotation from Godman. Also see p. 180, n. 1, N fols. 65r and 51r: "reipublice nostre futuri forisque administraturi sunt." 26 Ibid, 188. . . . principes et reges," "qui rempublicam domi Road to Exile 108 It did, and Adriani scholarly service, he him for 14 years: was at was not only well positioned to continue his political and last able to take revenge on the three men who had tortured Vespucci, Buonaccorsi and Machiavelli. contributed to Machiavelli's "dismissal, the Chancery," that came one may from The likely push came revenge upon a easy. students, Francesco Guicciardini, wrote in his brief reflection that summarized Adriani's Tellingly, it also encapsulated the restoration. from Adriani, but certain events Machiavelli and friends relatively One of Adriani's most famous Ricordi deprivation and total removal from and out of have been neglected: the push, concealed but comprehensible, within'27. transpired that made his 'Among the factors that success reasons in Florence after the Medici for Machiavelli's downfall. patria non solo debbe intrattenersi sicurta, perche e in pericolo quando e avuto a sospetto, ma ancora per beneficio della patria, perche governandosi cosi gli viene occasione co' consigli e con le opere di favorire molti beni e disfavorire molti mali; e questi che gli biasimano sono pazzi, perche sarebbe fresca la citta e loro, se el tiranno non avessi intorno altro che tristi!28. Dico che uno buono cittadino ed amatore della col tiranno per sua Compare Guicciardini's with Machiavelli's words: Perche questa e una regola generale che non falla mai: che uno principe, il quale non sia savio per se stesso, non pud essere consigliato bene, se gia a sorte non si rimettessi in uno solo che al tutto lo governassi, che fussi uomo prudentissimo. In questo caso, potria bene essere, ma durerebbe poco, perche quello governatore in breve tempo li torrebbe lo stato29. 27 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 241. Francesco Guicciardini, Ricordi trans. Ninian Hill Thomson (New York: S.F. Vanni, 1949): 66-67. 'I maintain that a good and patriotic citizen should seek to stand well with a tyrant, not merely to secure his own safety, he being in danger if he be held in suspicion, but also for the welfare of his patria. For in this way he gains the opportunity of forwarding by his actions and counsels many useful measures, and hindering many that are the reverse. And they are fools who blame him. For both they and their city would be in a miserable plight, if the tyrant had none but wretches about him'. For Italian see same volume and 28 pages. II Principe Altre Opere Politiche: Introduzione di Delio Cantimori. Note di Stefano Andretta (Milano: 1999), 89. For translation see Niccold Machiavelli, The Prince trans. George Bull (London: Penguin Group, 4th ed., 1995): 74-76. See pp. 75-76 for quotation. 'Here is an infallible rule: a prince who is not himself wise cannot be well advised, unless he happens to out himself in the hands of one individual who looks after all his affairs and is an extremely shrewd man. In this case, he may well be given good e Garzanti Libn, Road to Exile 109 been has As previous Chapters, Guicciardini had a talent for illustrated in the undermining his friend's assertions. More than summarizing Machiavelli's poor political manoeuvrings, the ever-observant Guicciardini is directly undermining Machiavelli's assertion that flatterers should be shunned, political game30. Machiavelli's he, and his republic were thereby beating Machiavelli at his true, impassioned character came to own the forefront when tested. Machiavelli, unlike Adriani, could not sit idly by and watch his beloved Republic fall. His to deep love for his patria, underlined by his love of republican liberty, caused him take action. He remained at Florence, the heart against the Spanish last army, while they Chapter, the Spanish army were still of his patria, to organize the militia some distance besieged Prato, which away31. As The defenders managed to turn away the first wave up one third of of the Spanish attack, but they miserably failed during the second assault when the Spanish troops able to breach Prato's walls and pour Machiavelli's militia, fled in terror, Spanish. Under the watchful eyes leaving Prato in the merciless hands of the starving of Giovanni de' Medici who accompanied the Spanish Florence, Piero Soderini's government was collapsing Prato32. as approached its gate. Machiavelli's hastily gathered Florentine militia advice, but he would state'. 30 31 not last '2 long because the man Evidenced in the quotations just cited. Machiavelli was given this position of authority Florence in 1506. For a who governs for him would the Medici armies was no soon match for deprive him of his because he was instrumental in organising the militia at Florence see Viroli, Smile. 82. discussion of the citizen army at Ridolfi, Life of Niccolo. 129. were into the city. The Florentine infantry, including troops, 'countless murders, sacrileges and rapes were committed' in In in the defended by 3,000 was infantrymen. Of the 3,000-strong infantry, Machiavelli's militia made their total number. we saw Road to Exile 110 the battle-hardened Spanish troops who came to greet the militia faltered, Soderini fled to Siena After Soderini's government Chancery on under the them. Ill-prepared and outclassed, cover of night and the Republic fell. collapsed, Machiavelli dismissed from the was 7 November 1512 for his outspokenness against the Medici, his intensely patriotic views and for his part in the city's defence. Only three days later, the Signoria 'sentenced [Machiavelli] to be restricted within the Florentine territory for obliging him to sum of money, pay a caution of 1,000 gold Machiavelli Crushingly, Machiavelli the was was Florins'33. Unable Boscoli February 1513, was a discovered young was a list of 18 years. or 20 names 33 prison on fine34. was only the every last fell from Pietro Paolo Boscoli's pocket. a views33. The list Medici supporter, who quickly turned it over to was the The list, the Eight concluded, named anti-Medicean conspirators. Boscoli and his close friend Agostino Capponi into Yet, this Less than three months later, Florentine who held openly anti-Medicean Eight'6. his destroyed. by Bernardino Coccio, Florentine Balia of pay barred from crossing the threshold of the Palazzo Vecchio, beginning of Machiavelli's personal tragedy. In to produce such a large forced to ask three friends to help him place where he had served the Republic for the past 14 vestige of his political life a year, 18 February 1513, but the Eight were not yet were arrested and thrown content37. Machiavelli's Ridolfi, Life of Niccolo. 133. Ibid, 133. According to Ridolfi, the names of Machiavelli's 3 friends remain unknown. '5Pasquale Villari, The Life and Times of Niccolo Machiavelli 4 Vols, trans. Linda Villari (Unwin: London, 1892), Volume II, 169. 36 Ibid, 169 37 Ibid, 170. 4 Road to Exile 111 name was also found the on list38. Already stripped of his office and exiled from the Palazzo Vecchio for his anti-Medicean views, Amid this turmoil, Adriani the Eight now had Machiavelli arrested. remained seemingly aloof and unaffected, yet hardly 'neutral', at the Palazzo Vecchio as 'Within and without the the First Chancellor. Chancery, the interests of members of the ruling house and of Marcello Virgilio [Adriani] converged'39. The Medici wanted to stamp out any vestige of newly restored rule, of Machiavelli. Furthermore, Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, so intent on passed40. Boscoli Machiavelli, but both the conspiracy41. torturer's ropes. but whether the though he expected to be elected and Capponi were beheaded were be Pope Leo X, on pope, was was on real or suitable sentence a man implicated the morning of 23 February 1513 for their part in axe, He had nothing to do with the 'conspiracy' conspiracy until sentenced to death. Neither Machiavelli escaped the executioner's quickly and Adriani carried Adriani's soon to crushing the possible conspiracy that he refused to leave Florence for the Conclave at Rome, even was possible conspiracy to did Adriani, who probably wanted to rid Florence overthrow their as a - but he did not avoid the if in fact, one ever contrived, the Medici made their in their service. Machiavelli's fall was existed presence complete - - known as was revenge42. Sanuto, I Diarii. Volume XV (Reprint of Venezia: F Visentini, 1879-1903) (Bologna: Forni, 1969), Column 573-574. Sanuto transcribed a letter written by 'Julianus (Giuliano) de' Medici, Florentiae, die 19 Februarii 1513' These names are included in Giuliano's letter are: Nicolo Valon, Agostino Capponi, Giovanni Folchi, Lodovico de Nobili, Francesco Serragli, Nicolo de missier Bernardo Machiavelli, Andrea Marsuppini, Piero Orlandini, Daniele Stroze, Cechotto Tosinghi, El prete de' Martini. '9 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 242. 40 Villari, Life and Times. II. 170. Marino 41 4' ... Ridolfi. Life of Niccolo. 136. Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 181. 'The wonder is not that he lost his job in 1512, but that he held for so long. The qualities of insight and outspokenness for which he is celebrated today, dangerous during the Republic, were his undoing at the restoration. Apart from his work in the organization or the militia, there is little evidence that Machiavelli, the political theorist, was especially astute in the practice of Florentine polities'. Might one ask whether Machiavelli understood the 'verita effettuale' of politics in it Florence? Road to Exile 112 Cardinal Giovanni de'Medici enraptured to have gained such Florence's home prisons were an was elected Pope on 11 honour. The following day, as an act of good will, emptied. Ironically, Machiavelli the patriot was allowed to go along with accused murderers and petty - March 1513. Florence was thieves43. But where was home for Machiavelli? II. Machiavelli's Letters from Exile 'Deciding where exiles would be ordered to go was an important matter. Those making the decision had to take into account what the element of banished from home) overseers seem to have him from was intended to inflict'44. The Signoria, guided by their Medici thought of the perfect punishment for Machiavelli. They expelled political service in Florence, but they sent him only distance away Percussina, 'a little village miles from Florence and two from San his family, or a maddeningly short from his beloved Palazzo Vecchio. Then, his home in exile villa in Sant' Andrea in himself, punishment (other than being so he was on Casciano'43. was at a small the old Roman postal road, seven He had little or no forced to work his small farm. Machiavelli knew that Adriani, the architect of his exile, was situated money to support All the while comfortably in the service of the Medici and at the Studio in Florence, while he was an outcast, poor without any political leverage. Machiavelli appears to have descended into months, but he did not sink into bitterness, and Dante in 43 44 45 and particular. Ridolfi, Life of Niccolo. 138. Shaw, Politics of Exile. 87. Ridolfi, Life of Niccolo. 145. as had a depression that lasted for several so many exiles before him, Petrarch Road to Exile 113 [Florentine exiles] voices crack and come apart in anger, they change Dante let taunts fly a sure sense of target - proud Florence46. As their from connoisseurs of sadness into masters of malediction. with Machiavelli, despite his hurt and heartbreak, never attacked Florence. On the contrary he sank himself into study that focused on educating Florence's citizens by praising their patria. Machiavelli wrote and studied, not simply as Starn said, to 'keep voice of through all [his] losses', but serving his patria, seems Machiavelli's study 'mask' his pain. to balancing to The some though he even that Machiavelli as a means was was no then able to appears to We can or of transformation and restoration; longer employed by her overcome have been much find - more than a a a means government4 . the otium of his life in the country It 48 . 'compulsion', which helped Through his study, he restored his relationship with his patria, degree, the otium that he endured and negotium he yearned for49. change in Machiavelli's outlook began in the late months of 1513 with II Principe but it did not reach its maturity until the second around the - vintage season of his exile, particularly year of 1515 in the dedicatory letter and epilogue to II Principe. begin to trace the change in his letters written as an exile. Perhaps the occasione of Medici Pope and Medici Capitano at Florence opened his eyes? Seizing the opportunity would bring together Italy's united patria, and it would no disgraced Florentine, patrie into one longer be possible to be exiled within it. The barbarians would at last be driven from Italian and the many soil; the exiled Sienese citizen, the banished Genoese among others, would be united in a single patria, under the 46 Starn, Contrary Commonwealth. 125. For Petrarch's view of exile see by the same author "Petrarch's on Exile: a Humanist Use of Adversity", in Volume 1 of Essays Presented to Mvron P. Gilmore. 2 Vols. eds. Sergio Bertelli and Gloria Ramakus (Firenze: La Nuova Italia Editrice, 2978):241Consolation 254. 47 Starn, Contrary Commonwealth. 121. Starn is not referring directly to Machiavelli, but he ties as an exile, to this theme of 'finding a voice'. 48 Ibid, 146. 49Najemy, Between Friends. See 'Formerly Secretary' pp. 95-135. Machiavelli Road to Exile 114 leadership of a principe. If one doubts that triumphal unification could bring an end to examples from the quattrocento, albeit exile, there are just such phenomenon. Reggio a as its new all of Reggio's like one argue in each is a Borso d'Este, in 1452, celebrated his triumphal entry into lord by cancelling on a every sentence passed against exiles, thus allowing grander scale, end the practice of exile in Italy, with that the 'secular patria'' provided the citizen, exile or means one decree. of ending exile by restoring otherwise, 'virtu italica' with which to identify? This possibility neglected implication of Machiavelli's political thought. Machiavelli's thought not been sent into exile. grew he smaller scale, that illustrate exiles to return home50. A unifying prince, in Machiavelli's theory, could, d'Este, only Might on a may never His exile may and matured. Indeed, what were have help come to one to such a distinct conclusion had he understand how his political thought the surroundings of Machiavelli's exile in which developed his mature political vision? For must Starn, in order to understand the begin with an person as well as the process of exile, one analysis of Italy's geography: Rivers from the Alps cut their way through mazes of valleys and steep gullies that of the Tiber, the Arno, the tributaries of the Po, and the ten parallel streams, from the Taro to the Biferno, of the eastern Apennine slope. In the plains, water has piled up silt in fertile places or seeped through trackless lowland stretches, like those reclaimed only in recent times on the delta of the Po.. .physical connections are limited within such an environment51. mark the Machiavelli are was courses exiled into the western reaches of the clearly visible from Florence. He lived only seven Apennine mountain chain, which miles from Florence, but as Starn said, he would have been almost completely cut off from life in the city both in tenns of business and, more 50 51 important, in terms of politics. Samuel Cohn has also pointed to the Starn, Contrary Commonwealth. 98 Ibid, 3 n. 39. Road to Exile 115 distinction between the mountainous city regions - the but for Florence - and the surrounding towns, countryside and contado52. Even if, as Cohn asserts, 'the society and culture of the mountains did not differ Machiavelli most - definitely so dramatically from the plains saw a political service he pined, as difference33. as historians have supposed', For business, Machiavelli cared little, his letter of 9 April 1513 indicates: Pure, se io vi potessi parlare, non potre' fare che io non vi empiessi il capo di castellucci, perche la Fortuna ha fatto che, non sapendo ragionare ne dell'arte della seta e delFarte lana, ne de' guadagni ne delle perdite, e' mi conviene ragionare dello stato, e mi bisogna o botarmi di stare cheto, o ragionare di questo. Se io potessi sbucare del dominio, io vorrei pure anch'io sino costi a domandare se il papa e in casa54 This letter is filled with nature of his life in subjunctives. Emphasising the sorrowful and perhaps fanciful exile, Machiavelli's letter is filled with 'se's' talk to his friend, 'if he could leave the Florentine territories. have been letter seems could not was worse 'if s': 'if he could His punishment executed. Exile within the boundaries of Florence, within an easy may or was well ride of the city-centre, for Machiavelli than being exiled outright and sent abroad. This to illustrate the grief and frustration Machiavelli felt during his exile. He physically talk to his friend. He could only write letters to Vettori because he unable to leave the 'dominio' punishment of his exile. Machiavelli or dominion of Florence for was speaking to friends. His letter continues a year as part of the alone, stripped of even the simplest pleasure of as follows: 'Ma fra tante grazie, la mia per mia 52 Samuel Cohn, Creating the Florentine State: Peasants and Rebellions. 1348-1434 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999): 7-8 for his discussion of the 'city-contado'' dichotomy. 53 Ibid, 8. Where Cohn writes of the 'plains', he is referring to Florence and its 'suburbs'. 54 Lettere: 367-368, Letter 208, 9 April 1513. For translation see Personal Correspondences. 225. Letter 208, 9 April 1513. 'All the same, if I could talk to you, I could not help but fill your head with castles in air, because Fortune has seen to it that since I do not know how to talk about either the wool trade, or profits or losses, I have to talk about politics. I need either to take a vow of silence or to discuss this. If I could disentangle myself from Florentine territory, I too, would certainly go down there to see whether the pope is at home'. Cited in Naiemv. Between Friends: 107-108. Road to Exile 116 straccuratiggine resto in terra. Aspettero il Vettori could offer him was more settembre'53. Machiavelli knew that the help psychological than physical. He knew that Vettori could, in reality, make little headway for him with the Pope. The sense of self-doubt continued in a letter of 1513. gran dimenarsi col pontefice. Vorrei proposito gli scrivessi una lettera, che fosse meglio che voi facessi a bocca questo Io intendo che il cardinale de' Soderini fa che mi consgliassi, mi raccomandassi offizio per se vi paressi che fosse a sua mia parte con Santita; il o se door to the pope, a cardinale36. He did not know where to turn. Machiavelli every open un was searching for failed37. Machiavelli mountains, estranged from his beloved Florence, and indicated. money, An possible but he found all of them closed. Soderini him and in the end, Vettori, in turn, He did at times every so was one was no and help to alone in his exile in the time passed. begin to venture back into Florence unscrupulous friend, avenue as the letter of 16 April Tommaso del Bene, harassed Machiavelli for while he crossed the Arno via the Ponte Vecchio. The rest of the time he spent between his home in the mountains and with various friends, to whom he referred as the 'brigata' or the 'gang'3*. Machiavelli's friends the criminal connotations that 55 Lettere. 368, Letter 208, 9 April 1513. 'But, among so shall wait until September'. 56 were and his use of the term 'brigata' highlight associated with exiles. In a unified Italy, true April 1513. For translation see Personal Correspondences. 225, Letter 208, 9 many requests for pardon, mine fell to the floor because of my negligence. I Lettere. 368, Letter 208, 9 April 1513. And Personal 'I hear that Cardinal Soderini is busying himself a Correspondences: 225-226, Letter 208, 9 April lot with the pontiff I should like you to advise me whether or not you think it would be appropriate for me to write him a letter requesting a recommendation to His Holiness. Or would it be better for you to speak on my behalf directly with the 1513. cardinal?'. 57 Najemy, Between Friends. 221. 'By the fall [autumn] of 1513 Machiavelli probably realized that the so longed for would not occur as the result of any words Vettori had spoken or might yet be willing to speak to Leo, Giulio, or Giuliano'. 58 Personal Correspondences. 227, Letter 210, 16 April 1513. Also see Lettere. 370, Letter 210, 16 April rehabilitation he 1513. Road to Exile 117 criminals who deserved exile would not be allowed to roam the trouble, they would be banished to a place outside of the passed Machiavelli's life in exile. So Machiavelli's advice on grave up peninsula3 \ At various intervals Vettori asked for matters at Rome, such as the treaty and the French, which threw all of the French and the countryside, stirring between the Spanish Italy into fanciful speculation about the intentions of intelligence of the Spanish King60: scrissi, perche quando vi vicne a proposito mi diciate quello credete sia Spagna in questa triegua; et io approverro il guidizio vostro, perche, a dirvi il vero senza adulazione, l'ho trovato in queste cose piu saldo che di altro uomo, con il quale abbia parlato61. Levami e stata la fantasia di Whether Vettori ears. So, the Vettori's passed summer questions. appropriate persons at on Machiavelli's advice is doubtful, or if he did, it fell passed with Machiavelli involved in studies and Even if Vettori neglected to pass political views. Machiavelli family was deaf responses to Machiavelli's advice to the Rome, he nevertheless helped Machiavelli by giving him to vent his on a means Then, somewhere between 26 May and 4 August the struck by tragedy62. Machiavelli managed few words: dipoi auta una littera tua de' di 26 maggio, alia quale non mi occorre che dirti altro, se non che noi siamo tuti sani; e la Marietta fece una bambina, la quale si mori in capo di 3 di. E Marietta sta bene63. Ho 59 go Shaw, Politics of Exile: 143-171 where she discusses in order to keep track oftheir exiles. in great detail the extent to which regimes would Najemy, Between Friends: 114-116. Lettere, 376, Letter 211, 21 April 1513. And Personal Correspondences. 231. Letter 211. 21 April 1513. 'I got up early and wrote so that when you find it convenient you may tell me what you think was the fancy of the king of Spain in this truce. I shall agree with your judgement because, to tell you the truth without flattery, I have found it more sound in these matters than that of any other man that I have spoken with'. 6" Machiavelli either forgot that Vettori had written him on 12 July or he had ignored Vettori's letter because of his grief at the loss of a child. 63 Lettere. 395, Letter 217, 4 August 1513. For translation see Personal Correspondences. 244, Letter 217, 4 August 1513. 'I have gotten your letter of 26 May, to which I have nothing more to say than that we are all well; Marietta gave birth to a baby girl, who died after three days; Marietta is well'. 61 Road to Exile 118 His wife lost a child and this letters it is hard to was all he could say. Without the distraction of Vettori's imagine Machiavelli surviving the first summer of his exile. Then, quite suddenly something began to change in his letters to Vettori. On 26 August, his bewilderment still evident, a foretaste of II Principe leapt off the Machiavelli told Vettori how life in exile was weighing on but not before page, him. Machiavelli wrote to Vettori: Questa vostra lettera de' 20 mi ha sbigottio, perche mi hanno Signore ambasciadore. Tordine di essa, la moltitudine della ragioni, e tutte le altre sue qualita in modo implicato, che io restai nel principio smarrito e confuso64. Through his not-so subtle life as an feelings. sarcasm, exile is stolen. Without He was mentioning his exile, Machiavelli clearly described his 'entangled, bewildered and confused' in exile. choice makes it sound as hopelessly lost, but that lines of Dante's perhaps the briefest of glimpses into Machiavelli's though he lost his was not to be the way in case. dense forest, where he would remain One cannot help but recall the opening Inferno where he described his surroundings. Dante wrote: 'Nel del cammin di nostra vita / Mi ritrovai per una smarrita'63. a Machiavelli's word Unlike Dante, for Machiavelli through divine intervention. selva redemption oscura came mezzo / Che la diritta via era through political service, not In this letter to Vettori, Machiavelli was taking the first steps toward overcoming his exile. He continued: io mi fossi nel rileggerla un poco rassicurato, io davo cartaccia, e rispondevovi a qualche altra cosa. Ma nel particarla mi e intervenuto come alia volpe, quando la vedde il leone, che la prima volta fu per morire di paura, la E se non 64 Lettere: 414-419, Letter 222, 26 August 1513. And Personal Correspondences: 257-260, Letter 222, 26 August 1513. 'Your letter of the twentieth dismayed me: its organisation, its countless lines of reasoning, and all its other merits entangled me in such a way that at first I was bewildered and confused'. 65 The first 3 lines of Dante's Inferno. wood / Where the straight way was 'In the middle of our life's walk / I discovered lost'. The translation is the Author's. myself in a dark Road to Exile 119 seconda si fermo rassicuratomi nel guardarlo drieto ad un cespuglio, la terza gli favello; e cosi io, pratricarla, vi rispondero66. a Najemy wrote that although impressive in its reasoning and organized presentation of information, contained arguments consistent with those of his earlier letters, Machiavelli's "confession" of initial bewilderment and confusion seems oddly out of place'67. Given Vettori's letter of the twentieth, Machiavelli may was not, then, bewildered as a result of Vettori's letter. be that Machiavelli painted exile. At first he was a picture of himself and his changing relationship to terrified, then this letter also presents On the contrary, it more familiar, and at last triumphant. Furthermore, the first instance where Machiavelli used the 'fox' and the 'lion', made famous in 11 Principe Chapter 186K. It is becoming clear that Machiavelli was coming to terms with the otium of his pastoral exile. More given a new cynically, it may appear that Machiavelli simply wanted to be re-instated office in the Medici government Principe69. Such Machiavelli truly believed in the ideas he a - an interpretation often bestowed upon or II conclusion is unfounded, for all of the evidence at hand suggests that have him thrown from office not was formulating. The idealism that helped only permeated his political service, but more importantly his scholarly service to the Florentine patria. 66 Lettere: 414-415, Letter 222, 26 August 1513. For translation see Personal Correspondences. 257, Letter 222, 26 August 1513. 'Had I not been able to collect my wits somewhat by rereading it, I would have given up the game and would have answered you by going on to something else. But as 1 became more familiar with it, the same thing happened to me as it did the fox when he saw the lion: the first time he almost died of fright; the second, he halted behind a clump of bushes to take a look; the third he chatted with him. And so I, having collected my wits by becoming more familiar with your letter, shall answer you'. 67 Najemy, Between Friends. 168. 68 Discussed in Chapter 18 of II Principe. This subject is developed in the following Chapter. 09 Garrett Mattingly, "Machiavelli's Prince. Political Science or Political Satire?" in The American Scholar 27 (1958): 482-491. This article addresses that subject as well as those indicated by its title. Road to Exile 120 The next letter that Machiavelli wrote to Vettori is dated 10 December 1513, is his most famous letter. Therein, he described to Vettori his life on and the farm; the day- to-day drudgery of exile and survival, but there amidst the mud and filth of his country life, he transformed himself. He came to grips with the forced otium of his pastoral life: mi ritorno in casa, et entro nel mio scrittoio; et in su Tuscio mi spoglio quella veste cotidiana, piena di fango e di loto, e mi metto panni reali e curiali; e rivestito condecentemente entro nelle antique corti degli antiqui uomini, dove, da loro ricevuto amorevolmente, mi pasco di quel cibo, che solum e mio, e che io nacqui per lui; dove io non mi vergogno parlare con loro, e domandarli della ragione delle loro azioni; e quelli per loro umanita mi rispondono; e non sento per 4 ore di tempo alcuna noia, sdimentico ogni affano, non temo la poverta, non mi sbigottisce la morte: tutto mi transferisco in loro. E perche Dante dice che non fa scienza sanza lo ritenere lo avere inteso, io ho notato quello di che per la loro conversazione ho fatto capitale, e composto uno opusculo De principatibus 0. Venuta la sera, As Godman states, at subtle the heart of this letter is the verb 'transferisco' or transform and a metaphor that it contains: The metaphor is less of movement than of metamorphosis. A total from immersion in the past is allusion to a cultural concept well known in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. That concept is translatio atrium/studii: the theory of the transmission and progress of scholarship from Greece to Rome, from France to Italy, culminating ...on the farm of San one transformation of the self and the present that arises Machiavelli's meaning; and witty but unrecognised Casciano71. So, Machiavelli detailed and declared to Vettori his total transformation. longer forced to look to Vettori study, Machiavelli affected a as his intercessor or He was no saviour. Through introspection and real transformation in his life. 70 He took the first steps Lettere. 426, Letter 224, 10 December 1513. For translation see Personal Correspondences. 264, Letter 224, 10 December 1513. 'When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; on the threshold I take off my workday clothes, covered with mud and dirt, and put on the garments of the court and palace. Fitted out appropriately, I step inside the venerable courts of the ancients, where I nourish myself on that food that alone is mine and for which I was born; where I am unashamed to converse with them and to question them about the motives for their actions, and they, out of their human kindness, answer me. And for four hours at a time I feel no boredom, I forget all my troubles, I do not dread poverty, and I am not terrified of death. I (take or transform)70 [transferisco] myself into them completely. And because Dante says that no one understands anything unless he retains what he has understood, I have jotted down what I have profited from 71 in their conversation and composed a to Machiavelli. 257. Godman, Poliziano short study, De principatibus\ Road to Exile 121 toward his mastering the otium of his life in exile. Machiavelli was on the way to restoring personal relationship with his patria. Najemy wrote: in 'in politics, exile...[Machiavelli's] evening dream [the letter above] represents the months in which he turned inward to transformation II as a well "dialogue" all his as his own'72. His inward dialogue brought about this redemption from exile, which only began with the writing of Principe in December 1513. Might this inward dialogue also have found dialogue on a the next two years detail man still struggling with his exile. 11 Principe, still without its epilogue or re¬ written dedication, did not over bring about his complete restoration. In fact, Machiavelli's literary output, with the exception of 11 Principe, was end of 1513 and the two years some 1515 the outlet in language? (This is discussed in the following Chapter). Machiavelli's letters to Vettori and his other friends the life of a an that followed, but almost non-existent between the time around the late months of floodgates opened. Machiavelli wrote the dedicatory letter and epilogue to II Principe, he began the Discorsi, he wrote several plays and delict guerra and he was poems, he wrote the Arte commissioned by Pope Clement VII to write the Istorie Florentine73. That Machiavelli's exile from political service still affected him is seen in the language he adopted in the dedicatory letter to II Principe. His language highlights all the more much 72 73 a so the importance that the theme of exile had in Machiavelli's political works; that his so language evokes the landscape that encompassed his life in exile. Najemy, Between Friends. 235. L'Asino. Belfagor. a 'novella' and Andria written few of the works that Machiavelli cited in Grazia, Hell: 23-24. wrote in 1517; Mandragola. written in 1518, These after the 'vendemmial' of 1515. are only The dates for these works are Road to Exile 122 The mountainous analogies, which is contained in the dedicatory letter to II Principe. In the second famous last to landscape of his exile also formed the basis for one of his most paragraph of the letter Machiavelli's tones are sweeping, like those of the artist sketching the landscape that he wishes to paint: voglio sia reputata presunzione se uno uomo di basso et infimo stato ardisce e regolare e' governi de' principi; perche, cosi come coloro che disegnono e' paesi si pongano bassi nel piano a considerare la natura de' monti e de' luoghi alti, e per considerare quella de' bassi si pongano alto sopra monti, similmente, a conoscere bene la natura de' populi, bisogna esser principe, et a conoscere bene quella de' principi bisogna esser populare'4. Ne discorrere In the Gone closing paragraph of the dedicatory letter Machiavelli's tone changes completely. are the sweeping tones, replaced by a specific and impassioned plea from a man who knew the life of an exile all too well. Pigli adunque vostra Magnificenzia questo piccolo dono con quello animo che io lo mando; il quale se da quella fia diligentemente considerato e letto, vi conoscera drento uno estremo mio desiderio, che Lei pervenga a quella grandezza che la fortuna e le altre sue qualita li promettano. E, se vostra Magnificenzia dallo apice della sua altezza qualche volta volgera li occhi in questi luoghi bassi, conoscera quanto io indegnamente sopporti una grande e continua malignita di fortuna73. Although he an able to official restoration. longer 74 was a manage the otium of his life in exile, he still desperately craved In the last paragraph of the dedicatory letter Machiavelli is no painter of political landscapes, he is the lonely despised hermit; alone for Principe. 1999. 14. For translation Prince. 1995. 2. 'Nor I hope will it be considered presumptuous to discuss and lay down the law about how princes should rule; because, just as men who are sketching the landscape put themselves down in the plain to study the nature of the mountains and the highlands, and to study the low-lying land they put themselves high on the mountains, so, to comprehend fully the nature of the people, one must be a prince, and to comprehend fully the nature of princes one must be an ordinary citizen'. 75 Principe. 1999. 14. For translation see Prince. 1995. 2. 'So, Your Magnificence, take this little gift in the spirit in which I send it; and if you read and consider it diligently, you will discover in it my urgent wish that you reach the eminence that fortune and your other qualities promise you. And if, from your lofty peak, Your Magnificence will sometimes glance down to these low-lying regions, you will realize the extent to which, undeservedly, I have to endure the great and unremitting malice of fortune'. for a man see of low and humble status to dare Road to Exile 123 everyone to see, there is a who wants nothing more than to be restored to his former position. Yet, still subtler allusion beneath his Machiavelli had princely status, but no more Machiavelli's letter is not plea. desire to view the world from the mountain top, no importantly he had an no desire for desire for religious redemption. appeal to the divine for deliverance, but an appeal to an earthly prince. In his mind, he travelled in time, to various places, so that he could carry on political discourses with those whom he admired. Machiavelli's fanciful dialogues took him on a secular pilgrimage. On his journeys, it may be that he sought political, not religious, salvation for himself and for Italy. In order to illustrate this point it is perhaps helpful to cite may portion of one of Petrarch's most famous letters, with which Machiavelli a have been familiar76. By way of contrast, compare Machiavelli's words above with those of Petrarch's letter: delusus quadam in valle consedi. Illic a corporeis ad incorporeal volucri cogitatione transiliens, his aut talibus me ipsum compellabam verbis: "Quod totiens hodie in ascensu montis huius expertus es, id scito et tibi accidere et multis, accedentibus ad beatam vitam; sed idcirco tarn facile ad hominibus non perpendi, quod corporis motus in aperto sunt, animorum vero invisibiles et occulti. Equidem vita, quam beatam dicimus, celso loco sita est; areta, ut aiunt, ad illam ducit via. Mutli quoque colles intereminent et de virtute in virtutem preclaris gradibus ambulandum est; in summo finis est omnium et vie terminus ad quern peregrinatio nostra disponitur. Eo pervinire volunt omnes, sed ut ait Naso, Sic sepe Velle parum est; cupias, ut re potiaris, oportet. nisi, ut in multis, in hoc quoque te fallis - non solum vis sed etiam cupis. Quid ergo te retinet? Nimirum nichil aliud, nisi per terrenas et infimas voluptates planior et un prima ffonte videtur, expeditior via; veruntamen, ubi multum erraveris, aut sub pondere male dilati laboris ad ipsius te beate vite culmen oportet ascendere aut in convallibus peccatorum tuorum segnem Tu certe 76 - Machiavelli's familiarity with Petrarch appears to have been more than superficial. For example, he quoted Petrarch at the end of II Principe: he cites Petrarch in the famous letter to Vettori dated 10 December 1513 among others. All references to Petrarch in Machiavelli are noted in the commentary to Chapter Seven of this Thesis. Road to Exile 124 procumbere; et si - quod ominari horreo - ibi te tenebre et umbra mortis invenerint, eternam noctem in perpetuis cruciatibus Machiavelli's may familiarity with Petrarch and his well-documented history of citing him have influenced the opening letter of II Principe. Petrarch sought to climb to the divine summit. undermined came Unlike Machiavelli, however, Petrarch's redemption, guided by St. Augustine whom he read while atop the mountain, redemption agree''77. was divine; for Machiavelli through political service, not through religious redemption Petrarch's 78 He . overtly Christian themes, stripping them of all religious connotations, leaving only the bare bones of political service. Machiavelli was happy to 'ipsius peccatorum tuorum sins', as scholar. again segnem Petrarch referred to it, as procumbere' long as or 'lie in the sluggish valley of he could continue to serve his patria your as a However, Machiavelli desperately wanted to end his time in exile and once serve his patria. It may be that he placed all his hopes, for personal as well as 77 Francesco Petrarca, Le Familiari: Edizione Critia: Volume Primo Per cura di Vittorio Rossi (Firenze: Sansoni, 1933): 155-156, Liber Quartus, I, 12-15, 89-110. For translation see Francesco Petrarch, Letters from Petrarch trans, and ed. Morris Bishop (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966), 47, 'The Ascent of Mont Ventoux', written 26; April 1336. 'Being so befooled, I sat down in a hollow. My thought quickly turned from the material to the spiritual, and I said to myself in approximately these words: "What have experienced so often today in the ascent of this mountain certainly happens to you and to many are striving for the blessed life. But the spiritual straying is not so easily to be perceived, for the movements of the body are in the open, whereas those of the soul are hidden and invisible. The life that we call blessed is situated on a high place; and narrow, we are told, is the way that leads to it; and many hills stand in the way, and we must advance from virtue to virtue up shining steps. The summit is the ultimate goal, the terminus of the road on which we journey. Everyone wishes to arrive there, but, as Ovid says: 'To wish is not enough; to gain your end you must ardently yearn.' You, certainly, both wish and ardently yearn, unless you are fooling yourself, as you so often do. What then holds you back? Surely nothing but the level road that seems at first easier, amid base earthly pleasures. But after much wandering you will either have to climb upward eventually, with labours long shirked, to the heights of the blessed life, or lie sluggishly in the valley of your sins. And if - I shudder at the thought! - the darkness and the shadows of death find you there, you will spend an eternal night in perpetual torture." 78 Familiari, Liber Quartus, I, 26, 190. 'Que dum mirarer singula et nunc terrenum alquid saperem, nunc exemplo corporis animum ad altiora subveherem, visum est michi Confessionum Augistini librum [...] habeoque semper in manibus'. Letters from Petrarch. 49 where Petrarch wrote: 'While admiring all these features, now recognizing some earthly object, now uplifting my soul, like my body, it occurred to me to look at the Confessions of Augustine [...]! keep it with me always'. you who Road to Exile 125 Italian unification and restoration, in Lorenzo, the Medici Capitano of Florence and his uncle, Pope Leo X. In a land of petty states littered with desperate exiles, Machiavelli provided a possible solution to their, and his, restoration. In the epilogue of 11 Principe, Machiavelli carefully chose the 'oppressed' and the 'oppressors'. Every pagan or Jewish - group mentioned is either Christianity does not fit into Machiavelli's plans. necessario, volendo vedere la virtu di Moise, che il populo Egitto, et a conoscere la grandezza dello animo di Ciro, ch'e' Persi fussino oppressati da' Medi e la eccellenzia di Teseo, che li Ateniensi fussino dispersi; cosi al presente, volendo conoscere la virtu d'uno spirito italiano, era necessario che la Italia si riducessi nel termine che ell'e di presente, e che la fussi piu stiava che li Ebrei, piii serva ch'e' Persi, piu dispersa che li Ateniensi, sanza capo, sanza ordine; battuta, spogliata, lacera, corsa, et avessi sopportato E se, come io dissi, era d'Isdrael fussi stiavo in i» • -79 d ogm sorte ruma Every historical group . of peoples mentioned by Machiavelli, was led out of political oppression into exile by their respective leader and then out of exile into prosperity and fame; out of exile into the peace; from peace to prosperity and If Lorenzo, with cooperation of Pope Leo, could unite Italy, he would out of necessity bring into fellowship all of her exiles, with their new patria - centred in Florence. One might that Machiavelli's secular vision for Florentine supremacy stands in stark contrast to the Florentine 79 supremacy. experience under and centrality in a argue united Italy Savonarola80. Perhaps this was Principe. 1999: 94-95. For translation see Prince. 1995: 80-81. 'The Israelites had to be enslaved in Egypt for Moses to emerge as their leader; the Persians had to be oppressed by the Medes so that the greatness of Cyrus could be recognized; the Athenians had to be scattered to demonstrate the excellence of Theseus: then at the present time, in order to discover the worth of the Italian spirit, Italy had to be brought to her present extremity. She had to be more enslaved that the Hebrews, more oppressed than the Persians, more widely scattered than the Athenians; leaderless, lawless, crushed despoiled, overrun; she had to have endured every kind of desolation'. 80 Donald Weinstein, Savonarola and Florence: Prophecy and Patriotism in the Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970); Lorenzo Polizotto, The Elect Nation: The Savonarolan Movement in Florence. 1494-1545 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994); Roberto Ridolfi, Vita di Girolamo Savonarola 2 Vols. (Firenze: Tipografia Giuntina, 1952). Ridolfi's biography has yet to be surpassed. For more background on religion, prophecy and politics see Ottavia Niccoli, Prophecy and People in Renaissance Italy trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990). Road to Exile 126 Machiavelli's dream: a united Italy free from the practice of exile and also from religion that he endured the otium of his exile, but he also in the sphere of politics. craved political restoration and this could only moves beyond the confines of II Principe affected his other In the remained an seems eventually through political unification. If one one may yet glimpse how Machiavelli's exile Discorsi, Machiavelli re-stated and re-iterated the theme of exile. exile from the Florentine his patria, not come political works. still craved restoration. and It political world when he wrote the Discorsi, but he Furthermore, Machiavelli wanted to be politically reunited with through his a He own manoeuvrings, but by the political workings of a prince republican government. He wrote: mi pare fuori di proposito ragionare, intra questi altri discorsi, quanto sia pericolosa credere a quelli che sono cacciati della patria sua, essendo cose che ciascuno di si hanno a praticare da coloro che tengono stati... Debbesi considerare pertanto quanto sia vana e la fede e le promesse di quelli che si truovano privi della loro patria. Perche, quanto alia fede, si ha a estimare che, qualunque volta e' possano per altri mezzi che per gli tuoi rientrare nella patria loro, che lasceranno te e accosterannosi ad altri, nonostante qualunque promesse ti avessono fatte. E quanto alle vane promesse e speranze, egli e tanta la voglia estrema che e in loro di ritornare in casa, che ei credono naturalmente molte cose che sono false e molte ad arte ne aggiungano: talche, tra quell o che ei credono e quello che ei dicono di credere ti riempiono di speranza, talmente che fondandoti in su quella o tu fai una spesa in vano, o tu fai una impresa dove tu rovini81. E' non cosa 81 Niccold Machiavelli, Discorsi Sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio. Introduzione di Gennaro Sasso, Note di Giorgio Inglese., (Milano: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1999), 11.31. p. 378. For translation see Niccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses of Niccolo Machiavelli 2 Vol. Trans. Lesley J. Walker (London, Routledge, 1950). Vol. 1. H.31. p. 450. 'It may not be amiss amongst other topics to show how dangerous it is to trust those who have been driven from their country, since this is a matter with which everyone who holds office has to deal. One should reflect, therefore, on the unreliability of agreements and promises made by men who find themselves shut out from their country, because in determining what such men's word is worth it must be borne in mind that, once they get a chance of returning to their country without your help, they will desert you and turn to others in spite of any promises they may have made to. While in regard to the vain promises and hopes, so intense is their desire to get back home that they naturally believe much that is false and artfully add much more: so that between what they believe and what they say they believe they fill you with a hope which is just that, if you rely on it, either you incur expense in vain or take up what will ruin you'. Cited in Starn, Contrary Commonwealth: 94, 182, n. 26. . . Road to Exile 127 Machiavelli, it seems, unite with him, wanted Lorenzo to the doors to Italy's exiles so they would against the 'others': the French, Spanish and Swiss. This brief citation from the Discorsi may more open likely this is a be another glimpse of 'Niccolo's Smile' heartfelt statement from a man as Viroli called it, but who viewed his exile, at least in part, as over. Conclusion We have attempted to investigate how Machiavelli pastoral prison, which, in turn, we was able to manage the otium of his proposed, laid the theoretical groundwork for the ending of his exile, and that of every other exiled Italian, as called for in the epilogue to II Principe. As the study of Machiavelli's life in exile illustrated, he began that depressed and desperate him. he On the contrary, was able to come to man, but he refused to take revenge as he remained true to his greatest love terms - new and saw a his Florentine patria with the forced otium of his life in exile. The first brief window of opportunity as a others had done before this manifested themselves in his letters to Vettori written late in 1513. Machiavelli life - and signs of Perhaps, in Florence that could not only unite Italy expel the barbarians, but also end and reconcile his political divorce from Florence, which would bring him back to the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence Chancellor. Lorenzo, the Medici as its Second Capitano at Florence and his uncle, head of the Church, Pope Leo X, and their temporarily united interests made up the occasione. Indeed, Leo's Road to Exile 128 interests in Florence and its In order to attain such rely not for on on its like a success. - to resign his office, handing have been uncovered, but in sincerity permeating every aspect attribute to Machiavelli may a united shared. It Italy and its identity. is . army, A desire to honour Machiavelli's power over to an titled the Villari, Life and Times. II. 170. so doing one may of his life. However, be able to add insights into preoccupations with 8" united citizen In examining these aspects of Machiavelli's political thought, naivete may of a elected republican Such freedom and liberty, perhaps, would aid in the creation of ran, 82 would be that which could provide the impetus for Italy's uniting prince Roman dictator government. Italy. papal election of the peninsula, including restored exiles every corner conjures visions of triumph and Italian 'secular patria' own The impracticalities of his theory own resources. do not lessen its genius. Indeed, the vision of encompassing Italians from - such that he remained in Florence for the glorious goal, Italy would need, according to Machiavelli, a mercenaries, but citizen army a were Capponi-Boscoli trials which took place during his outcome of the to politics a nuance appears to better a a united certain implicit see work which how deep his many scholars his theory for the creation Even if it is not the work of Machiavelli, it gives a national identity that Machiavelli Discorso o dialogo intorno alia may well have nostra lingua. Chapter Five Niccolo Machiavelli, Author of the Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua? Introduction 11 Principe and the Discorsi scholars such army as Hans Baron seem to were be more willing to admit. The and the theme of exile in both works Furthermore unification they as closely related in terms of content than may be indicative of this close relationship. indicate that Machiavelli devised may discussed in of patria, the citizen presence a plan for Italian liberation and previous Chapters. It is likely, given the expansiveness of the Discorsi, in comparison with the concise prose and rhetoric of II Principe, that these works 11 are united in content, Principe for example Following closely works as well as or the differences in their answer intorno alia nostra may may have begun his early 1516, helping to explain the continuity between the two length. Is there anything which thought became increasingly patriotic, appreciate how his political thought became An Chapter One argued. written in 1513 and amended perhaps in the autumn of 1515. understand how Machiavelli's to as the heels of these additions, Machiavelli on Discorsi in late 1515 was though divided by date of authorship be found in the pages lingua. However, such more or may help one to which helps one expansive in the intervening years? of a work entitled the Discorso an answer o dialogo is not without its difficulties. For example, the authorship (discussed in this Chapter) and date (the subject of the following Chapter) of the Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua, are contested. The large majority of scholars, both Italian and Anglophone believe it to be Machiavelli's pen, authorship. but there However, one are enough holes in its might argue provenance to a product of hinder proof of its that there is enough textual, intertextual and Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 130 contextual evidence to suggest seems, may have authored the text. The text tantalisingly, to 'fit' between Machiavelli's II Principe and Discorsi. I. Patria in the The that Machiavelli Dialogo, words in as Dialogo it is abbreviated for the remainder of this study, is a short treatise, 4,513 length. In the treatise, its author sets forth the Florentine/Tuscan dialect as superior Italian vernacular, hence, the scholarly attention given to the Dialogo linguistic treatise. However, it his native dialect is Dialogo is as much It is toward that this may be that the underlying reason the as a that its author defends only partly due to his linguistic investigations. Could it be that the a political treatise an as it is linguistic? understanding of the politics behind the language of the Dialogo Chapter seeks to And this move. may be illustrated by examining the term patria in the Dialogo. Perhaps this may help to demonstrate Machiavelli's authorship and it may show that the Dialogo is important in helping to interpret Machiavelli's plan for Italian liberation and unification. That said, the author recognises and acknowledges the historical trend of examining the Dialogo in the context of the Ouestione della lingua, but wishes to deviate from this precedent and focus doing, the author is following a relatively new on its political implications. In approach to the Dialogo, which has recently been studied by political scientists and historians, not to the examination of patria, it may prove so linguists1. Before moving helpful to the reader to provide a brief synopsis of the work. The Dialogo, written in the form of a letter to an unknown recipient, is, it its author's defence of his native Florentine/Tuscan dialect. 1 Maurizio Viroli and Susan Meid Shell are two seems, The letter is divided into such scholars. Their work is discussed below. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 131 discorso the author's beliefs in the superiority of three parts. The first part contains that dialect against the notion that Italy's great writers, namely Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio wrote in a defence is followed a on 'courtly tongue' rather than in their native Florentine. This patriotic by a dialogo with Dante, who set out in Latin in his De vulgari eloquentia the belief that all learned Italians wrote and spoke in a courtly language third part comprises a return to a discorso, addressed to Dante who attentive. But what caused the author to write the treatise in the first It seems that the Florence where he took up Dialogo was . The remains silent and place? sparked by Gian Giorgio Trissino's visit to Dante's view of the courtly tongue and expounded thereon3. Flying in the face of Trissino's and Dante's assertions, the Dialogo''s author set out to correct them. most Here, the political implications inherent in the Dialogo are perhaps felt deeply, for its author, it seems, not only desired that other Italians should adopt his lingua del/apatria, but he also likened Trissino's and Dante's attacks his patria to far as or against the patria, not heaven, and is forgiven and restored by readership. One might be tempted to possible. Therefore, it Dialogo in order to 2 goes Beyond these apparent textual facts, nothing is known of the Dialogo's intended audience that is regions of Hell. Indeed, at the conclusion of the Dialogo, Dante to confess his sins the author. the language of political treason. However, the author seeks to re-educate Dante, not banish him into the nether so on see may prove whether its use helpful to see guess at these, but that is all how the term patria is used in the therein corresponds with Machiavelli's use of AJighieri, De Vulgari Eloquentia trans. Warman Welliver (Ravenna: Ravenna Longo, 1981). by Giovanni Battista Gelli in Ragionamento...sopra le difficolta di mettere in resole la nostra lingua (Florence, 1551), 27. Cited by Hans Baron in Hans Baron, "Machiavelli on the Eve of the Discourses'. The Date and Place of the Dialogo intomo alia nostra linguaBibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 23 (1961): 449-76. See p. 465, n. 1. Also argued thoroughly by Pio Rajna. See his article: "La Data del 'Dialogo int. alia lingua' di N. Machiavelli," Rendiconti dell R. Accad. dei Lincei. Classe Scienze Morali Memorie, serie V. II (1893): 203-222. 3 Dante This is corroborated Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 132 patria in II Principe and the Discorsi. strengthen the case similarities, are Dialogo is used sixteen times, patrie onorare, is linked continue enemy and patrium The once. appear Given therein with occurrences are as follows. 1, for example, the author links patria with verbs and modifiers such hanno sortito... piu nobile, lacerarej'a nimico. The words with which patria seem to indicate that the author is exhorting those who love their patria to honouring it and despite events within it thereof. Of these occurrences, second occurrence, 'hanno sortito Dialogo viewed his patria One these be used to 1: Patria appears four times. 7: Once. 10: Twice. 64: Once. 93: Twice. 94: Twice. 95: Three times. 97: Once. 94: Patrie appears once. 93: Patrium appears once. In capoverso as once only 4,513 words in length, patria and its derivatives greater frequency than either 11 Principe or the Discorsi. Capoverso Capoverso Capoverso Capoverso Capoverso Capoverso Capoverso Capoverso Capoverso Capoverso may for Machiavelli's authorship? Patria in the that the work is If there might be tempted to as never to that which patria piu seek to 'strike' it strike the reader's may nobile'4. or It seems become eye an is the that the author of the the noblest, at least in terms of its language, in all of Italy. compare this sentiment with what Machiavelli says in II Principe. In II Principe, derivatives of and 4 See as Chapter One set out, patria nobile, twice. 'Donde la loro patria 'questa patria ne ne was used in conjunction with fu nobilitata e divento felicissima' sia nobilitata'. Perhaps the author of the Dialogo wanted his patria, 'Appendix One', 'Chapter Five','Patria in the Dialogo\ number 1. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 133 Florence, to be piu nobile, politically as it was linguistically. So, there may be at least similarity between the two works. But do the similarities end there? some 'Lingua' is used in conjunction with patria five times in the Dialogo and one time in conjunction with patrie. 'Scrissono nella lingua patria; ma quella lingua si chiama patria; tu vuoi vedere la dignita della tua lingua patria; disaiutandoli la lingua d'una patria; dimenticare quella lor naturale barbaria nella quale la patria lingua li a sommergeva'; and 'perche e" dicano che tutte le lingue patrie del misto di modo che used the as an veruna sarebbe brutta'5. At times adjective to describe the author's 'father' Dialogo this 'native tongue' refers to Florentine of Machiavelli, one may or or - son as brutte s'elle in this instance non - hanno patria is 'native' tongue. In the context of Tuscan. If we turn to the writings find that he recognised the distinctiveness of his native Tuscan dialect. II Principe provides an interesting example in which Machiavelli does not use patria, but he defined his language as Tuscan. che alcuno e tenuto liberale, alcuno misero (usando uno termine toscano, perche avaro in nostra lingua e ancora colui che per rapina desidera di avere, misero chiamiamo noi quello che si astiene troppo di usare il suo)6. E questo e, Machiavelli seems to unmistakably refers to 'nostra lingua' indicate that he citizenship in Florence aware 5 that part was or 'our language', as toscano. This cognisant of his relationship to Tuscany, linked by as we saw in the previous Chapters and that Machiavelli of his identity, culturally and politically was was the language of his patria, Niccolo Machiavelli, Ooere di Niccolo Machiavelli 11 Vols. A cura di Sergio Bertelli (Milano: Giovanni Salerno, 1968-82). One may find the Dialogo in Volume 4, Teatro e Scritti Letteran (1969): 361-377. See pp. 366, 372, 373, 375(x2) and 374 for the references to 'lingue patrie' 6 Niccolo Machiavelli, II Principe e Altre Qpere Politiche: Introduzione di Delio Cantimori, Note di Stefano Andretta (Milano: Garzanti Libri, 1999), 61. For translation see Niccolo Machiavelli, The Pnnce trans. George Bull (London: Penguin Group, 4lh ed., 1995): 48-49. 'Some, for example, are held to be generous, and others miserly (I use the Tuscan word rather than the word avaricious: we call a man who is mean with what he possesses, miserly, and a man who wants to plunder others, avaricious). Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 134 Florentine and Tuscan. The Discorsi, it seems, present an even clearer linkage between language, politics and patriotism. In the Discorsi they fell under the Machiavelli, referring to the ancient inhabitants of Tuscany before sway of Rome, wrote,1 aveva i suoi costumi that Machiavelli seems does not could perhaps have caused Machiavelli to seem an sua lingua patria'7. It on the language and customs of come to its rhetorical rescue. works; notably the Istorie fiorentine (1521). The author has editorial decision not to include all references to patria would make this exercise inordinately lengthy. However, these in the Istorie occurrences are compiled in the Appendix to this Chapter for the reader's inspection. Therefore, limited our examination to In the This improbable. There is another interesting similarity between the Dialogo and another of Machiavelli's taken la recognised the relationship between customs and language, particularly in relation to his native Tuscany. An attack his patria e one as this carefully we have important example. Istorie, Book One, Chapter Five, Machiavelli discussed the decline of Rome, the 'barbarian' invasions and the mixing of cultures and languages that followed, which created, new languages and cultures. Intra queste rovine e questi nel parlare che in Francia, in la nuovi popoli sursono nuove lingue, come apparisce Ispagna e in Italia si costuma; il quale mescolato con lingua patria di quelli nuovi popoli e con la antica romana fanno un nuovo or dine 7 di parlare8. Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi Sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio. Introduzione di Gennaro Sasso, Note di Giorgio Inglese., (Milano: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1999), II. 5.2., p. 309. And Niccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses of Niccolo Machiavelli 2 Vols. Trans. Lesley J. Walker (London, Routledge, 1950), II. 5.2. (II. 5.5. in Walker), p. 374. '... with its own customs and its own language'. 8 Niccolo Machiavelli, 'Istorie fiorentine', in Tutte le Opere Storiette e Letterarie di Niccolo Machiavelli A cura di Guido Mazzoni e Mario Casella (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929): 375-621. See p. 384 for quotation. For translation see Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine Histories trans. Laura F. Banfield and Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 14. 'From among these ruins and new peoples sprang new languages, as appears now in France, Spain, and Italy: the native language of the new peoples mixed with the ancient Roman to make a new order of speech'. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 135 One may find a more expansive and complementary line of argument in the Dialogo. Therein its author wrote: qui dipende che le lingue da principio arricchiscono, e diventono piu belle piu copiose; ma e ben vero che col tempo, per la moltitudine di questi nuovi vocaboli, imbastardiscono e diventano un'altra cosa; ma fanno questo in centinaia d'anni; di che altri non s'accorge se non poi che e rovinata in una estrema barbaria. Fa ben piu presto questa mutazione, quando egli avviene che una nuova populazione venisse ad abitare in una provincia. In questo caso ella fa la sua mutazione in un corso d'un'eta d'un uomo. Ma in qualunque di questi duoi modi che la lingua si muti, e necessario che quella lingua persa, volendola, sia riassunta per il mezzo di buoni scrittori che in quella hanno scritto, come si e fatto e fa della lingua latina e della greca9. E di essendo In both cases, new are created. In the and Italian peoples and new customs are introduced and similarly, languages former, Machiavelli referred to the foundations of the French, Spanish languages and customs. In the latter, responding to the author is new an attack on his language, trying to illustrate that the Florentine language is able dextrously, to appropriate foreign words into itself, retaining its original beauty while becoming copious. Perhaps the similarities which have been illustrated are II. Machiavelli, the Provenance of the Dialogo - were unless 9 on they were than superficial. In that year his writings the Index of banned books, which meant that strictly forbidden from reading or more and the Inquisition The Church banned the works of Machiavelli in 1564. added to the 'first class' more re- were lay-persons possessing anything written by Machiavelli, sanctioned by the Church to do so. Giuliano de' Ricci and Niccolo Dialogo. 1969. 368. And Niccolo Machiavelli, the "Dialogue concerning our language" in, The Literary Works of Machiavelli trans. John R. Hale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), 180. 'It is also perfectly true that in time, because of the number of new words, they become bastardised and lose their identity, but this takes hundreds of years and as a result is not noticed until that have fallen into complete barbarism. The change happens much more quickly when a new population happens to settle in a district. In this case the chance takes place in the course of a man's life. When a language changes in wither of these two ways, however, the tongue that is lost can be recovered, if it is so desired, by means of the good authors who wrote it, as has been done, and still is, for the Latin and Greek tongues'. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 136 Machiavelli the younger Church to - Machiavelli's grandsons compile, edit and purge Machiavelli's rhetoric in order to make the 'new and - given such were opere believed to have been written The author of the or anti-papal improved' Machiavelli suitable for public younger 15781(>. During that discovered the Dialogo, which they by their grandfather (discussed below). Dialogo neglected to provide Ricci and Niccolo the younger lingua11. sanction by the of all anti-Church consumption. Their work lasted from 3 August 1573 until 17 May time, in 1577, Ricci and Machiavelli the a provided Then, in 1579 after nearly five one - years a Discorso title for the short treatise, o so dialogo intorno alia nostra of work, Ricci and Niccolo the younger refused, in protest, to publish their edited version of Machiavelli's opere anonymously, or under a fictitious author's name as the Church at Rome sought to compel them to do 12 . So, along with the rest of their work, the Dialogo slipped into obscurity. The Dialogo manuscript1'. Four was once years Dialogo for the first attribute the again brought to light in after this copy was a 1726 copy, made from Ricci's produced Giovanni Bottari published the time14. Interestingly, and troublingly to some, Bottari did not Dialogo to Machiavelli and he carefully removed and edited all negative references to the papacy in the treatise. These references 1(1 are few but abrasive (cited Peter Godman, From Poliziano to Machiavelli: Florentine Humanism in the High Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 304, nil. 11 MS E.B. 15-10 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze (11 pp., da c. 133r a c. 138r). See the first page of the MS for Ricci's letter. Also see 'Plate 1' at the end of this Chapter. ' John A. Tedeschi, "Florentine Documents for a History of the Index of Prohibited Books," Renaissance Studies in Honor of Hans Baron, ed. Anthony Molho and John A. Tedeschi (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971): 577-605, 581, n.ll. "They [Ricci and Niccolo the younger] would not publish," their edited text, "with Rome's condition that it should appear without Machiavelli's name or a substitute". Also see John Tedeschi, The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies on the Inquisition in Early Modem Italy (Binghamton: Medieval & Renaissance Texts& Studies, 1991): 310-311, n. 15. 13 MS Palatino 815 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, 820-39. 14 The Dialogo in Benedetto Varchi, L'Hercolano. dialogo .nel qual si ragiona generalmente delle linaue. et in particolare della Toscana. e della Fiorentina: composto...sulla occasione della disputa occorsa tra'l Commendator Caro. e M. L. Castelvetro. Nuovamente stampato A cura di Giovanni Bottari (Florence: Tartini e Franchi, 1730): 449-467. . . Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 137 below). Despite Bottari's omissions, his 1730 edition continued to be the text on which other subsequent editions of the Dialogo were based, even after it was accepted as a work of Machiavelli in its 176915. original publication and and varied It was published in its entirety until 1929 not full 414 a years after it history of the Dialogo has produced order to present an was an written in - 199 years after 1515l6. The chequered equally colourful historiography. In orderly and precise history of the historiography concerned with the Dialogo it is helpful to assess each point of view chronologically. Scholarship published since 1960 takes the place of prominence in the following historiographical assessment because recent and contemporary scholarship has subsumed nineteenth century arguments Furthermore, a both for and against Machiavelli's authorship into itself. careful plan of investigation into the historical debates concerned with the Dialogo will facilitate in attaining to the goal of this Chapter which is to suggest that Machiavelli may have written the Dialogo. It is best to divide the historians and historiography concerned with the Dialogo into two Machiavelli is the author of the own diverse those who believe Dialogo and those who do not. Cecil Grayson represents best those who doubt Machiavelli's Machiavelli's camps: authorship and Hans Baron those who support authorship. Interestingly, and perhaps this is indicative of the Dialogo''s history, scholars periodically jump from one camp to the other, muddling its historiography. Confusingly both Grayson's 1960 Language", and Baron's 1961 essay essay "Lorenzo, Machiavelli and the Italian titled "Machiavelli on the Eve of Discorsi: The Date 15 Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorso. overro dialogo. in cui si esamina. se la lingua, in cui scrissero Dante, il e il Petrarca. si debba chiamare Italiana. Toscana. o Fiorentina. in Opere: Volume Otto: Commedie. terzine ed altre opere (Cosmopoli. 1769). Boccaccio, 16 Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorso Niccolo Machiavelli A cura o dialogo intorno alia lingua, in Tutte le Opere Storiche e Letterarie di e Mario Casella (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929): 770-778. di Guido Mazzoni Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 138 and Place of His the Dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua" point to Machiavelli as the author of Dialogo11. While Baron remained firm in his assertion that Machiavelli authored the text, Grayson, after re-thinking his position, changed his mind, choosing instead to rule out Machiavelli as the author of the Dialogo. In an essay entitled "Machiavelli and Dante", published in 1971, Grayson compiled many of the earlier arguments against Machiavelli's such as authorship set forth by distinguished nineteenth-century Italian scholars Filippo Luigi Pollidori and Oreste Tommasini his article with the 14 others18. Grayson prefaced following: This article is on among a read at the Italian Institute, London, symposium organized by the Society for Renaissance quincentary of Machiavelli's birth. I am grateful to revised version of the paper May 1969, during Studies to celebrate the a Professor Carlo Dionisotti whose intervention in discussion on that occasion led earlier conclusions regarding the attribution of the Dialogo to dedicating this article now to my friend Hans Baron, I am conscious of removing the ground from beneath his feet, as well as my own. If I am right in doing so, I hope that he will not mind if we fall together!19 me to qualify Machiavelli. It is my In interesting to point out that Grayson attributes his change of mind to Carlo Dionisotti. Grayson's comments Machiavelli authored the and seem to indicate that Dionisotti did not believe that Dialogo. Given the fact that Grayson's article is summation expansion of most of the earlier arguments against Machiavelli's authorship, conclude that Dionisotti held similar views at that time. one can However, Dionisotti also had change of mind, for he attributed the Dialogo to Machiavelli in 17 a a a lecture delivered in the Baron, "Place of the Dialogo449-473. Also see Cecil Grayson, "Lorenzo, Machiavelli and the Italian Language," Italian Studies, ed E.F. Jacob (London: Faberand Faber, 1960): 410-432. 18 Cecil Grayson, "Machiavelh and Dante," Renaissance Studies in Honor of Hans Baron, eds. Anthony Molho and John A. Tedeschi (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971): 361-384, 369, n. 17. Also see Filippo Luigi Polidori, Opere minori di Niccolo Machiavelli rivedute sulle migliori edizioni (Firenze, 1852), 589. Cited in Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 369. Also see Oreste Tommasini, La vita e gli scritti di Niccolo Machiavelli nella loro relazione col machiavellismo I (Torino, 1883), 100. Cited in Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 363. 19 Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 362, prefatory n. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 139 autumn of appears 1969, only months after he criticised Grayson's lecture20. Confusingly, it that Dionisotti changed Grayson's mind and vice versa. Dionisotti went to on several books and articles. authored the Dialogo. Machiavellerie and publish his research into Machiavelli and the Dialogo in All of these came to the same conclusion - Machiavelli Most importantly, Dionisotti's ideas appear in his 1980 book more recently in a 1993 article entitled 'Machiavelli, Man of Letters'21. Grayson's and Dionisotti's 'changes of mind' are representative of the larger historiographical framework that both inform and hamper studies into the Dialogo. Maurizio Viroli's influential 1998 essay on includes references to the essay published in 2000 into the Dialogo - as a patriotism, For Love of Country, work of Machiavelli, and Susan Meld Shell, in her "Machiavelli's Discourse on Language" - re-opened research Dialogo22. Shell and Viroli's recent additions to the Dialogo''s historiography are important because both scholars insist that Niccolo Machiavelli wrote the Dialogo. Their recent acceptance of the Dialogo as a work of Machiavelli adds weight to the proposals and historical analysis of the treatise's text that follows in due In recent years course. Italian scholars have produced three critical editions of the Dialogo. Bortolo Tommaso Sozzi published his Einaudi critical edition in 1976 entitled Discorso 20 21 o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua: Edizione Critica and Ornella Castellani Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 362, prefatory n. Carlo Dionisotti, Machiavellerie (Torino: G. Einaudi, 1980): 267-363. Also see Carlo Dionisotti, "Machiavelli, Man of Letters," Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature, eds. Albert Russell Ascoli and (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993): 17-51, 17 where Dionisotti noted, 'The title and I gave in the fall of 1969 at the Villa i Tatti in Florence in birth, which has been published in various times and in various forms: in the Notiziario culturale dellTstituto Italiano di Culture di Parigi 4 (1969): 15-26, in Studies on Machiavelli. ed. Myron P. Gilmore (Florence, 1972), 101-143; and in Machiavelli nel qumto centenario della nascita. (Bologna, 1973), 93-109'. *2 Susan Meld Shell, "Machiavelli's Discourse on Language," The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli: Essays on the Literary Works, ed. Vickie B Sullivan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000): 78-101. Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism (New York: Clarendon Press, 1997): 32-33 for references to the Dialogo. Victoria Kahn gist of this paper repeat a talk with this title that honour of the fifth centennial of Machiavelli's Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 140 Pollidori published two critical editions: one in 1978 entitled Niccold Machiavelli e il 'Dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua'. Con una edizione critica del testo, followed by her 1981 Nuove Riflessioni sul Discorso Machiavelli23. and the o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua di Niccold All three editions defend Machiavelli's authorship. These critical texts historiographical arguments concerned with the Dialogo focus on two basic arguments: first, (this Chapter's focus), whether or not Machiavelli wrote the short treatise, and second, (the subject of the next Chapter), the date in which the text was written. The question of authorship itself encompasses many arguments. potentially damaging argument concerning authorship focuses treatment of Dante in one the particular Dialogo from Machiavelli's passage oeuvre seize upon The most the author's of the Dialogo. Those who seek to on remove this fact, believing that Machiavelli was always reverential toward Dante in his other works. The Dialogo's author, Machiavelli or not, is critical of his famous Florentine ancestor. First, the author's harshness is entire exile. Dialogo. Second, he may possibilities, which 22 are may help to why. when viewed in the patriotic context of the have used Dante's exile to point out the irony of his Third, it is also likely that the author humanist views that left little of the necessary Three scenarios room was own expressing contemporary, republican for Dante's trust in a world empire24. These three complementary rather than mutually exclusive, along with Dialogo's surviving manuscripts, strengthen the case a study for Machiavelli's authorship. Machiavelli, Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua: Edizione critica A cura di Bortolo (Torino: G. Einaudi, 1976); and the Dialogo in Ornella Castellani Pollidori, ed., Niccolo Machiavelli e il 'Dialogo intomo alia nostra lingua' con una edizione critica del testo (Firenze: Olschki, 1978); and the Dialogo in Ornella Castellani Pollidori, ed., Nuove Riflessioni sul discorso o dialogo Intorno alia nostra lingua di Niccolo Machiavelli (Roma: Solerno Editrice, 1981). 24 For a good study of Dante's political thought see Alexander Passerin D'Entreves, Dante as a Political Thinker (Oxford: Clarendon, 1952); and George Holmes, Dante (Oxford: Clarendon, 1980). Niccolo Tommaso Sozzi Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 141 history of the Dialogo, first in manuscript form, and then much later in The printed form is intriguing. This history, along with the author's treatment of Dante in the text, have led some to believe that However, analysis of the Dialogo's an written the treatise. means Machiavelli could not have written the treatise. provenance Moreover, the treatment of Dante inherent in the treatise is by no increasing patriotism which found its first outpouring in the epilogue of II Machiavelli's Principe, followed by the lengthy Discorsil manuscripts may other, only help to apografi, Three symptomatic of Could the Dialogo be of character for Machiavelli. out suggests that Machiavelli could have a edition of the answer or An examination of the Dialogo's this question. copies of the Dialogo survive; two are complete and of the fragment remains. Until Bortolo Tommaso Sozzi published his critical Dialogo in 1976, it was always assumed that at least one, but more than likely two, of the three surviving manuscripts had their roots in Giuliano de' Ricci's apograph - a copy perhaps too many does not have the many a It an original manuscript - of 157723. As Sozzi illustrated, there differences between the texts to justify this response or theory to fill the gap position26. are However, Sozzi created by his enquiry. This is one of intriguing elements associated with the surviving manuscripts of the Dialogo. The first 1577. from was - and perhaps most reliable copied from a - manuscript of the Dialogo manuscript that is itself grandson of Niccolo Machiavelli, was now lost. the first to discover and can be traced to Giuliano de Ricci, copy the Dialogo. The manuscript from which Ricci copied lacked Niccolo Machiavelli's signature, but Ricci was 25 26 assured by Bernardo Machiavelli, Niccolo's son, that he had seen his father with Dialogo. 1976. MS E.B. 15-10 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze concerning the history of this MS may (11 pp., da c. 133r be found in Dialogo. 1976: X-XII. a c. 138r). Further information Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 142 such a work and that he recalled Dialogo. Bernardo, in 1577, hearing his father speak about the topics included in the was 74 years of age; quite old, but Ricci felt that the sufficient to attribute the work to eyewitness account provided by Niccold's son was Bernardo's father. Ricci did not find of the yet untitled Dialogo in Machiavelli's personal papers. copy a In fact the Dialogo that he had in his possession donor, whose name Ricci did not mention. The small treatise was a product of Niccold Machiavelli's the donor's assurance Havevo corroborated each other anonymous pen. was given to him by a donor assured Ricci that the That Bernardo's memory and provided Ricci with further confirmation: disegnato d'andare seguitando di copiare questi giornaletti d'historie del Machiavello, quando mi e capitato alle mani un discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua, dicono fatto dal medisimo Niccolo, et se bene lo stile e alquanto diverso dall'altre cose sue, et io in questi ffagmenti che ho ritrovati non ho visto ne originale, ne bozza, ne parte alcuna di detto dialogo, nondimento credo si possa credere indubitatamente che sia della stesso Machiavello, atteso che li concepti appariscono suoi, che per molti anni per ciascuno in mano di chi hoggi si truova si tiene suo, et quello che piu di altro importa e che Bernardo Machiavelli, figlio di detto Niccolo, hoggi di eta di anni 74, afferma ricordarsi haverne sentito ragionare a suo padre, et vedutogliene fra le mani molte volte. II dialogo e questo che seguita27. However, the manuscript that Ricci had in his possession Machiavelli's signature. It also lacked become the most 27 a accepted: Discorso was lacking more title. Ricci provided the title that has, o over dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua. than time, This Dialogo. 1976: X-XI. 'I had intended to have copied these following small journals of histories of Machiavelli, when, a discourse or dialogue concerning our language, which they said was written by Niccolo, fell into my hands, and [which was] as well written and as diverse as his other works, and I, in these fragments, which 1 have found, I have not seen the original, neither a rough draft nor other part of the said dialogue[,] nevertheless I think that there is strength to know indubitably, whether it is from the same Machiavelli, [because] I bear witness that for many years, whoever has had it in hand and whoever has it now is of the opinion that it is his, and of greater importance than anything else, Bernardo Machiavelli, son of the said Niccolo, today he was 74 years of age, affirmed and recalled having heard his father reason about it and seeing it in his hands many times. The dialogue is that which follows'. The author's translation. This excellent quotation from Giuliano de' Ricci; Ricci's note, first appeared in Pasquale Villari, Machiavelli e i suoi tempi (Le Monnier: Firenze 1877). Cecil Grayson also notes Ricci's comment in his article, "Machiavelli and Dante", 369, n. 16. "Figure 1" below contains a copy of Ricci's original letter. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 143 manuscript is not without its two different own sense of intrigue, for it is obvious that it was copied by people. After describing the manuscript, Sozzi noted: il Discorso la trascrizione del Ricci, in bella e chiara scrittura corsiva di tipo cancelleresco, non si estende a tutta Fopera, ma copre soltanto la prima e quasi intera la seconda facciata; il rimanente, in scrittura corsiva atipica, quasi certamente tardo-cinquecentesca, e di altra mano2s. Ma per Ricci's pages of the survives in its complete form. This handwriting, the better of the two, comprised only manuscript. More will be said about the 'altra mano' in due Of the remaining manuscripts only one and one a half course. manuscript is located in the Vatican Library. The Vatican manuscript, like the Borghini fragment discussed below, is not easily dated. Some have only that it is a later copy manuscript, it Machiavelli: discorso over apograph10. perhaps too many as to venture goes century29. While the Vatican manuscript is by a different title, Messer Niccold di Bernardo dialogo circa la lingua fiorentina, but it Mario Casella, editor of the first Ricci's far than that of Ricci, while others have assigned the Vatican manuscript's origins to the seventeenth similar to the Ricci gone as was complete, edition of the Dialogo, to have thought by come from However, Sozzi's edition of the Dialogo illustrated that there differences between the two texts to trace, with the Vatican text to Ricci's any are degree of certainty, apograph11. This fact adds more problems to the history of the 28 Dialogo. 1976. X. 'The transcription of the Discourse by Ricci, in beautiful and dark cursive of [a] chancelloresque type, does not extend to the whole of the work, but it covers only the first [page] and is partially cut on the second part of the page; the remainder is in an atypical cursive, almost certainly from the late cinquecento, is from another hand'. "Figure 2" below illustrates the change in handwriting, which is dramatic. 29 Dialogo. 1976: XIV-XV. dirlo «tarda copia»\ 111 MS Vat. Barb. Lat. 5368. 'II Grayson (Cecil) lo cc. 44-53. assegna al secolo XVII; il Ridolfi (Roberto) si limita Titolo; Messer Niccolo di Bernardo Machiavelli: Discorso a over dialogo circa la lingua fiorentina. More information concerning this MS may be found in Dialogo. 1976: X1V-XVL 31 Dialogo. 1976: XV-XVI. 'II Casella (Mario), come s'e detto, lo associa a R [apografo Ricci] come suo parallelo e gemello nella derivazione day (tesi respinta dalla Migliorini Fissi, che lo considera dipendente da R) e lo assume come complentare di R nella formazione del testo critico. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 144 Dialogo, but no doubt as the title of the Vatican manuscript indicates, that whoever copied the text agreed that the Dialogs/s origins could be traced to Machiavelli. The final Unlike the Ricci surviving manuscript is a part of the Borghini collection in Florence 32 . manuscript, the Borghini manuscript is incomplete, ending at the mid¬ point of the author's exchange with Dante. N. Per mia fe' tu ti The guardi assai bene da vocaboli fiorentini! 33 . Borghini fragment is interesting in that it, like the Vatican manuscript, also Machiavelli its author; Discorso di as Nic°. Machiavelli nel quale lingua]34. The section of the title in brackets is not in the the title. It is not clear who provided this amendment. specification is by another and much later the Dialogo in 1730, for publication. fragment was may same a the rest of hand'35. Giovanni Bottari, the first to publish copied from the Ricci apograph. hidden, without as Sozzi wrote that 'the final have added this 'specification', while he or si tratta [della handwriting was As with the Vatican text, it is uncertain whether concerning either the date names There is no preparing his text or not the Borghini scholarly the origin of the Borghini fragment. However, it date, between Borghini's papers consensus was found from the mid-1570's, which led Grayson to the following conclusion: Borghini fragment [...] probably found its way into this collection without Borghini's knowledge or even after his time, ft is difficult otherwise to explain Borghini's silence about a work on language here bearing the name of Machiavelli. The [manuscript] is not in Borghini's hand; it lies between works of the mid-70's, though it is not necessarily a guide to the actual date of the The Rinucinni 22, 9 pp., c Ira c. 5r. Titolo: Discorso di Nic°. The words in brackets are in another's handwriting. This manuscript is discussed in greater detail in Dialogo. 1976. XII1-XIV. 33 Dialogo. 1969. p. 370. And Dialogue. 1976. p. 183 for translation. 'N. By my faith, you do take good care to keep clear of Florentine expressions!' Also see p. XIII in Dialogo. 1976 where Sozzi mentions that this is the last line of the Borghini MS. Also see Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 368, n. 14. 34 2 MS segnatura Miscell. Borghini HI, Filze Machiaveili nel quale si tratta [della lingual. '5 See note 26 above for MS's full details Dialogo. 1976. XIII. 'La specificazione ultima e di altra e piu tarda mano'. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 145 [manuscript]. Dr. John Woodhouse tells there me allusions to Machiavelli are no among them (apart from the occurrence of his name in a list of Florentine writers) a silence which may well be explained by the interdict on Machiavelli's works, - though it is questionable whether Borghini would have felt this to inhibit reference to This seems a strained. work It on language36. seems Grayson did not take into account the Index of that Indeed, the ban Prohibited Books which included all of Machiavelli's works. Machiavelli's work and any strict and it quite possible that it would have inhibited all seems reference. Recent light, not only the was on scholarship, although not explicitly tied to the Dialogo, has shed on Machiavelli's status 16th banned author in the as a new century, but also on relationship of Giuliano de' Ricci and Vincenzo Borghini to the Dialogo''s provenance. Machiavelli's 'heretical' and banned status in the last quarter of the 16th century could quite easily have led a collector to 'forget' to mention owning a work penned by Machiavelli. A papal ban provided written more than enough impetus to hide by Machiavelli, particularly when the short treatise on a work language contained scathing criticism of the papal court. Peter Godman's recent to the scholarship on Congregation for the Index brings Dialogo's historiographical puzzles. It is the Inquisition in Italy and its relationship some possible answers to necessary to trace several of the several of Machiavelli's larger political works in order to illustrate where and how the Dialogo fits into this scenario. In From Poliziano to Machiavelli, Godman, having recourse to texts made recently available by the Vatican, recounts the history of Machiavelli's political works and their the 36 relationship to the Inquisition and the Congregation. Here it must be noted that Inquisition was the first body sanctioned by the Church to Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 368, n. 14. oversee the editing of Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 146 Machiavelli's work. Later, the V, Congregation, established on 5 March 1571 by Pope Pius of books. Machiavelli's to deal exclusively with the editing and banning was set up work, along with Boccaccio's, was embedded in the subsequent debates concerning which authors Machiavelli's or troubling were name was subversive to the doctrines of the Roman Church or originally placed in the 'first class' troubling authors in 1559. By 1564, his authors38. Lay-persons were sanctioned to possess it. thus strictly forbidden to commissioned This is standing in the illustrates not or were eyes a brief of the by the summary papacy. the index of heretical his work. Only those who to 'edit' or purge the work were allowed of the history of Machiavelli's posthumous on years the Index of banned Congregation who prepared the Index during these provenance 1559 to 1564 years, but it also of the Dialogo have been uncertain long. so The papacy Istorie found itself in Florentine, for Machiavelli a was difficult position when it banned Machiavelli's commissioned to write the work by Cardinal Giulio de'Medici; the future Pope Clement appear VII39. on 8 November Not wanting to contradictory, the Inquisition, under the guidance of Pope Paul IV, commissioned Girolamo Muzio to prepare edited versions of the Discorsi and the Arte della Godman's research illustrates that Muzio had in his 37 possess on A detailed analysis of the helps to show why the intricacies of the 1520 papacy placed . the Index of questionable only the precariousness of Machiavelli's standing authors and with the for name was on 37 Guerra40. possession his newly purged versions Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli: 303-333 for an overview. Ibid, 303. 39 Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine Histories trans. Laura Banfield and Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), xii 40 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 304. 38 Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 147 of the Discorsi and the Arte at the Council of Trent in Istorie was to be produced and Machiavelli's work Heretical Authors heretical was overseen 156241. Later, by the Congregation at set aside because he was soon to be (in 1564) - the Index was an edition of die Rome42. At this point placed on the Index of designed to list and categorise the works of authors43. During the pontificate of Gregory XIII, in 1573, a full nine years later, the papacy commissioned Cosimo de'Medici to organize censors in Florence to produce all of Machiavelli's works in purged form. grandsons: Giuliano de' Ricci and, Niccolo Machiavelli's Niccolo Machiavelli's One can as surmise that Ricci and Machiavelli's refusal to Istorie fiorentine, was, unfit45. men were name attached, stemmed from the fact that their edition of the Amid all of this turmoil, the end of their aforementioned apograph is answered. younger44. publish Machiavelli the despite the fact that they omitted the author's Ricci discovered the given this task, Godman refers to him, 'homonymous canon', Niccolo Machiavelli the elder's work without his deemed Two Dialogo may name, find its place. Dialogo in 1577 when he and Machiavelli editing tasks. Here, one were nearing the of the questions concerning Ricci's The identity of the 'altra mano', certainty, be ascribed to Niccolo Machiavelli the shelved and younger. may, with some Given that he degree of was Ricci's assistant, he would have had the responsibility of copying texts at Ricci's command. 41 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 304. Ibid, 308. Ricci and Niccolo the younger centred their early efforts on the preparation of the Istorie in 1551. In this edition they removed offensive references to the papacy and they published the work without the author's name attached. This version of the Istorie was not deemed acceptable by the Congregation. 4"' Tedeschi, "Prohibited Books". In this essay Tedeschi edited letters written by the Inquisitors at Florence. For a detailed discussions of the Index, see J.M. de Bujanda, ed., Index de Rome 1557, 1559, 1564: Les premiers Index romains et l'lndex du Concile de Trent Index de Livres interdicts 8 (Sherbrooke, 1990). 44 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 304. 45 Ibid, 308. 42 Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 148 Ricci and Niccolo the younger the harsh references to the papacy after as remain in Ricci's apograph. It applying Godman's research to the Dialogo's that of Ricci/Machiavelli. the facts at hand seem Dialogo. Was this the likely be provenance, to re-name reasons to same indicate, they chose to as perspective' suppress the problem47. for the sake of the fitting, the apograph younger name, rather than were younger but also, purge the Mascherel46 The Dialogo could have resulted from the would have found himself in, the 'infamous' Machiavelli's namesake; a on as a Church telling example of 'the family Their actions, whether for the sake of their grandfather, reputation of Niccolo the younger, or saved the Dialogo from the Inquisition, allowing it to remain hidden and obscure. This is several of the more why Ricci and Niccolo the method they used with Machiavelli's Le position that Niccolo the and explain why First, given that Machiavelli's grandsons for their decision to hide the reason awkward two may refused, not only to publish Machiavelli's work under another and Ricci canon are may preparation of the manuscript, it is not surprising that Niccolo the involved in the second There did not publish the Dialogo. younger as refused to edit the text, and this an attractive solution to problems surrounding the early manuscripts of the Dialogo. Yet, others remain; the survival of the Borghini fragment is linked to the censorship of Machiavelli by the Inquisition and the Congregation. Vincenzo Borghini, like his fellow Florentines Niccolo the younger and Ricci, version of Machiavelli's Borghini was was also employed by the papacy to 46 48 Ricci's role in the head of the Florentine Academy. suppressing Le Maschere Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 304. Ibid: 305-307. an 'edited' opere4X. He was delegating to his deputati the task of editing Boccaccio's work, but he 47 produce was discussed in the previous Chapter. was responsible for also to oversee Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 149 the He, unlike Ricci and editing of Machiavelli's work at the Florentine Academy. Niccolo the younger, was very went so far as predating by Godman's serious about adhering to papal requirements. In 1542 he to remove Machiavelli's Discorsi and the Istorie time the official ban placed some scholarship illustrates that Borghini on Machiavelli's was not semi-secretive work. For example, when Borghini was works were work4'. However, afraid to undertake delicate and reminded that all of Machiavelli's papal commission under formal ban, unless a from his personal library, was given, he allowed the preparation of censored versions of Machiavelli's work to begin, hoping that the Inquisition would be lenient30. By 1572, Borghini's deputati Boccaccio's Decameron producing a Machiavelli for censure51. preparing Machiavelli's work However, Borghini censored version of Boccaccio, was never completed. continue, culminating in Florence in Boccaccio - were 1573'52. was a new so Yet his work on the Decameron 50 51 interested in was allowed to 'authorised edition' that 'was published by the Giunta in Frustratingly for Borghini and his deputati, their censored more lenient Pius V33. pointed to this change of mind on was elected pope, in Referring to Gregory XIII' s views of Machiavelli, Godman wrote that he 'regarded that author 49 along with the Florentine Academy's 'corrected' subsequently banned in 1573 after Gregory XIII succession to the Tedeschi was more - as a the part of the damnable papacy, as heretic'54. John 'a fine example of Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 308. Ibid: 305-307. Borghini's edition was printed without the 'e' at the end of Decameron. Tedeschi. Heresy. 310. n. 15. The Author had the opportunity to examine Borghini's 1573 edition which is in the National Library of Scotland. See Giovanni Boccaccio, II Decameron.../ricorretto in Roma et 52 emendato secondo l'ordine del Sacro Cone, di Trento. et riscontrato in Firenze con testi antichi & alia sua lezione ridotto da' deputati di loro Alt. Ser. [i.e. Vincezo M, Borghini. Pier F. Cambi and Sebastiono vera Antinori] (Fiorenza: I Giunti, 1573). 52 54 Tedeschi, Heresy. 310, n. 15. Godman, Saint as Censor. 31. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 150 confusion in Roman practice'55. censorship It is in this ever-changing and uncertain censorship that Ricci and Niccolo the world of completed the task of preparing younger censored versions of Machiavelli's work where Borghini and the Academy failed36. Borghini's involvement in the censoring of Machiavelli's work is not great, but the fact that he Machiavelli's work and it - were one same a manuscript found in Borghini's into contact with the is only papers more likely, a younger - all 57 . fragment, he could as was stated earlier, that suppressed Jus copy of the Dialogo. Might one suggest that it would be beneficial for scholar of his standing to try and his criticism of the without a conveniently - before the author proceeded to date, between personal papers from the mid-1570's the threat of prosecution suppress - papal court. As already stated the Borghini manuscript Borghini, Ricci and Niccolo the was Machiavelli's authorship of the Dialogol suppress Interestingly, the fragment he kept ends younger were enough to cause working on - was found, the exact period in which 'editing' Machiavelli. But Ricci, Niccolo the younger and Borghini to their respective copies of the Dialogol Machiavelli's pontificate. 55 come scholarly and 'editorial' circles easily have overlooked this small treatise, but it is he directly links him with considers that he, Ricci and Niccolo the moving in the Given that the process helps to explain how he could have Dialogo, particularly when Florentines early stages of the 'editing' involved in the was work remained under strict ban long after Gregory XIII's In 1600, the Inquisition forbade even the Medici to own a copy of the Tedeschi, Heresy: 310, n. 15. Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 307. 57 Giuliano de' Ricci, Cronaca: 1532-1606 A cura di Giuliano Sapori (Milano: Riccardo Ricciardi, 1972): 94, [352 r ] and 309, [462 r ] where Ricci notes the death of Borghini. He wrote 'Mori don Vincenzo Borghini spedalingo dello spedale delli Innocenti, persona conosciuta per le annotationi fatte al Boccaccio'. 56 Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 151 Discorsi58. Furthermore, denied permission to censoring them, as as late possess any as 1605, one of the lesser Academies at Florence works written by Machiavelli, even for the was purposes of the following letter illustrates: Reverendo Padre. risposta alia lettera di V.R. delli 4 di Dicembre le dico, che questi 111.mi e R.mi Sig.ri Cardinali non hanno voluto conceder licenza al Regente dell'Accademia de' Spensierati di tennere e leggere l'opere del Machiavelli, Boccaccio e Castelvetro ad effetto di correggerle, e farle ristampare di nuovo... .59 In letter, written by Camillo Borghese in This short that Machiavelli's work, listed first among either the same It Inquisition year. seems or response to a the three banned authors, the Congregation. Borghese For was was not tolerated by elected Pope Paul V later in the This evidence supports the premise that Borghini suppressed his manuscript. that Machiavelli's work was considered Inquisition and the Congregation denied permission it. Florentine request, shows so dangerous, that by 1610 the even to those of highest rank to read example, 'Baron de Fucariis, the imperial ambassador in Venice' permission to read Machiavelli's work despite the ban placed on even in censored Machiavelli's work, were was denied form60. And individuals who, found to have private copies, could expect arrest, torture and possible excommunication at the least, as was the case for the unfortunate Cesare di Pisa61. It is no wonder, considering that Machiavelli's work completely banned from 1579, and that penalties for possessing his work Borghini neglected to mention owning 58 5) Tedeschi, Heresy. 310, Ibid: 302-305. n. even a stiff, that portion of work attributed to that author. 14. 'Reverend Father. were was reply to the letter of your reverence of 4 December, I want to say colleagues have not seen fit to grant a license to the Regent of the Academy of the Spensierati to possess and read the works of Machiavelli, Boccaccio and Castelvetro for the purpose of correcting them so that new editions can be published Rome, 12 February 1605, The Cardinal Borghese' Also see, in the same work: 318-319: ns. 61-62. 60 Tedeschi, Heresy. 310, n. 14. 61 Ibid. Also see: 324-329 in the same volume, for a representative sentence passed on an individual for possessing works deemed heretical by the Congregation. that these most In illustrious and reverend cardinals, my . . . Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 152 Indeed, there One could may have been advantages to not attributing the Dialogo to Machiavelli. safely keep the work in one's library and Inquisition for owning If the work by a banned author. original manuscript had survived, from which Ricci and Niccolo the made the first younger even a could avoid prosecution by the one copy, in the absence of the Ricci/Machiavelli perhaps, this discussion would be less problematic. Yet, original, a good deal of information can be gained. The apograph is the first and perhaps most reliable manuscript of the Dialogo. The Vatican manuscript is consistent with the Ricci/Machiavelli manuscript, but it contains enough variations in the text to cast doubt traced to the Florentine Ricci's was apograph, then another transcription. new possibilities manuscript that is If the Vatican manuscript may be copied from lost from which the Vatican transcribers copied? The are equally cloudy, but the fact remains that three were, in one form or another, kept from Inquisition and the Congregation. There single was a copy of the Ricci/Machiavelli apograph produced in 1726, full 149 years after Ricci discovered the that Ricci, as well as his copy. Borghini, was Dialogo. an gap can a a be explained by the fact working for the Church. Borghini It is probable that Ricci chose possessed This may have hidden similar path. Ricci did not publicise the fact unpurged text which he believed to have been written by Machiavelli, given the stringent penalties for possessing copy was not can arise. Although not provable, perhaps there manuscripts of the Dialogo survive and that they that he the idea that its origins now Borghini fragment's origins both the on a work by a banned author. The of the Ricci/Machiavelli manuscript, the Palatino manuscript, like its predecessor, Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 153 is located in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence62. The unknown copyist was central in bringing the Dialogo back to the attention of Italian historians and scholars. However, those who chose to reintroduce the for the next stage At this even more in a of its curious history. point, the circumstances surrounding the history of the Dialogo become intriguing. In 1730, the Dialogo appeared for the first time collection chose to Dialogo to the Italian public must be held accountable compiled by Giovanni Bottari, print the work without an author's precedent set by Ricci and Niccolo the subsequent 1726 copy, a as a printed work Florentine scholar and prolific editor. He name younger attached, ignoring the historical in 1577, the Vatican transcribers and which placed the work firmly in Machiavelli's opere. Bottari's reasoning for this editorial license is not clearly demonstrable. Moreover, Bottari chose not to attribute the work to anyone. Benedetto Varchi's L 'Hercolano Instead, he placed the Dialogo in the appendix of dialogo nel quale si ragioni generalmente delle lingue, ed in particolare della Toscana e della Fioreniina. The British Library has 1730 edition63. special The a copy of this Edinburgh University Library has the Milanese edition of 1804 in its collections64. Although not edited by Bottari, the 1804 editors chose to use Bottari's 1730 introduction. Furthermore, as the 1730 and 1804 editions indicate, Bottari was not happy with the name that Ricci and Niccolo the choosing instead to title it; Discorso 63 dialogo sopra il had given to the work, nome della lingua volgare: MS Palatino 815 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, 820-39. See Dialogo. 1976. XVI. Dialogo. 1730. This is the full title of Bottari's edition. In the collection of the British Library, Shelf Mark: 1560/1859. 64 over younger London, Dialogo in Benedetto Varchi, L'Ercolano: dialogo di Benedetto Varchi nel quale si ragiona delle e della Fiorentina (Milano: Societa Tipografica de'Classici Italiani, Contrada di S. Margherita, N.° 1118, 1804). "Plates 8, 9, 10 and 11" below show this edition's title page as well as the passages that illustrate Bottari's omissions. The lingue. ed inparticolare della Toscana Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 154 dialogo in cui si esamina se la lingua in cui scrissero Dante, il Boccaccio e il Petrarca si debba chiamare italiana, toscana, o fiorentina65. It is strange as 'con aggiunta di molti arbitrii ed omissions concerns this makes point Ricci/Machiavelli of the that Bottari's edition has enjoyed so much respect. Sozzi described it errori'66. Perhaps the the references to the papal court at Rome. clear67. The following passage most blatant of Bottari's Again, Sozzi's scholarship is complete, relying upon the apograph of 1577 and the Vatican manuscript. The italicized portion quotation represents the section that Bottari chose to omit. parli della corte di Roma, tu parli d'un luogo dove si parla di tanti modi, nazioni vi sono, ne se li puo dare in modo alcuno regola. Di poi io mi maraviglio di te, che tu voglia, dove non si fa cosa alcuna laudabile o buona, che vi si faccia questa; perche dove sono i costumi perversi conviene che il parlare sia perverso e abbia in se quello ejfeminato lascivo che hanno coloro che lo parlono. Ma quello che inganna molti circa i vocaboli comuni e che, tu e gli altri che hanno scritto essendo stati celebrati e letti in varii luoghi, molti vocaboli nostri sono stati imparati da molti forestieri e osservati da loro, tal che di proprii nostri son diventati comuni68. Ma se tu di quante 65 Dialogo. 1976. XVT. 'Editio princeps. a cura di Giovanni Bottari, in appendice all'Ercolano di B. Tartini 66 67 e Franchi, Firenze 1730'. Ibid, XVI. the addition of many arbitrary judgements and errors'. The author's translation. Ibid, XVII. 'Tra gli arbitrii piu cospicui del Bottari e da annoverare la soppressione del passo relativo alia curia 68 Varchi, Also papale'. see Niccolo Machiavelli, Onere Complete di Niccolo Machiavelli. con molte correzione e rinvenute sui manoscritti originali giunte (Florence, 1843), 582. 'Ma se tu parli della corte di Roma, tu parli di un luogo dove si parla di tanti modi di quante nazioni vi sono, ne se gli puo dare regola. [Reference to the papacy would have been here] Ma quello che inganna molti, circa i vocaboli comuni stati celebrati e letti in varj luoghi, molti vocaboli nostri sono stati imparati da molti forestieri, ed osservati da loro, tale che di proprj nostri son diventati comuni'. Citing this edition may seem random, but it is in the author's collection. Having noticed that the references to the papacy were omitted, the author checked other editions published within 10-15 years of his edition. The same section was missing. For translation see Dialogue. 1961. pp. 186-187. 'And if you want the thing that imitates to be better than the thing that it imitated, you want something that seldom happens. And if you mean the court of Rome, you are referring to a place where there are as many languages as people represented there, and it cannot provide any sort of rule. Moreover I am astonished that you attach such importance to a place where nothing happens that is good or praiseworthy. Where customs are perverted language too must be perverted, and take on the effeminate lasciviousness of those who speak it. But what misleads many persons over common words is that when you and other writers became famous, and were read widely, many of our words were noticed and learned by outsiders and, from being our own, became common property'. See Bertelli's, Dialogo. 1969. p. 373 for the best modem edition. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 155 This discussion of the This papal court is prefaced by a discussion of the 'courtly tongue'. is, according to Dante's character in the Dialogo, the Italians69. The courts, the on Rome. The Bottari's'0. mention that the references to the to indicate that the brackets were A similar examination of the Vatican the references to the papacy were additional information can be are missing71. Here, it is important to underlined in the Vatican manuscript manuscript of 1726. An analysis of the latter added after the Palatino manuscript was copied. manuscript has not been able to determine whether underlined while it was copied, or after. While no gleaned from the Vatican manuscript regarding this point, probable that Bottari manuscript. every However, in Bottari's 1730 edition and papal court and set off with brackets in the Palatino seems While the discussion is complete reference to the papal court, quoted above, is found in subsequent editions until 1929, the reference is it more. Dialogo's author takes the opportunity to attack the papal court at complete manuscript before seems tongue of learned Dialogo's author is quick to dispense with the idea of a courtly tongue, by stating that court languages reflect their localities, nothing focused common was responsible for adding the brackets to the Palatino Although not underlined, the Ricci/Machiavelli manuscript, while it is hastily transcribed throughout, becomes exceedingly sloppy where the author discusses the papacy. 67 (See Plates, 3-5 below) Alighieri, De Vulsari Eloquentia trans. Warman Welliver (Ravenna: Ravenna Longo, 1981), English translation: 'And so, having found what 1 was seeking, I proclaim an illustrious, cardinal, royal, and courtly vernacular in Italy, which is of every Latin city and seems to be of none, and by which all the municipal vernaculars of Latins are measured and weighed and compared'; 80 for Latin original: 'Itaque, adepti quod querebamus, dicimus illustre, cardinale, aulicum et curiale vulgare in Latio, quod omnis latie civitatis est nullis esse videtur, et quo municipalia vulgaria omnia Latinorum mensurantur et ponderantur et comparantur'. 70 Ricci's Apograph, the Vatican MS and the Palatino MS. 71 The 1929 edition in Tutte le Opere: 770-778. Dante I.XVI for Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 156 Cecil over upon other Grayson gives Bottari's 1730 edition early printed editions that name Bottari's edition because Bottari an Machiavelli interesting place of precedence as the author 72 its name, and second, and seem Dialogo Giovanni purged of all critical references to the papacy. sixteenth-century guidelines by the Inquisition and later the Congregation of the Index regarding the editing name central text he did not have any as a censor, and unlike Ricci and problem publishing the Dialogo without the on which Despite Bottari's censorship, his edition of the Dialogo subsequent editions published by Casella and Mazzoni in In He acted attached, choosing instead to include it in an obscure appendix without any indication of authorship. 1769, the Dialogo Machiavelli74. The possesses a copy 72 why Bottari edited the text and changed to indicate that Bottari followed the Machiavelli the younger, as was purging of Machiavelli's work. author's as to Here Godman's be conjecture, but it is not merely speculative. Bottari's 1730 edition of the set forth first, seizes why he chose not to attribute the work to Niccolo Machiavelli. What follows may The facts at hand answers: Grayson the first to reject Machiavelli's authorship. was Surprisingly, Grayson neglected to mention Bottari's omissions. scholarship provides possible . was were based until to complete version published for the first time as a was work of Niccolo Special Collections Department at the Glasgow University Library of this edition. The title used by the 1769 edition's editors is the do the 192973. Bottari's, but they removed this portion of the title 'sopra il The first edition a was so is Niccolo in cui scrissero Dante, il Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Discorso. e overro nome same della vulgar lingua', dialogo. in cui si esamina. il Petrarca, si debba chiamare Italiana. Toscana. o se la lingua, Fiorentina in Opere: Volume Otto: Commedie. terzine ed altre opere (Cosmopoli. 17691. 73 Tutte le Opere. 1929. 74 Opere. 1769. Cited in Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 369, n. 16. The Glasgow University Library has this edition in its Special Collections Department. The author had the opportunity to examine it. Its title as well as its omissions mirrors those of Bottari's text. "Figures 5 and 6" below illustrate this point. . Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 157 dialogo, in cui si esamina, la lingua, in cui scrissero calling it the Discorso, overro Dante, il Boccaccio, il Petrarca, si debba chiamare Italiana, Toscana, e se o Fiorentina. An examination of this text illustrated that Bottari's omissions remained. The extent to which these omissions affected the the Dialogo papal court - cited earlier in the Chapter can - be seen was not in that the italicised reference to included in editions throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even those editions that claimed to seek the purest version of the text somehow overlooked this omission. Examples from few of the editions The are a enough to demonstrate this. Opere Complete di Niccold Machiavelli, rinvenute sui manoscritti con molte correzioni giunte e originali, published in Florence in 1843, does not include the references to tire papal court that Bottari deleted 75 . The Giuseppe Zirardini's Opere di Niccold Machiavelli of same omission is repeated in 185176. This version, printed in Paris, like the above Florentine Opere of 1843, followed the example set forth by Bottari. Indeed his text, despite its obvious omissions, remained the standard until Casella's and Mazzoni's 1929 edition. Why would Italian scholars perpetuate and pass on a flawed text? The first possible answer to this question is that these nineteenth-century scholars may not have considered the text to be flawed if they adhered to conservative Catholic policy. Second, it is most likely that generations of scholars continued to publish the flawed Bottari text because seems 1843. 75 This likely in light of the title of the above-mentioned Florentine texts of 1769 and The editors of this 1843 edition, for This edition Machiavelli. 16 they failed to examine the manuscripts themselves. was con printed in Florence in 1843. molte correzione Niccolo Machiavelli, e example, adopted the 1769 edition's title; See Niccolo Machiavelli, Opere Complete di Niccolo giunte rinvenute sui manoscritti originali (Florence. 1843). Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli A cura dt Giuseppe Zirardini (Parigi, 1851). Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 158 over[o] Dialogo in cui si esamina Discorso Boccaccio e la lingua in cui scrissero Dante, il Fiorentina77. il Petrarca si debba chiamare Italiana, Toscana, o information at hand Bottari's text se - seems not the of the 1769 edition relied to indicate that the editors manuscripts - The and the editors of the 1843 edition, in turn, relied on on the 1769 edition. Those editors who followed Bottari may religious reasons. in the mid is 19th century, and 'self-censorship', as - was not opposed to a The a position of strength Church mandated censorship in exile in Gaeta was case may many be, the harshest references to the may not claimed to have done papacy in the Dialogo Dialogo was not published in its complete form until the early twentieth Dialogo80. The editors were aware of their contribution to the study of the Dialogo. Casella wrote, '// Dialogo circa la lingua Fiorentina' la prima volta nella Ooere sua integrita, con quel Complete. 1843. The brackets around the 'o' Bottari's title. The editors of 1843 edition added the 'o'. 78 77 passo contro are alia Curia e qui dato romana che il the author's, highlighting the only change to Harry Hearder, Italy in the Aee of the Risorgimento: 1790-1870 (London: Longman, 1983), 287. The title of the 1843 edition is a good example of this. Qpere Complete di Niccolo Machiavelli. molte correzioni 80 have unpublished manuscripts in two of Italy's great libraries. complete edition of the 77 . The Guido Mazzoni and Mario Casella edition of 1929 contains the first century. per 78 formally developed until the late manuscripts of the Dialogo, despite the fact that Whatever the left in was not in 20th centuries. The editors who adopted Bottari's edition early checked the were at least in Italy complicating matters, archival research Further so79. so - likely, given that by February 1849, Pope Pius IX more 19th The Roman Church have exercised 'self-censorship' for Tutte le e giunte rinvenute sui manoscritti oriainali. Opere. 1929: 770-778. con Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 159 Bottari aveva soppresso nella edizione del sua 1730's 1. The Dialogo was published in censored form in 1730 and in its entirety only in 1929. It took 199 the full text to be printed - astounding considering that after 1769 it was thus first years for thought to be a work of Machiavelli. The history of the manuscripts and early editions of the Dialogo is colourful and puzzling. Its history and certain details in the text itself have caused some scholars to Grayson and others have suggested that the question the Dialogo's authorship. knowledge inherent in the Dialogo is beyond that which could be expected of Niccolo Machiavelli. Furthermore, and perhaps the author of the treatise. This more troubling to scholars, is the Florentine than Dante so troubling if the author had selected treatment of Dante in some works by Machiavelli. By the 81 new less famous Dialogo is consistent the same token, the attitude that Dialogo and Machiavelli often adopted toward Dante is, perhaps of the Florentine 'antiquated' political vision, centred the a Alighieri with whom to debate. The next section of this Chapter seeks to illustrate that the author's treatment of Dante in the representative in which Dialogo deals with his counterpart in the verbal exchange within the point would not be the author of the way humanists' on struggle universal monarchy to re-appropriate or remove Dante's it altogether from Florentine framework of republicanism. Tutte le opere. 1929. LXX. '"The Dialogo concerning the Florentine language' is here given for the first entirety, with the passage against the Roman court that Bottari had suppressed in his edition of 1730". The author's translation. Mazzoni and Casella refer to 'II Dialogo' as 'Discorso o Dialogo Intorno Alia Nostra Lingua', following the Ricci/Machiavelli apograph, as the proper title of the short treatise; on p. 770. Also see Dialogo. 1976, XVII. time in its Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 160 III. Machiavelli and Dante The Dialogo's author is critical of his counterpart, Dante. Machiavelli had Grayson asserted that always been reverential toward Dante in his other works, which meant that he could not be the Dialogo's contextual evidence and current author82. There is more than enough textual as well as scholarship to do away with Grayson's argument. For example, Maurizio Viroli does not doubt that Machiavelli wrote the Dialogo. Meld Shell's recent work on the Dialogo, unlike Viroli's, focuses intently authenticity of the work and specifically Dialogo*1. on argued that there was no justify his critical treatment of Dante. questioned Machiavelli's Machiavelli often spanning roughly 25 On the basis of this argument, Tommasini argument was later followed and developed one could reconcile the critical of Machiavelli's other works. quoted from Dante, though not always correctly, years85. These quotations and references Machiavelli's most famous letters and can over a be found in some of secondo86. history of apparent emulation does not, despite Grayson's views, lessen the point [anywhere in his writings] does he seem at all in any unfavourable sense'. Shell, "Machiavelli's Discourse". Shell discusses the authenticity of the work, throughout this article. Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 365. critically engaged with Dante either as 84 period public works. It is apparent that Machiavelli made attempts to copy Dante's terza rima in his Prima decennale as well as the s;; Then, historical precedent in Machiavelli's work to authorship84. This treatment of Dante with any the Machiavelli's treatment of Dante in the by Cecil Grayson. He, like Tommasini, did not think that s" on The argument to which Shell is responding had its origins in 1883. Oreste Tommasini This Susan 'At no a man or as a poet Tommasini, Vita. 100. Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante": 363-364. 85 Niccolo Machiavelli, The First Decennale: A Facsimile of the First Edition of February, 1506 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969). See the article used as an introduction, William A. Jackson, Richard H. Rouse and Ernest Hatch Wilkins, "The Early Editions of Machiavelli's First Decennale", 1. 85 Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 161 possibility of Machiavelli's authorship of the Dialogo. An important part of this puzzle is missing: Machiavelli's unfinished and it owes a Machiavelli's L have than and to Dante's Commedxa . superficial and far from flattering. At the beginning of L 'Asino, - himself: 'I vari casi, la pur pena e che fortuna volgia' la doglia/ Che sotto forma d'un [11.1-3]89. The first segment of the changes tone and setting from the first, here following the story of Machiavelli's adventures while still in human form. For as Roberto Ridolfi lamented: 'unfortunately, the promise of the first chapter is not kept, because the the best point before the metamorphosis'90. Machiavelli left L 'Asino unfinished. Machiavelli's poem stops short L 'Asino is thought to have been written earlier than the autumn of 1515 and not later than 87 authorship, although interesting, is not important in this context. However, the second section of the poem at over The similarities between Dante's Commedia and Machiavelli's soffersi,/ Cantero io, poem, doubt unfinished, Machiavelli speaks these words to introduce his readers to the poem's main character Asin - no paid little attention to the mockery of Dante inherent in 'Asino88. are more which is L'Asino. There is great deal to Apuleius' Metamorphoses Scholars L 'Asino poem 151991. Nonetheless, it offers an no What is known is that interesting insight into literary relationship with Dante. Michael Harvey, "Lost in the Wilderness: Love and Longing in L'Asino," The Comedy and Tragedy of on the Literary Works, ed. Vickie B Sullivan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000): 120-137, see p. 123 where Harvey writes, 'The work (L'Asino) draws most overtly from the Metamorphoses or the Golden Ass of Apuleius'. 88 Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante": 365-366. 'If one agrees that the parody of Dante in the Asino is unintentional, the references and quotations and imitation of Dante in Machiavelli's works suggests respect and at times admiration for the poet'. Grayson's is an awfully big 'if. What if the parody is intentional? 87 Harvey, "L'Asino", 122. "The varied chances, the pain and the grief/ that under an Ass's form I suffered, /1 shall sing if fortune allows'. Also see 'L'Asino d'oro', in Tutte le Opere. 1929. 817. 50 Roberto Ridolfi, The Life of Niccolo Machiavelli trans. Cecil Grayson (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1963), 166. " John Hale, Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy (London: The English Universities Press Ltd, 1966), 168. Machiavelli: Essays Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 162 Machiavelli describes his surroundings. Inferno, Machiavelli begins his journey in depiction of an afterlife based upon a with Christian doctrine, Machiavelli pagan; a Mimicking dark wood. - or mocking Unlike Dante's intricate theology that attempts to reconcile pagan depicts the underworld in terms that entirely drained of Christian connotation and devoid of redemption himself alone and helpless, in an unfamiliar world. beautiful young woman, a servant Odysseus' men into swine. The young woman, or Along the way the duo meet a a tour of the pig. This pig Interestingly, Shell notes that he speaks like which it was wallowing, so that it Ugolino in Dante's Inferno. antiquity are 92 . wholly He finds However, he is discovered by a of Circe; the Homeric character who changed her, is fond enough of him to take him into her proceeds to give Machiavelli Dante's - may 'la mia duchessa', as Machiavelli calls bed9'. After a night of bliss the duchess many spheres of Circe's animal kingdom. was at one time a man - a victim of Circe. Epicurus94. The pig rises from the mud in speak to Machiavelli and the Duchess, mirroring This is how Machiavelli described their meeting. The speaker is Machiavelli: Alzo quel porco al giunger nostro Tutto vergato di meta e di loto, Tal che mi venne nel guardarlo a schifo, E si perch'io fui gia il grifo gran tempo suo noto, mostrandomi i denti, Stando col resto fermo e senza moto. Ver me mosse Ond'io li dissi, pur con "Dio ti dia miglior sorte, se ti pare; ti contenti" [Capitolo VIII, 11. Dio ti mantegna, se tu 92 grati accenti: 1-9]95. Harvey, "L'Asino", 123. Niccolo Machiavelli, "L'Asino d'oro", in Tutte le Qpere Storiche e Letterarie di Niccolo Machiavelli A cura di Guido Mazzoni e Mario Casella (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929): 817-840. See p. 823. 'Dietro a le piante da la mia duchessa...' '4 Shell, "Machiavelli's Discourse", 80. )s L'Asino. 837. For translation see Niccolo Machiavelli, 'The Ass" in The Chief Works and Others Vol. 3, trans. Allan Gilbert (Durham: Duke University Press, 1965): 769-770. '1 As we came near, that hog raised his snout all smeared with turd and mud, such that to look at him made me sick./ 4 And because long 93 Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 163 Compare Machiavelli's words with those of Dante's when he and Virgil come upon Ugolino in the Ninth and lowest circle of Hell: ghiacciati in una buca, all'altro era cappello; '1 pan per fame si manduca, ch'io vidi due si che Fun capo e come cosi '1 li denti sovran la 've '1 cervel non a l'altro pose s'aggiugne altrimenti Tideo si con la nuca: rose tempie a Menalippo per disdegno, quei faceva il teschio e l'altre cose. 'O tu che mostri per si bestial segno odio sovra colui che tu ti mangi, dimmi '1 perche,' diss' io 'per tal convegno, che se tu a ragion di lui ti piangi, sappiendo chi voi siete e la sua pecca, nel mondo suso ancora io te ne cangi, se quella con ch' io parlo non si secca' [Canto XXXII, 11. le che Thus, the pig's response was diametrically opposed to that of the sorrowful and wretched Ugolino97. The pig, unlike Ugolino, does human world above. When 125-139]96. not want his name or position restored in the given the chance to return to its human form it rejects the notion, preferring its life in the mud. Machiavelli continues: ' Vuole ancor da sua parte ch'io ti dica Che ti liberera da tanto male, Se tornar vuoi ne la tua forma antica'. pie dritto il cignale, quello; e fe' questa risposta, Tutto turbato, il fangoso animale: 'Non so d'onde tu venga, o di qual costa; Ma se per altro tu non se'venuto Levossi allora in Udendo before I had been known him, he turned toward me with a show of teeth, remaining otherwise quiet and to him, in the most gracious tones: "May God give you a better fate if it seems to you good; may God support you if you desire support". 96 Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno trans. Charles Singleton (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989): 346-347. Canto XXXII. 126-139. '....I saw two/ frozen in one hole so close that the head of / the one was a hood for the/ other; and as/ bread is devoured for hunger, so the upper/ one set his teeth upon the other where the/ brain joins with the nape. Not otherwise did/ Tydeus gnaw the temples of Menalippus/ for rage than this one was doing to the skull/ and the other parts'. The section of Dante's poem in the text above follows Singleton's presentation. 91 Inferno. 1989: 348-355, Canto XXXffl. 1-91 for Ugolino's speech. to without motion./ 7 So I said Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 164 Che per trarmi di qui, vanne a tua posta. Viver con voi io non volgio, e rifiuto; quello errore, ebbe tenuto. v'inganna il proprio vostro E veggo ben che tu se'in Che me piu tempo ancor Tan to Che altro ben non Fuor de l'umana Esser E credete che sia essenza e amore, valore[...] affermo o confesso del Senz'alcun dubbio, io superior la parte nostra; tu nol negherai appresso [Capitolo VIII, 11. 19-33, ancor 43-44]98 Harvey noted that the pig would rather 'found his notion of the good on nature', freely accepting its pleasures and troubles, without the interference of human greed and lust". Redemption in L'Asino, unlike Dante's Commedia, is found in nature, not in things divine. Shell comments, 'Machiavelli naturalizes and bestializes the translating its spiritual ascent into the worldly meanderings of an ass. Commedia, In Machiavelli's ludicrous'100. Circean barnyard the sublime figures in the Commedia become scholarship provides thoroughly different picture of Machiavelli and his relationship to a Dante from that which is in her painted by Tommasini and others, but she is by interpretation of Machiavelli's L'Asino. Machiavelli's L 'Asino, wrote: 'Like Dante's no means Her alone Harvey, in his poetic analysis of spiritual descent and a reckoning of human affairs and human lives, but unlike Dante, Machiavelli presents a 98 journey, this will be L'Asino. 838. 8.19-33 and 43-44 The Ass. 770. '19 "On her part a she [the duchessjalso wants me to tell that she will free you/ from such great evil, if you wish to return to your early shape."/ 22 Erect the boar stood on his feet when he heard that, and in great/ excitement the muddy beast made his reply:/ 25 "I know not whence you come or from what region, but if you/ have come for nothing else than to get me away from here, go/ off about your business./ 28 I have no wish to live with you; I refuse. I see clearly that you/ suffer from the error which long bound me too./ 31 So much your self love deceives you that you do not believe/ there is any good apart from human existence and its worth[...]/ 43 Without the least doubt I assert and affirm that superior to/ yours is our conditionf... ]'. 99 Harvey, "L'Asino", 131 100 Shell, "Machiavelli's Discourse", 80. you Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 165 pagan vision of the underworld, and there will be no redeeming ascent seems that Machiavelli, while transform the Commedia's may prove helpful to return to Dante's poem to fit his and re-wrote other illustrious as a was of his way to anything but sublime. It subject discussed in Chapters One and Two: re-appropriation of other writers. in which Machiavelli went about changing the backdrop and meaning of The way Principe, poem, went out heavenly subject into that which Machiavelli's subversion and 11 imitating Dante's famous afterward101. It own authors102. agenda is in character with the Machiavelli used animals - a way in which he subverted secular symbol of nature - in he had in L'Asino to undermine the authority of republican Rome's patriot and prolific writer, Marcus Cicero. rejections focuses on The most famous of these the Ciceronian tradition of the virtuous man, particularly when he discusses the 'fox' and the 'lion'. Quentin Skinner illustrated the great Machiavelli went in order to turn the Ciceronian conception of lengths to which proper republican government on its head. To the classical moralists and their innumerable followers, moral virtue had been defining characteristic of the vir, the man of true manliness. Hence to abandon virtue was not merely to act irrationally; it was also to abandon one's status as a man and descend to the level of beasts. As Cicero had put it in Book I of Moral Obligation, there are two ways in which wrong may be done, either by force or by fraud. Both, he declares, 'are bestial' and 'wholly unworthy of man' force because it typifies the lion and fraud because it 'seems to belong to the cunning fox'10'. the The Ciceronian passage to which Skinner refers is as follows: Harvey, "L'Asino", 123. Barbara Godorecci, After Machiavelli: "Re-writing" and the "Hermeneutic Attitude" (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1993), 78. As the title indicates this work is written from the perspective of a literary critic and theorist. One of Godorecci's central arguments is that Machiavelli subverts and reappropriates the writings of others through re-writing their texts within his own. 10, Quentin Skinner, Machiavelli (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996): 40-47 for Skinner's discussion of Machiavelli's attitude toward Cicero in 11 Principe. See p. 40 for quotation. 102 Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 166 Cum autem duobus modis, id est aut vi aut fraude, fiat iniuria, fraus quasi vulpeculae, vis leonis videtur; utrumque homine alienissimum, sed fraus odio digna maiore. Totius autem iniustitiae nulla capitalior quam eorum, qui turn, cum maxime fallunt, id agunt, ut viri boni esse videantur104. Skinner, using examples from Chapter 18 of II Principe, illustrated how far Machiavelli was willing to go in order to discredit and disavow the classical and humanistic approaches to princely virtue. He wrote that, 'To Machiavelli, by contrast, it seemed obvious that manliness was not enough...one of the things a prince therefore needs to know is which animals to imitate'. He continues, 'Machiavelli's celebrated advice is that he will come off best if he 'chooses among the beasts the fox and the lion', supplementing the ideals of manly decency with the indispensable arts of force and fraud' 10;\ As this example is the most telling of Machiavelli's willingness to attack and reject authors where at other times he accepts their writings wholeheartedly, it is helpful to quote from Chapter 18 of II Principe at length: adunque sapere come sono dua generazione di combattere: l'uno con le leggi, l'altro con la forza: quel primo e proprio dello uomo, quel secondo delle bestie: ma, perche el primo molte volte non basta, conviene ricorrere al secondo. Per tanto a uno principe e necessario sapere bene usare la bestia e lo uomo...Sendo adunque uno principe necessitato sapere bene usare la bestia, debbe di quelle pigliare la golpe [volpe] et il lione; perche il lione non si difende da' lacci, la golpe non si difende da' lupi. Bisogna adunque essere golpe a conoscere e' lacci, e lione a sbigottire e' lupi. Coloro che stanno semplicemente in sul lione, non se ne intendano. Non puo per tanto uno signore prudente, ne debbe, osservare la fede, quando tale osservanzia li torni contro, e che sono spente le cagioni che la feciono promettere1116. Dovete 104 Cicero, De Officiis trans. Walter Miller (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 44-47. 1.42, pp. 44 and 46 for the Latin original. 'While wrong may be done, then, in either of two ways, that is, by force or by fraud, both are bestial: fraud seems to belong to the cunning fox, force to the lion; both are wholly unworthy of man, but fraud is the more contemptible. But of all forms of injustice, none is more flagrant that that of the hypocrite who at the very moment when he is most false, makes it his business to appear virtuous '. 105 Skinner, Machiavelli. 40. 106 II Principe: 67-68. And Prince. 1995. 55. 'You must understand, therefore, that there are two ways of fighting: by law or by force. The first way is natural to men, and the second to beasts. But as the first way often proves inadequate one must needs have recourse to the second. So a prince must understand how to make a nice use of the beast and the man... So a prince is forced to know how to act like a beast, he must Marcus Tullius 1997): pp. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 167 As if these words were enough to discredit thoroughly the Ciceronian concept of not political virtue and princely rule, Machiavelli adds went on to a brutal, anti-Ciceronian flourish. He write: non fece mai altro, non penso mai ad altro che ad ingannare uomini, e sempre trovo subietto da poterlo fare. E non fu mai uomo che avessi maggiore efficacia in asseverare, e con maggiori giuramenti affermassi una cosa, che l'osservassi meno; non di meno, sempre il succederono l'inganni ad votum, 107 perche conosceva bene questa parte del mondo Alessandro VI As Skinner illustrates, that Machiavelli had the Ciceronian when he wrote Chapter 18 of 11 Principe. willingness to reject a given author in beliefs of the author he once rejected. one passage quoted above in mind These examples illustrate Machiavelli's work, while he, in other works, accepts the This is particularly the case where Cicero is concerned. In Machiavelli's other focus is almost solely upon works, contrary to the picture presented by II Principe, the the Ciceronian definition of a properly ordered republican government. Cicero's influence is profoundly felt throughout Machiavelli's Machiavelli was ready to adopt the theories set forth by his famous Florentine ancestors, when doing so would support his current and evolving However, he to make a Discorsi108. was as or Roman political thought. quick to disavow the theories of well-respected predecessors in order contrary point. learn from the fox and the lion; because the lion is defenceless against traps and a fox is defenceless against simply act like lions are stupid. So it follows that a prudent ruler cannot, and must not, honour his word when it places him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made his promise no longer exist'. 107 Principe. 1999. 68. And Prince. 1995. 55. 'Alexander VI never did anything, or thought of anything, other than deceiving men; and he always found victims for his deceptions. There never was a man capable of such convincing asseverations, or so ready to swear the truth to something, who would honour his word less. None the less his deceptions always had the result he intended because he was a past master in the wolves. Those who art'. 108 Viroli, Love of Country: 31-40. influences in Machiavelli's Discorsi. II Here, Viroli examines the Roman, and particularly Ciceronian Principe and Dialogo which he attributes to Machiavelli. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 168 In II Principe, Machiavelli dismissed much of Cicero's political thought whereas, throughout the Discorsi, Cicero's patriotic and republican theories are central109. The glaring examples of anti-Ciceronianism in II Principe cited above do not render Machiavelli's treatise un-'Machiavellian' - unlike Machiavelli nor - do historians question Machiavelli's authorship because Cicero is viewed favourably in his other political works. The same Machiavelli's logic may authorship of the treatise do critical of Dante, where he of L'Asino, a work was remove Machiavelli is well so, Those who deny partly because the author of the Dialogo is favourable toward him in other works. The earlier study undoubtedly written by Machiavelli, demonstrated that he always favourable to Dante. necessarily be applied, gently, to the Dialogo. was not So, the mockery of Dante in the Dialogo does not the work from his oeuvre. It is true that on most occasions, disposed toward Dante, for Machiavelli mentions him often in his personal letters and he often copied Dante's terza rima. Where favourable treatment required, Machiavelli subversion was unwavering in his support of Cicero and Dante, but where deemed necessary, undermine Cicero's him. was Machiavelh likewise unwavering. He sought to authority in II Principe, while in the Discorsi Machiavelli emulated Machiavelli's treatment of Cicero in II passage 109 was Similarly, the author's treatment of Dante in the Dialogo, There are focuses was several passages upon mirror Principe. often referred to, but the most often quoted of these Dante personally. Viroli, Love of Country: 31-40. appears to Grayson refers to this passage as definitive Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 169 evidence of the un-'Machiavellian' nature of the worthwhile citing the passage Dialogo110. Although lengthy, it is in its entirety: [M]a mi fermero sopra di Dante, il quale in ogni parte mostro d'esser per ingegno, per dottrina e per giudizio uomo eccellente, eccetto che dove egli ebbe a ragionar della patria sua, la quale, fuori d'ogni umanita e filosofico instituto, perseguito con ogni specie d'ingiuria. E non potendo altro fare che infamarla, accuso quella d'ogni vizio, danno gli uomini, biasimo il sito, disse male de' costumi e delle leggi di lei; e questo fece non solo in una parte de la sua Cantica, ma in tutta, e diversamente e in diversi modi; tanto 1'offese l'ingiuria dell'esilio! tanta vendetta ne desiderava! e pero ne fece tanta quanta egli pote. E se, per sorte, de' mali ch'egli li predisse, le ne fusse accaduto alcuno, Firenze arebbe piu da dolersi d'aver nutrito quell'uomo che d'alcuna altra sua rovina. Ma la fortuna, per farlo mendace e per ricoprire con la gloria sua la calunnia falsa di quello, l'ha continuamente prosperata, e fatta celebre per tutte le provincie del Mondo, e condotta al presente in tanta felicita e si tranquillo stato, che, se Dante la vedessi, o egli accuserebbe se stesso, o ripercosso dai colpi di quella sua innata invidia, vorrebbe, essendo risuscitato, di nuovo morire. Non e pertanto maraviglia se costui, che in ogni cosa accrebbe infamia a la sua patria, volse ancora nella lingua torle quella riputazione la quale pareva a lui d'averle data ne' suoi scritti, e per non l'onorare in alcun modo compose quell'opera, per mostrar quella lingua nella quale egli aveva scritto non esser fiorentina. II che tanto se li debbe credere, quanto ch'ei trovassi Bruto in bocca di Lucifero maggiore, e cinque cittadini fiorentini in tra i ladroni, e quel suo Cacciaguida in Paradiso, e simili sue passioni e opinioni; nelle quali fu tanto cieco, che perse ogni sua gravita, dottrina e giudicio, e divenne al tutto un altro uomo; talmente che, s'egli avessi giudicato cosi ogni cosa, o egli sarebbe vivuto sempre a Firenze o egli ne sarebbe stato cacciato per pazzo'11. 110 This is particularly true of Cecil Grayson. "Machiavelli and Dante". Ibid: 366-367. 111 Dialogo. 1969: 366-367. himself And He made this supposed problem central to his article Dialogue. 1961: 178-179. '1 shall concentrate on Dante, who shows point to have excelled in genius, learning and judgement, except where he spoke of his native city, which he attacked with every sort of injury in a way unworthy of reason or charity itself. The affront of his banishment offended him so deeply and so much did he want to revenge himself that he was unable to stop defaming her; he accused her of every vice, condemned her inhabitant, criticised her situation, slandered her laws and customs, and all this not in a single part of his poem but throughout it, in different passages and in different ways; so he did all that he could. And if, by chance, Florence would have more cause to grieve for having nourished that man than for any other disaster that had befallen her. But Fortune, to have him the lie and cover his false calumnies with the city's glory, has led her continually to prosper, and become famous in all the regions of the world, and has brought her at present to such happiness and tranquillity that if Dante could seize her, either he would admit his guilt or would choose, hardly had he risen again, to die once more, tortured by the pangs of ineradicable hatred. So it is no marvel if this man who heaped infamy in every way on the place of his birth wished to rob her language of the reputation which he felt he had given it by his writings, and, so as not to pay it any honour composed this work to show that the tongue he had written in was not that of Florence. But this is no more to be believed than that he found Brutus in the widest of Lucifer's throats, or five Florentine citizens among the thieves, of his Cacciaguida in Paradise, or similar prejudices and fantasies in which he was so blind that he lost all his dignity, learning and sense of proportion and became quite another man; so much so that if he had looked at every Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 170 If this passage is taken out of context it seems that the author was dealing perhaps too severely with his famous Florentine ancestor; but when this passage is set against the backdrop of the patriotism inherent in the Dialogo's short preface, these harsh words, or 'attacks' fit squarely into the citizen's obligations to protect the patria. In the Preface to Dialogo, its author penned these words: his Sempre che io ho potuto onorare la patria mia eziandio con mio carico e pericolo volentieri, perche l'uomo non ha maggiore obbligo nella vita sua che con quella, dependendo prima da essa l'essere e di poi tutto quello che di buono la fortuna e la natura ci hanno conceduto; e tanto viene a esser maggiore in coloro che hanno sortito patria piii nobile. E veramente colui il quale con fanimo e con l'opere si fa nimico della sua patria, meritamente si puo chiamare parricida, ancora che da quella fosse suto offeso. Perche se battere il padre e la madre, per qualunque cagione, e cosa nefanda, di necessita ne segue il lacerare la patria essere cosa nefandissima, perche da lei mai si patisce alcuna persecuzione per la quale possa meritare di essere da te ingiuriata, avendo a riconoscere da quella ogni tuo bene; tal che se ella si priva di parte de' suoi cittadini, sei piii tosto obbligato ringraziarla di quelli che la si lascia, che infamarla di quelli che la si toglie. E quando questo sia vero (che e verissimo) io non dubito mai di ingannarmi per difenderla e venire contro a quelli che troppo presuntuosamente cercano di privarla dell'onor suo112. l'ho fatto This goes some way to meeting objections raised about the un-'Machiavellian' nature of the attack levelled at Dante. written The patriotism inherent at the outset of the Dialogo is seriously and earnestly. Such language in the Dialogo sets levelled at Dante, but it also allows the writer to everything in this light either he would have continued out as a 112 the attack that is play with the reader's emotions by its of irony. use on up madman'. Dialogo. 1969. 363. Dialogue. 1961. 175. to live in Florence 'Whenever I have had an or he would have been chased opportunity of honouring my country, even if this involved me in trouble and danger, I have done it willingly, for a man is under no greater obligation than to his country; he owes his very existence, and later, all the benefits that nature and fortune offer hi, to her. And the nobler one's country, the greater one's obligation. In fact he who shows himself by thought and deed an enemy of his country deserves the name of parricide, even if he has legitimate grievance. For it is follows that it is still she can be more an evil deed to strike one's father or mother for any reason, it necessarily criminal to savage one's country. You owe her every advantage you have, and guilty of no persecution that justifies your injuring her; indeed, if she disposes of some of her citizens you should rather be thankful for those that remain than blame her for those that she has banished. And if this it true (which is most true) I shall never dear to be mistaken in defending her and own attacking those too presumptuous persons who seek to rob her of her just repute'. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 171 One cannot help but think that the Dialogo's writer Would the predicament when he attacked Dante. character with Machiavelli? The answer is an use was thinking of his own of this sort of irony be out of emphatic 'No'. Florence had a history of example. Machiavelli, himself exiling those who loved her most; Dante being one unjustly exiled patriot, knew this all too well. Was the author, perhaps Machiavelli, referring to his It is own exile? likely that instead of being patriotic indignation and severe one or the other, this irony, both of which were dedicatory letter and epilogue of II Principe illustrate. Viroli point to Machiavelli's use passage a a combination of as the Roberto Ridolfi and Maurizio of irony and humour, which he often deployed at the felt, Machiavelli often used his biting Dialogo contains is familiar to Machiavelli strangest times, to alleviate his heartbreak over his exile from heartbreak he an telling example of this sort - sense a Florence"3. Despite the of irony to humorous ends. The notable example that Grayson and others overlooked. Keeping the focus firmly text on the author's treatment of Dante in the Dialogo, the provides further examples of his ironic passage to N. sense of humour. It is helpful first to cite the which Grayson and others referred: mio, io voglio che tu t'emendi, e che tu consideri meglio il parlar e la tua opera, e vedrai che se alcuno s'ara da vergognare, sara piu tosto Firenze che tu; perche se considererai bene a quel che tu hai detto, tu vedrai come ne' tuoi versi non hai fuggito il goffo, come e quello: Poi cipartimmo, e n'andavamo introcque]l4; non hai fuggito il porco, come quello: Dante fiorentino 113 Ridolfi, Life of Niccolo: 137-139; Viroli, Niccolo's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli trans. Antony Shugaar (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000), 148. 114 Dialoeo. 1969: 371-372. And Dialogue. 1961. 185. Also see on the same page n. 1 where John Hale noted that 'Machiavelli is confusing two lines, one from Inferno 26, line 13, 'Then we set out...' and the other from Infemo 20, line 130, '...and we went on our way'. It is highly possible that Machiavelli selected these two lines to illustrate a point, so it cannot be called 'confusing'. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 172 Che non hai merdafa di quel che si trangugiaU5; fuggito l'osceno, come e: Le mani alzd they amhedue le ficheU(\ example that Machiavelli cites from Dante's Commedia includes references to This last 'fiche' con or figs. In Italian fico,fichi, or fiche are not only the words for the fruit, 'fig', also directly related to vulgar hand gestures and are irony combines with obscenity - to which Machiavelli This is perhaps in the most recent even the further example of 'Niccolo's Smile' revealing his love of life and humour Appendix to this Chapter over Dante's use 117 Maurizio Viroli wrote of irony as as so as ironic smile; smile that existed context, the author's much proof against, but rather support for Dialogo. The well a an the lewd letter included in indicates118. When viewed in this 'obscenity' is not Machiavelli's authorship of the Machiavelli's as pain and longing for political service, but also before his exile 'shock' was no stranger biography of Machiavelli, published in 2000. This is that covered his one a In this instance, sex organs. passages humour. above provide telling examples of Machiavelli's acknowledged writings present many additional opportunities to study his use of irony. For the problem at hand 115 Inferno. XXVM, 27. swallowed'. See translation in Dialogue. 1961. 185, n. 2. 'That makes excrement of what is 116 Inferno. 1989. 259, XXV, 2. Grayson quotes this passage in "Machiavelli, Dante", 368. For translation of the passage from the Dialogo. see Dialogue. 1961. 185, n. 3. 'Lifted up his hands with both the figs'. For translation of entire passage see pp. 184-185. N. Dante, my friend, 1 want you to amend you ways and carefully about the Florentine tongue and your own work; and you will see that if anyone is to for if you consider what you have written carefully you will see that you have not always avoided being clumsy in your verse; as here, for example: 'Poi ci partimmo, e n'andavamo introque'; nor have you avoided crudity - as here, for example: 'Che merda fa di quel che si trangugia'; nor have you avoided obscenity - as in 'Le mani also con ambedue le fiche'. 1,7 For an example of this, see Lettere. 190-191, Letter 178, 8 December 1509. 118 Viroli, Niccolo's Smile. 171. 'We are now somewhat more familiar with the meaning of Niccolo's smile. We know it is a smile that dies on the lips and conceals his pain. Machiavelli smiled at mankind, at the constant to-and-fro of men driven by passions and unaware of how ridiculous they were. He felt neither detached from nor superior to this but instead part of the human comedy. And so he could laugh at himself, at his laughter and his tears, with men and his women friends'. think blush more it will be Florence rather than you, Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 173 these ironic and emotive Concerning these troubling writings poems, are best illustrated by Machiavelli's prison poems. Maurizio Viroli writes: that Machiavelli should have written two sonnets asking for mercy from the Medici. In prison, one writes to seek a meaning or reason for one's punishment, or to rediscover oneself, or to search the depths of one's soul for the resources with which to resist. Above all, as was the case with Machiavelli, one writes to ask those who can help to do so, but then one does this with a serious letter, not with a sonnet making light of oneself, of the misery, the prison, and the torture119. It may seem strange It is helpful to include the entirety of Machiavelli's first poem to illustrate Viroli's point. ho, Giuliano, in gamba un paio di geti su le spalle: L'altre miserie mie no vo'contalle, Poiche cosi si trattano e poeti! Menon pidocchi queste parieti Bolsi spaccati, che paion farfalle; Ne fu mai tanto puzzo in Roncisvalle, O in Sardigna ffa quegli alboreta, Quanto nel mio si delicato ostello; Con un rumor, che proprio par che'n terra Fulgori Giove e tutto Mongibello. L'un si incatena e l'altro si disferra, Con batter toppe, chiavi e chiavistelli: Un altro grida e troppo alto terra! Quel che mi fe' piu guerra Fu che, dormendo presso a la aurora, Io Con sei tratti di fune in Cantando sentii dire: 'Pro eis ora'. Or vadin in buona Purche vostra Buon padre e ora pieta ver me si voglia questi rei lacciuol ne scoglia120. 119 Viroli, Niccolo's Smile. 138.. Niccolo Machiavelli, First Prison Sonnet, cited in Sebastian De Grazia, Machiavelli in Hell (New York: Vintage Books, 1994): 34-38. 'I have, Giuliano, a pair of shackles on my legs/ With six hoists of the rope on my shoulders:/ My other miseries I do not want to talk about,/ As this is the way poets are to be treated!/ These walls exude lice/ Sick with the heaves no less, that [are as big as] butterflies,/ Nor was there ever a 1-0 stench in [the of] Roncesvalles./ Or among those groves in Sardinia,/ As there is in my dainty that sounds just as if at the earth/ Jove was striking lightning, and all Mount Etna [too]./ One man is being chained and the other shackled/ With a clattering of keyholes, keys, and latches;/ Another shouts that he is [pulled] too high off the ground/ What disturbed me most/ Was that close to dawn while sleeping/ I heard chanting: 'Per voi s'ora'./ Now they can go their own way;/ If only your mercy may turn toward me,/ Good father, and these criminal bonds be untied'. In the same book see pp. 392-393, endnotes numbered 34, 36 and 38 for the Italian original. inn;/ With massacre a noise Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 174 This poem was a provides its readers with survivor, in an interesting insight into Machiavelli's thought. He of the word, strong enough to every sense overcome six rope drops (set strappadi). These drops involved the prisoner's hands being tied, at the wrist, behind his or The wrists her back. were ceiling. connected to the then tied to a much longer rope that ran through a pulley At the other end of the rope, the individual or individuals responsible for carrying out the strappado would lift the prisoner off the ground, sometimes to the height of several metres. As if this would then release the rope, feet hit the have his her arms fact, he was dislocated at the shoulder, or worse. proud of the way as francamente, che io stesso credetti'121. His he asserted, his Machiavelli underwent six composure and his innocence. in which he dealt with his imprisonment and torture. Machiavelli, writing to Francesco Vettori tanto causing the prisoner's rope, the entire weight of their body. The prisoner could at least expect drops, all the while maintaining, such In or enough pain, the torturers letting the prisoner fall. Then, just before the individual's ground, the torturer would violently stop the shoulder joints to carry to were not me ne on 18 March, 1513 stated: 'Che gli ho portati voglio bene, et parmi essere da piu che non self-debasing humour, and the irony of his situation, combined to form the basis of the poem. He was causing him to ponder how he clearly struggling with his predicament and this came to be in such a situation, when he knew that no was other Florentine citizen loved his patria more. Machiavelli often used The 121 irony when he irony used in Machiavelli's prison poem was in emotional turmoil or physical pain. of 1513 is similar to the apparent criticism Cited in De Grazia, In Hell: 36-37. Also see Personal Correspondences. 222, Letter 206, like you to get this pleasure from these troubles of mine, that 1 have ''I should straightforwardly that I am proud of myself for it and consider myself more of a original see Lettere. 363, Letter 206, 18 March 1513. For Italian man 18 March 1513. borne them so than I believed I was'. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 175 of Dante in the and Dialogo in that both works sprang from wrongful exile from that which he loved most - immediate an political service to his patria. In imprisonment to illustrate the absurdity of his predicament. March 1513 Machiavelli described this was on From 12 February to 12 imprisoned in Florence and in the autumn of 1515 he was his farm, removed from political life, his friends and the city Maurizio Viroli, that he loved most. of injustice 1513 and the autumn of 1515, he used the irony of his both circumstances, in figuratively imprisoned sense using excerpts from Machiavelli's letters vividly pastoral prison: am living on the farm" are the words with which For other Florentines of his and earlier times, to live Niccolo begins his account. "on the farm" meant getting away from the business and noise of city life, finding peace in study, thought, and rustic pastimes. For Niccold, it was a forced renunciation of the life he loved best. Literary leisure, philosophical and religious meditation, rural peace were of no interest to him; he loved the city, with its streets, squares, porticoes, and benches; he enjoyed being in company, laughing at the happenings of everyday life, and taking part in the great affairs of state. To convey to his friend [Francesco Vettori] how little country life suited him, he writes that for a while he amused himself by "snaring thrushes with my own hands," the technique being to spread birdlime on elm switches, where once having lit on them, the birds were trapped, for the more they struggled to escape, the more they were caught: "I would get up before daybreak[... ] prepare the birdlime, and go out with such a bundle of birdcages on my back that I looked like Gaeta when he came back from the harbour with Amphitryon's books." Machiavelli, until recently a secretary of the Florentine Republic, leaving his house before sunrise to catch thrushes, so loaded down with birdcages that he is like Geta, Amphitryon's servant in the fifteenth-century novella - one would be hard pressed to imagine anything at once "I so absurd and Machiavelli's life heartbreaking122. was filled with toil; some to pass Sebastian de Grazia described the was topography and terrain on some necessary. which Machiavelli's farm located: Tuscany, an ancient region of central Italy, where Florence holds its territories, is plains. The soil is thin, much of one-third mountains, one-third hills, and the rest 122 the time and Viroli, Niccolo's Smile. 148. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 176 rocky and sandy; the climate offers not enough spring rain and too much dryness for foraging livestock. Niccold's farming can be classified as 123 intensive hill agriculture it summer Everything about Machiavelli's country life way struggling to find of this hard, detached from city life in no surprise if a Dialogo - sense of irony were to on Dante in the Dialogo is criticized Dante's writings. was in exile. of a political context. Far from standing alone, long line of Florentines who scrutinized and This general opposition to Dante had its roots in the late early quattrocento, under the leadership of Florentine humanist scholars trecento and the such Leonardo Bruni. as one and perhaps the Dialogo. It Dialogo, is easily reconcilable with the patriotism inherent to the treatise and to the Florentine the author of the - pervade the author's treatment of Dante Machiavelli, like Dante before him, The attack every balance between otium and negotium. Against the background pastoral exile, Machiavelli penned his II Principe would be in the a was Hans Baron's The Crisis good place from which to begin provides a Dante in Florence124. an of the Early Italian Renaissance investigation into quattrocento views of Dante, perhaps more than any other poet or philosopher of his time, embodied the ideals that have since become central to defining the Middle Ages. Baron wrote on this subject: acquaintance with ancient literature and command of Ciceronian language accepted as the measure of genuine culture, dark shadows are bound to fall on Dante and his work. And since, furthermore, his political and historical views had been shaped by the medieval idea of universal monarchy, which in Florence's If a full are 123 Grazia, In Hell. 247. Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in Age of Classicism and Tyranny fPrinceton: Princeton University Press, 1966). 124 De Hans an Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 177 struggle for liberty was beginning to look obsolete, Dante, too had to be included against centuries soon to be called the Middle Ages125. in the indictment Baron mentioned one that which must be of Dante's many placed before any contributions to the culture of the Middle Ages, other in this specific context, his belief in universal monarchy. Interestingly, Dante's De Monorchia focuses divine mandate he dismisses. Divine authority rests on upon alone; the truly divine office ordained by God to rule differences in them, papacy whose the shoulders of the Emperor These beliefs and the man. formed the foundation of the Guelph/Ghibelline dispute that divided Florence and much of Although much the role of the more Italy during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth complicated, each group can be roughly defined as centuries126. follows: the Guelphs supported the Church and city-state independence whereas the Ghibellines supported the Holy Roman Empire and universal monarchy managed to outmanoeuvre its foe. sympathizers were rebirth of Roman Middle forced into 125 some result, Dante and The Guelph faction many saw other Ghibelline the ushering in and republican theory in Italy and, most importantly, in Florence. The late Ages and the beginning of what least in a exile128. These tumultuous times Dante, most famous Florentine that he at As 127 circles was to was, become the Renaissance, witnessed fall from grace and into relative obscurity 129 Ibid: 47-75. This section of Hans Baron's work details the transition from the medieval view of empire - and republic. See to renaissance 48 in particular. 126 Baron, Crisis. 1966: 12-19. Here, Baron describes the Florentine Guelph cause as that which centred upon the medieval church that eventually became equated with civic freedom and city-state independence. '~7 Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume One: The Renaissance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978): 12-22. 128 Skinner, Foundations. 14-28 for a good discussion of the Guelph/Ghibelline dispute in Florence. 129 Baron, Crisis. 1966: 47-64. In this section Baron illustrates the varied acceptance of Dante's work, based upon the then, current view of history. p. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 178 The treatment of Dante in the line with those great summed up Dialogo, while perhaps Florentines who preceded him. Interestingly, in 1960 Grayson only the linguistic treachery of Dante that Machiavelli deplores; it is his whole attitude toward Florence, and his to enter cutting, is not out of the political and literary problems represented by Dante in the Dialogo, when he wrote, 'It is not same can more be said of the fundamentally different outlook'130. The long list of quattrocento Florentine humanist writers who chose into the discussion of Dante's life and political views. These writers include nearly all of Florence's most famous humanist scholars. Leonardo Brum's writings the most Bruni's early work the Dialogi ad Petrum Paulum important at this stage. Histrum contains a are scathing commentary Dante's views with those of quattrocento on Dante. Yet Bruni desired to reconcile Florence, thereby restoring him to his former greatness. Bruni reached his conclusions by contextualizing Dante's world-view. By so doing, he was able to explain Dante's apparent hatred for Brutus. Florence, Brutus was viewed assassinating Caesar, Brutus it as In quattrocento the restorer and saviour of Roman Republican virtue. By gave Rome her freedom once again, after Caesar had taken hostage in his tyranny. Bruni wrote: Dantem, virum omnium aetatis doctissimum, ignorasse quo pacto adeptus fuerit? Ignorasse libertatem sublatem et ingemiscente populo Romano diadema a M Antonio capiti Caesaris impositum? Non ignoravit haec Dantes, non se legitumum principem et mundanarum rerum iustissimum monarcham in Caesare finxit; in Bruto autem seditiosum, turbulentum ac nefarium in hominen, qui hunc principem per scelus trucidaret; non quod Brutus eiusmodi fuerit; nam si hoc esset, qua ratione a senatu laudatus fuisset tamquam libertatis recuperator? Sed cum Caesar quocumque modo regnasset, Brutus autem [Garin: enim] una cum amplius sexaginta noblilissimis An tu putas Caesar dominium . 130 Grayson, "Lorenzo, Machiavelli", 425. 'Dialogo'. authored the . . In this early article, Grayson still believed that Machiavelli Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 179 civibus eum materiam131. Baron cites this passage among view with that of many [Garin: interfecissent], sumpsit poeta ex hoc fingendi interfecisset others the reconciliation of Dante's medieval world- as early quattrocento humanism. It is apparent from his research that others followed Bruni, including Giannozzo Manetti, Cristoforo Landino and Marisilio Ficino132. However, the is Cristoforo Landino. His most important 1481 work published in Florence, Comento Commedia di Dante Alighieri, a commentary on and most widely read companion to Dante's justify, while criticizing at the able to of these scholars in this present context sopra la Dante's Commedia was the most famous poem13'. For he, according same to Baron, was time, Dante's approach to universal monarchy134. Baron's research highlights the place of prominence that Dante held in quattrocento and cinquecento Florence, even though it was not always an esteemed place. Furthermore, Baron mentions Machiavelli's interest in quattrocento republicanism and humanist views of Dante, but a certain 131 sense of historical only in passing. His reference, brief though it is, highlights continuity. Machiavelli, like his Florentine predecessors, had Crisis 1966; 49-50, 'Or are we to did not know in what manner Caesar achieved his of liberty, the abject fear of the people when Marc Anthony placed the crown on Caesar's head? Do you believe he did not know what virtus Brutus possessed in the judgement of all historical tradition? Dante knew it well, he knew it precisely - but he presented to us, in the image of Caesar, the legitimate prince and most just monarch of the world, and, in the image of Brutus, the rebellious troublesome villain who criminally murdered this prince. Not because Brutus was a just man; had he been such a one, how could he have been praised by the Senate as the restorer of liberty? But the poet took this material as the subject of the poem because Caesar, in whatever manner, had wielded royal power, and because Brutus, together with more than sixty of the noblest citizens, had slain him'; and 473-474 in Baron, Crisis. 1966 for Latin original. For a detailed analysis of Bruni's Dialoai see Hans Leonardo Bruni, Dialoei ad Petrum Paulum Histrum; Cited in Baron, believe that Dante, the most learned man of dominion - that he did not know of the rape his age, ... Baron, Humanistic and Political Literature in Florence and Venice at the Beginning of the Quattrocento (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1955): 126-165. The best edition of Bruni's Dialoai is Dialogi ad Petrum Paulum Histrum A cura di Stefano Ugo Baldassari (Firenze: Olschki, 1994). 132 Baron, Crisis. 1966: 49-50. 133 Baron, Crisis. 1966. 51. Here Baron wrote that Landino's commentary was 'read by practically every literate Florentine of the later Renaissance'. 134 Baron, Crisis. 1966. 51. Also see Baron, Crisis. 1955: 455-456: nts. 4-7. Here Baron provides excellent quotations from Landino's commentary to back up his point. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 180 great interest in republican liberty and a therefore he took an interest in the debates surrounding Dante's Commedia. The Dialogo''s harsh references to Dante could Make Machiavelli's authorship more probable, not less. works of Bruni and Landino, is viewed as part a When the Dialogo, like the earlier of an evolving historical continuum within greater Florentine context, it would be hard to imagine Machiavelli treating Dante any other way than he did. As de late as 1546 Donato Giannotti wrote 'giorni che Dante consumo nel cercare I 'Inferno dialogue, Giannotti speaks with Michelangelo. small treatise entitled a e 7 Purgatorio Giannotti was an 135 Dialoghi In this short ardent defender of republican freedom, and thus he questions Dante's lasting fame, whereas Michelangelo appears to also be 'of two minds', as Baron wrote, for he strove to defend Dante, but he persuaded by Giannotti to sculpt of the are mirrored in Michelangelo none bust of Brutus1'6. The problems and complexities relationships between scholars, artist and patriots of the cinquecento, Dante and Brutus well a was as was never Michelangelo's bust of Brutus. He left the bust able completely to overcome Brutus fit into Florentine artistic and of Michelangelo's uneasiness republican values. He had no or political uncertainty his anxiety as unfinished137. to where Dante as history138. Machiavelli exhibited over where Dante fit into Florentine doubts. 135 Baron, Crisis. 1966: 51-53 for his discussion of Gianotti's Diajoghi. Also see Baron, Crisis. 55. In this 'Appendices' Volume Baron compiles all of his references in full: 456-458 for Giannotti's original Italian, which Baron cites from Redig D. Campos' critical edition from Raccolta di Fonti per la Storia dell'Arte. Volume II (Firenze, 1939): 25-29, 40, 88-98, 90f., 95f., 96. 136 Baron, Crisis. 1966. 53. 137 Interestingly, after Michelangelo's death, someone attached an inscription to his unfinished work. It reads: 'Dum Bruti effigiem sculptor de marmore ducit, in mentem sceleris venit et abstinuit' which translates as: 'While the sculptor was hewing the effigy of Brutus out of the marble, he came upon the spirit of crime and desisted'. The quotation and translation are from Ludwig Goldscheider, ed., Michelangelo: Paintings. Sculptures Archetecture (4ltl edn., London, 1962), 21. Goldscheider suggests that Pietro Bembo may have added the inscription. Vasari, on the other hand (Goldscheider wrote) attributed the inscription to Donaro 138 Giannotti. Baron, Crisis. 1966. 474, endnote 10. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 181 Baron's scholarship, while helpful, is perhaps too one-sided, failing to take into account those who continued to Baron defend Dante during the cinquecento. neglected to mention that Dante's acceptance linked to whether heavenly musings, a not or It rejection in Florence seems was that often given scholar preferred Petrarch's 'humanism' to Dante's a or, put another way, a battle between the Canzoniere and the Commedia. Michele Barbi's eloquently fills the that gaps scholarship on the reception of Dante in the cinquecento which Baron created. Citing Vincenzo Borghini, Barbi noted 'Borghini dichiarava di celebrar Dante "per un ingeno eccellente, miracoloso, divino'"I39. Perhaps this explains why Borghini's manuscript of the Dialogo ends before its author criticises Dante. 'gloria ed Dante, were particolare della loro higher status than those who famous 139 a onore were Petrarch141. as citta'140. These scholars generally conferred on As Baron's scholarship failed to point out, there sought to praise Petrarch to the exclusion of Dante, though the most not natives to Florence. Michele Barbi. Dante nel Cinquecento fiorentine (Firenze, 1745). IV, IV, 161. 140 Borghini, also viewed Dante Giovanni Battista Gelli, like (Pisa: Tip. T. Nistri e. c., 1890), 4. Barbi cites Borghini's Prose p. 4. Bardi cites Gelli's Letture edite e inedite sopra la C. di D. (Firenze: Bocca, 1887). 11. 141 Interestingly, in regard to Dante and Machiavelli's authorship of the Dialogo, Carlo Lenzoni wrote In difesa della lingua fiorentina. e di Dante. In that work, a brief dialogue takes place between 'Machiavelli and a certain Messer Maffio from Venice, in which the former, in reference to Bembo, points out the audacity of any attempt by non-Florentines to dictate rules for a language not their own'. Might this be further evidence that those Florentines who took up the linguistic debates in the middle of Cinquecento Gelli, Lenzoni, etc. - were familiar with the stance on the Florentine/Tuscan language as set forth in the Dialogo. possibly by Machiavelli? For more on the 'Accademia fiorentina' and the Florentine/Tuscan dialect, see the very recent article by Michael Sherberg, 'The Accademia Fioreniina and the Question of Language: the Politics of Theory in Ducal Florence', in Renaissance Quarterly LV1. 1. Spnng 2003 (Renaissance Society of America, New York, 2003): 26-55. For quotation above, see p. 29, n. 12. Also see Dionisotti, Machiavellerie: 266, 319 for brief, though interesting discussions of Lenzoni and Machiavelli. Barbi, Dante, Vol. I. p. Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 182 Among the latter, one may find such figures as the Venetians Pietro Bembo and Bembo's critique Trifone Gabriele. of Dante is highly unfavourable142. For Bembo, according to Barbi and Pertile, Petrarch and Boccaccio were by far virulent on example may Commedia, which Dante's were a admiration for Dante, reconcile Dante's thought of him close friend of Bembo. He produced notes according to Lino Pertile, quite as imperiale'146. 'troppo political views, but merely tried to comment Machiavelli, then, we poet's works with him, while the end of II on He made no attempt to them objectively. Machiavelli followed and at times (as in his Decennale), and he often carried the famous mimicked Dante's terza rima 142 independent144. have strands of both schools of thought; those who followed Dante and those who lauded Petrarch. However, it A less slavishly follow Landino's famous example, Gabriele, while he expressed Rather than In be found in Gabriele superior141. on country walks146. Furthermore, he quoted Petrarch Principe, in his Esortazione alia penitenza and in various seems at letters147. that Machiavelli's literary relationship with Petrarch was more stable, "Trifone Gabriele's commentary on Dante and Bembo's Prose delta vulgar lingua" in (1985): 17-30. See p. 17 n. I where Pertile cites Pietro Bembo, Prose della volsiar lingua di Carlo Dionisotti (Torino, 1966), 178. 'Affine di poter di qualunque cosa scrivere, che ad animo Lino Pertile, Italian Studies 40 a cura gli veniva, quantunque poco acconcia e malagevole a caper nel verso, egli molto spresso ora le latine voci, staniere, che non sono state Toscana ricevute, ora le vecchie del tutto e tralasciate, ora le non usate e rozze, ora immonde e brutte, ora le durissime usando, e alio 'ncontro le pure e gentili alcuna volta mutando e guastando, e talora, senza alcuna scielta o regola, da se formadnone, ha in maniera operato, che si pou la sua Commedia giustamente rassomigliare ad un bello e spazio campo di grano, che sia tutto d'avene e di logli e d'erbe sterili e dannose mescolato, o ad alcuna non potata vite al suo tempo, la quale si vede essere poscia la state si foglie e di pampini e di viticci ripiena, che se ne offendono le belle uve'. 143 Barbi, Dante, pp. 10-13. In Pertile, 'Trifone', p. 17. 144 Trifon Gabriele, Annotationi nel Dante fatte con M. Trifon Gabriele in Bassano: Edizione critica A cura di Lino Pertile (Bologna: Carducci, 1993). 145 Pertile, "Trifone", 21. 146 Niccolo Machiavelh, Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli. Volume Terzo: Lettere A cura di Franco Gaeta, (Torino: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 1984). Letter 224, 10 December 1513, p. 425. 'Ho un libra sotto, o Dante o Petrarca, o un di questi poeti minori, come Tibullo, Owidio e simili'. ora 147 le Esortazione alia penitenza. in Tutte le Opere Storiche Guido Mazzoni p. 780. e Mario Casella e Letterarie di Niccolo Machiavelli A cura (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929): 778-780. For the quotation from Petrarch di see Machiavelli, Author of the 'Dialogo'? 183 if not more fruitful, than that with Dante. And this wavering relationship with Dante may of the Dialogo. be borne out in the pages Conclusion The treatment of Dante in the Dialogo is not out of character with the treatment by Machiavelli and other Florentines. Both Bruni in the the middle of the cinquecento their humanistic and is he an evident and thought it telling example of his willingness to undermine Dante's authority when was necessary to 148 . was illustrate a point. As Skinner's discussion of 11 Principe willing to undermine Cicero's authority when elsewhere he In other works, particularly the Discorsi, Machiavelli adopted Cicero's patriotic and republican 'Machiavellian' struggled to reconcile Dante's medieval worldview with republican theories. Machiavelli's mockery of Dante in his L 'Asino highlighted, Machiavelli praised him early quattrocento and Giannotti in or cause theories149. These facts do not render II Principe scholars to doubt Machiavelli's it is difficult to rule out Machiavelli's authorship. By the 14ii Skinner, Machiavelli: 40-47. Viroli, Love of Country: 31-40. token, authorship of the Dialogo solely because the treatment of Dante is inconsistent with what Machiavelli says 149 same un- elsewhere. |4 V&A«M» 4e/ /flSfctfjjtUmlL V<a4oO«JtkuftrOa aijn'fafc »lkjw»*£ Uh Vtjctrje frljtlti» int»M alt* two hnha elyttvkljutffilail'aQW (qf-Jt*-1> torn VHctftt' iHt,V»vifr»tw)i rS tta \u<t* m oiilivJk tu »*<m RC ^avk ehun&.'y tp& *Sa*«t** J* fl^** aaW. i r&t-.liMmerle- tfcji* Mh tfrtu •mttyutki m m t HitcJ* It J* ^ c f* m«.|-K»ht,r,u <fc jrthP .JUp vto/as.*- us*— ,cf 1 Plate 1: Giuliano de' Ricci's [<■ stum! nwffr &t»Sk- j| ij&bdf e^j-- <hjtymfa^ Prefatory Note to the 1577 apograph of the Dialogo. Plate 2: Detail of 1577 apograph illustrating where Ricci's handwriting ends and Niccolo the younger's begins. Plate 3: Underlined reference to the Papal Court in the Vatican Manuscript of the Dialogo. Plate 4: Bracketed reference to the Papal Court in the 1726 Palatino Manuscript of the Dialogo. Plate 5: Niccold the younger's writing becomes almost illegible where the Papal apograph. court is discussed in the 1577 3*7 D I C S O D In I V A O V R R E L O S O, O G O, Ji efamina, fe la lingua, in cut fcrijjero Dante , il Boccaccio , eil Petrarca, ft debba chiamare cut Italiana , Toscana , o Fiorentina. QEmPreche' io ho potuto onorare la patria mia, con rnio carico e pericolo , 1' ho fatto volentieri, perche l1 uomo non ha maggiore obbligo nella vita fua, che con quella; dependendo prima da effa 1' effere , e dipoi tutto quello che di buono la fortuna, e la natura ci hanno conceduto \ e tanto viene ad efifere maggiore in co* loro, che hanno iortito patria piu nobile. E veramente coiui, il quale coll' animo, e coll' opera fi fa nimico delta fua patria , meritamente fi pub chiamare parricida, ancorachfc daquella folfeluto offefo. Perchb fe battere il padre, e lamadreper qualunque cagione b cofa nefanda , di neceffiti ne fegue, il lacerare la patria effere cofa nefandiffima, perche daiei mai fi patifce alcuna perfecuzione, per la quale pofla meritare di eflfere da te ingiuriata , avendo a riconofcere da quella ogni tuo bene i talche fe ella fi priva di parte 4e' fuoi ^ eziandio cit- Plate 6: Title page of 1769 Cosmopoli edition of the Dialogo. OVVERO Dr ALOOO. 135 poltrone ,poltron . Talmentechfc quel!i vocaboli che fono fimilia'noftri, c»li ftorpiano in modo , che gli fanno diventare un' altra cofa ; e fe tu mi allegafli il parlar Curiale , ti rifpondo , le tu parli delle ■za o , e" ne lievano Corti di Milano , , o come di Napoli, che tutte ten- del luogo della patria loro, e quelli hanno piu di buono, che piii s' accoftano al Tofcano e piii 1' imitano: e fe tu vuoi, che e1 fia migliore T imitatore , che T imitato , tu vuoi quello , che il piii delle volte non e ; ma fe tu parli della Corte di Roma , tu parli di un luogo , dove fi parla di tanti modi, di quante nazioni vi fono nfc fe gli pu6 dare in mo¬ do alcuno regola. Ma quello che inganna molti circa i vocaboli comuni e che tu , e gli altri che hanno fcritto, eftendo ftati celebrati, e letti in varj luoghi, molti vocaboli noftri fo¬ no ftati imparati da molti foreftieri , ed offervati da loro, talch& di proprj noftri fon divetitati comuni. E fe tu vuoiconofcerquefto, arrecati innanzi un libro compofto da quelli foreftieri, che hanno fcritto dopo voi , e vedrai quanti vocaboli egli ufano de'voftri, e come e' gono , , , cercano d'imitarvi : e per , aver riprova di que¬ leggere libri compofti dagli uomini loro avantiche nalcefte voi, e fivedr&, che in fto fa lor quel- Plate 7: 1769 edition of the Dialogo, Bottari's omission evident. Pagination is incorrect. Rather than 135, it should read 335. D1SC0RS0 OVVERO D I A L O G O SOPRA IL KOME VOLGARE, DELLA LINGUA Plate 8: Title Page of 1804 Milanese edition. 4i b * DISCORSO OYVERO DIAL OG O lingua in cui scrissero Dante, il Boccaccio e il Petrarca , In cui si esamina se la , si debba cluamare JTALIANA, TOSCANA, O FIOHENTINA. (WWV* Semprecue io ho potuto onora'-e la patria mia , eziandio con mio carico e pencolo , I* ho fatlo volentieri, perche 1' uomo non ha maggiore obbligo nella vita sua che con quella, dependenoo prima da essa l'essere, dipoi tutto quello che di huono la fortuna, e la natura ci hanno conceduto; e tauto vieue ad cssere maggiore iu coloro clie hauno sortito patria piu nobile. E veramcntc colui il quale coll' ammo , e col- e Plate 9: First Page of 1804 Milanese edition with an additional Title. \ come li ciarono ad arricchirc la quelli, 433 primi die cominlingua Latina I Romani negli eserciti loro noil avevano piu che due legioni di Romani, quali erano circa dodici mila persone, e dipoi vi aveva¬ e lauda no . . venti mila delF altre nazioni, noudimeno tercheesercito, quelli erano li loro capituttiil nervo perchecon militavano sotto ell' la disciplina Romaua , tenevano quelli eserciti il nome, F autor ita, e la dignita Romaua; e tu clie hai messo ne' tuoi scritti venti legioni di vocaboli Fiorentini ed usi i casi, i tempi, e i modi, F ordine, e sotto , le desinenze Fiorentine vuoi che li vo¬ caboli avventizj facciano mutar la lingua ? E se tu la chiamassi comune d' Italia o e , , Cortigiana, perche in quella si usassino tutti li verbi che, se ch' usano in Firenze , ti sono s' usano riano tanto colla pronunzia, cne un' altra cosa, perche tu sai che ri, o rispondo usati li medesimi verbi, non i medesimi termini, perche si va- si e' pervertono si dissc di il c diventano i forestie- in z, come di sopra cianciare, e zanzarc, o aggiungono lettere, come vien qua * eglino vegni poltrone,pollron. Talmenteche quelli vocaboli che sono simili a' nostri, gli storpiano in modo 9 die gli z«,oe' ne lievano, come mi allegassi il parlar Curiale, ti rispondo, se tu parli delle Corti di Milano, o di Napoli, che tuttc tengono del luogo dclla patri^. lorn. mielli hanno piu di buono che pm fanno diveutare uu' altra cosa ; e se tu P Plate 10: 1804 Milanese edition, page 433. The last four lines of this page preface the discussion of the Papal Court. al Toscano , e piu rimitaoo, e se tu vuoi ch* e'sia inigliore 1' imitaiore che V imitalo, tu vuoi quello che il piCi delle s* accostauo volte non c ; ma se tu parli della Roma, tu parli d'un luogo dove di tanti modi, di quante nazioni ne Corle di si parla vi sono, modo alcuno regola. quello che inganna molti circa i \oca- segli pud dare in Ma boli comuni, e, che tu, e gli altri che hanno scritto, essendo stati celehrati, e letti in varj luoglii, molti vocaboli nostri imparati da molti forestieri, ed stati osservati da loro , talche di proprj nostri son diventati comuni. E se tu vuoi conoscer sono arrecati innanzi un libro composlo quelli forestieri che hanno scritto dopo voi, e vedrai quanti vocaboli egli usano questo, da de' vostri, e come e'cercano per aver riprova di questo iibri composti dagli uomini nasceste voi, e di imitarvi: e fa' lor leggere loro avantiche si vedr«i cbe in quelli non fia ne vocabolo, ne termine; e cosi apparira che la lingua in che essi oggi scrivono, e la vostra , e per conseguenza la vostra non e comune colla loro : la qua! lingua ancorache con mille sudori cerchino u imitare, leggerai i loro scritti, vedrai, luoghi essere da loro male, e jjer- nondimeno, se versamente usata in mille dera , perch' cgli e impossibile piu che la rial lira. Consiancora un' altra #osa sc tu vuoi vela dignita della lingua patria, che che I* arte possa dere i forestieri che «crivono, , seVrcndano alcu-* Plate 11: 1804 Milanese edition. Discussion of Papal Court at the top of the mirrors Bottari's omissions page Chapter Six Dialogo and of Machiavelli's Exhortatio in II Principe The Date of the Introduction This on the Chapter is concerned with three separate yet complementary subjects: first, the date which Machiavelli could have written the Dialogo; second, when Machiavelli wrote dedicatory letter and epilogue to II Principe and, third the seems to end of II in which the Dialogo way prefigure the patriotism and call for unification inherent in the Exhortatio at the Principe. This Chapter is a broad historiographical in which primary small but decisive role. It is vital to proceed with caution, for there is sources play serious danger that the argument becomes circular: that is to a survey date of the treatise say, that establishing the 'proves Machiavelli's authorship' while Machiavelli's authorship 'establishes the date'. This Chapter explores together - but it does not aspire to In the first part more some suggestive possibilities that than that. of this Chapter, which focuses specifically on Dialogo, the analysis of the historiography ranges investigations to Susan Meld Shell's scholarship published in attention is weave very recent the date of the from Pasquale Villari's 1877 20001. Careful given to all of the prominent arguments concerned with the date of the Dialogo. What emerges is that the year 1515 seems to Machiavelli could have written the treatise. That year, productive period in his life, which may be the most likely 1515, was, year perhaps, a in which unique and also have witnessed the completion of II Principe and the beginning of the Discorsi. 1 Pasquale Villari, Niccolo Maehiavelli e i suoi tempi (Firenze, Le Monnier, 1877-1882); Susan Meld Shell, "Machiavelli's Discourse on Language," The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli: Essays on the Literary Works, ed. Vickie B. Sullivan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000): 78-101. (Hereafter abbreviated as Shell, "Machiavelli's Discourse"). Date of the of this Chapter suggests that the dedicatory letter to II Principe The second part epilogue and its can be traced to the autumn of 1515. Machiavelli could have written the Dialogo in the same indicate that This date may period as the epilogue to II be a Principe. This proposed, close proximity, suggests that there may link between the works. two The patriotic call in the Dialogo for linguistic unification contains unpolished sketch. It has some a distinctive yet similarities to Machiavelli's call for Italian unification in epilogue to II Principe (see below). The Dialogo the II 'Dialogo' 185 may fit firmly between the body of Principe (Chapters I-XXV) and the Discorsi. Thus, Chapters I-XXV of II Principe are Dialogo from the vendemmial of 1515, the dedicatory letter and epilogue from 1513, the to II Principe, from the vendemmial of 1515 and the Discorsi from late 1515 1516. There is a or early great deal of evidence to support these dates to which we may now proceed. I. The Date of the The text of the Dialogo Dialogo may provide evidence was written, for the author told his reader me, in the term the course 'negozio', a in which it much. He wrote the work 'it has occurred to as overcome his personal 'otium'? Keeping this in mind, be helpful to define the vendemmial to which Machiavelli referred. John Hale as 'autumnal'2. More specifically, 'vendemmial' is directly Machiavelli, the Dialogo in, The Literary Works of Machiavelli. trans. John R. Hale (London: University Press, 1961): 173-190, 175. 'In the course of the autumnal labours of my farm'. Niccolo Oxford or season dialectical derivative of the Latin 'negotium' indicate that the author of translated 'vendemmial' 2 the time of year, of the autumnal labours [vendemmial negozio] of my farm'. Does the Dialogo, perhaps Niccolo, had it may as to Date of the linked to the late vintage season in Tuscany, which in the autumn, but it begins in the actually linked with the ancient Roman The Tuscan 'vendemmiaT is summer. occurs vintage celebration of 'vinalia rustica', which began as early though later, French as late sources trace these dates and definitions 'vendemmiaT as are the vendemmial to taken 'Dialogo' 186 21 as into consideration 19 August1. Additional, as October4. When all of it is best to define the beginning in the third week of August and ending in the third week of October3. The Dialogo is certainly a work of this period, but scholars are divided as to the year in which it It may passage was written. be interesting to note here, that the scholars mentioned in the following all accept Machiavelli's authorship, though they disagreed about when it written. The controversy over Villari 1514 suggested as a Dialogo 1516 more was was 3 date, possibly 'earlier than probable year7. a as as early 1512'6. Then, in However, Rajna written in 1514. Instead he added also date, 'thus', a the Dialogo's date began was never a caveat to possibility8. Interestingly, Villari was as was 1877, when Pasquale 1883 Pio Rajna proposed completely sure that the his thesis, acknowledging that later persuaded by Rajna's 1514 Baron noted, 'beginning the rarely interrupted applause for Rajna's "Machiavelli on the Eve of the Discourses: The Date and Place of the Dialogo intorno alia lingua," Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 23 (1961): 449-76, 456. (Hereafter abbreviated Baron, "Place of the Dialogo"). Hans Baron, nostra as 4 Ibid, 456, n. 1. Ibid, 456. 6 Pasquale Villari, Niccolo Machiavelli: His Life and Times Vol. 4 trans. Linda Villari (London: Unwin, 1883). 7 Pio Rajna, "La Data del 'Dialogo int. alia lingua' di N. Machiavelli," Rendieonti dell R. Accad. dei Lincei. Classe Scienze Morali. Memorie, serie V. II (1893): 203-222. Cited first by Roberto Ridolfi in Vita di Niccolo Machiavelli (Roma: A. Belardetti, 1954), 446 Later cited in Cecil Grayson, "Lorenzo, Machiavelli and the Italian Language," Italian Studies, ed. E.F. Jacob (London: Faber and Faber, 1960): 410-432, 425, n. 2, (Hereafter abbreviated as Grayson, "Lorenzo, Machiavelli"). Cited later still in Baron, "Place of the Dialogo", 449, n. 1. 8 Ridolfi, Vita.. 446. Ridolfi wrote, 'quanto alia cronologia, lo assegna alFautunno del 1514, certo non piu tardi del 1516 ne prima del 1514. Also cited in Baron, "Place of the Dialogo", 449, n. 2. 5 Date of the theory'9. This lasted until 1954 when Ridolfi asserted that several of the 'Dialogo' 187 passages in the Dialogo could not fit Rajna's thesis. Ridolfi date to the Adrian was more work, but he thought that it VI10. predecessors. He did not ascribe cautious than his may have come a specific from 1522-23, the pontificate of However, Ridolfi's conclusions did not sway scholars from accepting Rajna's date of 1514'. In 1960, Grayson, at the time believing the work to be penned by Machiavelli, wrote that 'Machiavelli's Dialogo intorno alia lingua 151411. written in One year after he had appears to probably the Dialogo end to the controversy re-thought his position be no an no longer later than was Cochrane cites open to 1530'13. on over 1516, but his arguments the Dialogo's question is its composition date12. were not In 1971, Grayson, no earlier than 1525, - and More recently still, in 1988 Eric Cochrane indicated that written in the 1540's, though not by as Machiavelli14. Interestingly, proof against Machiavelli's complexities associated with studying the Dialogo, in particularly in his scholarly edition of Machiavelli's 9 or Machiavelli's authorship, suggested that 'what Sergio Bertelli's research Indicative of the most probably later, in 1961, Baron dismissed 1514 and Ridolfi's cautious dating, when he traced the Dialogo''s origins to 1515 enough to put was opere, an authorship13. earlier work, Bertelli published the Dialogo n. 2. See Pasquale Villari's Second edition of Niccolo Machiavelli e (Firenze: Le Monnier, 1897) Volume 3,186. Baron, "Place of the Dialogo", 450 where Baron refers to Ridofli's comments. 11 Grayson, "Lorenzo, Machiavelli", 425. 12 Baron, "Place of the Dialogo476. 13 Cecil Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante," Renaissance Studies in Honor of Hans Baron, eds. Anthony Molho and John A. Tedeschi (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971): 361-384, p. 383. Grayson's punctuation is used in the citation. 14 Eric Cochrane, Italy: 1530-1630 ed. Julius Kirshner, (London: Longman, 1988), 22. 15 Sergio Bertelli, "Egemonia linguistica come egemonia culturale e politica nella Firenze cosmiana", in Biblioteque d'Humanisme et Renaissance. 38 (1976): 249-281. Baron, "Place of the Dialogo", 449, i suoi tempi 10 Date of the as a work of Machiavelli written between 1513 and Maurizio Viroli moved the thesis surfaced once it may 1524-152517. As recently as 1998 However, in 2000 Rajna's again, bringing the date controversy back to its starting point; Shell indicated that she, like proposed date of Dialogo's date to 151816. 'Dialogo' 188 151418. Grayson in 1960 and Villari in 1897, subscribed to Rajna's Thus, according to the scholars who have studied the Dialogo, have been written anywhere between the years 1512 (or just before as Villari first suggested) and 1549. II. Dates and Contexts Gian Giorgio Trissino 'passed through Tuscany nearly annually between 1513 and 1518'' ". It is accepted by the majority of those who study the Dialogo that it in response to a lecture given by Trissino on one stopped at the Florentine Orti Oricellari. authorship) trace the Dialogo to the reasoned that the a 16 of his trips through Tuscany when he 1513 to 1518. Rajna, and later Villari, Dialogo originated in 1514'"°. This date steadfastly resisted attempts to as specific date because of what he the text of the written Many scholars (who accept Machiavelli's years dislodge it until Ridolfi described the work commit to was Dialogo and the events of the 'di data incertissima'21. saw as irreconcilable differences between years Ridolfi refused to 1513 to 1518. Most notably, Ridolfi Machiavelli, Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli 11 Vols. (Milano: Giovanni Salerno, 1968-82). See 261-277 for the Dialogo. Specifically see p. 277 where Bertelli wrote, 'si ha in tal modo un arco cronologico possibile: ll 1513-1518, entro le quali fissare la composizione dello scritto'. 17 Maurizio Viroli, Machiavelli (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 169. Viroli wrote, 'Machiavelli also recognizes Florence's excellence. In his 'Discourse on Our Language', composed around 1524, he writes that since Florence is nobler (piu nobile) than other countries, its citizens have a greater obligation to Niccolo Volume 4, pp. it'. 18 19 20 21 Shell, "Machiavelli's Discourse", 80. Baron, "Place of the Dialogo", 452. Baron, "Place of the Dialogo", 449 n 1. Ibid, 450. . Date of the found the author's references to Florence's Florence in 151422. Thus, Ridolfi was 'Dialogo' 189 'tranquillo stato' incompatible with events in the first to cast doubt on Rajna's 1514 date for the Dialogo. Furthermore, Ridolfi found the impassioned language used to criticise the papacy as unfitting with the pontificate of Leo X, which, automatically in his thesis, eliminated the years years just before, or Neither set of dates 1513 to 1521 it . This leaves Villari's original dates of 1512 the pontificate of Adrian VI, 1522-1523 seems Villari does not That year, 23 as or the proposed by Ridolfi. likely. provide evidence for the appears, was selected as a year 1512, or the years defence against attacks on just before it. Machiavelli's authorship by Polidori who thought that the reference to Florence's tranquillo stato, referred to princely, not republican, rule. Referring to Polidori's criticisms, Villari wrote: interprets these words (tranquillo stato) as a favourable allusion to princely rule, and cannot think, he says, that Machiavelli would have been capable of uttering them. Nevertheless, the ex-secretary frequently praised the condition of Florence in his own time, and in fact its condition was by no means one of persistent wretchedness. There can be no allusion in the work [i.e. the Dialogo] to the princely rule that was only inaugurated after his death24. He In 1512, Villari properly reasoned, Florence could have referred to its tranquillo stato. criticisms of the papacy. It 22 seems was still a republic, and thus Machiavelli Villari does not mention Machiavelli's likely that, after the Dialogo was accepted as Baron, "Place of the Dialogue". Quoted by Baron on p. 449. Also see Ridolfi, Vita. 261 and particularly Referring to Rajna's date of 1514 or 1516, Ridolfi wrote, 'Devo semmai osservare che la "tanta 446. felicita e si tranquillo stato" in cui, secondo l'autore del Dialogo, Firenze s'era condotta mentre lo benissimo riferirsi al pontificato di Leone X; ma il passo sulla corte romana che dice "mi maraviglio di te tu volgia, dove non si fa cosa alcuna laudibile o buona, che vi si faccia questa; perche dove sono i costumi perversi, conviene che il parlare sia perverso": questo passo non so io gia se il M. lo avrebbe scritto vivendo e regnando Leone. Viene fatto di pensare al pontificato di Adriano (1522-1523) che andrebbe bene anche per il passo relativo alia felicita di Firenze; e sebbene non ignori, sulla scorta del Raina, le ragioni che contrastano a questo prolungamento restando ferma l'attribuzione al M., non mi sembrano pero piu forti quelle che si oppongono ad assengare il Dialogo al tempo di papa Leone'. 23 Baron, "Place of the Dialogo" 449-450. Pontificate ofLeo X 1513-1521. componeva, puo 24 Villari, Life and Times. 4. 218. Date of the Machiavelli's by many 'Dialogo' 190 Italian scholars, Villari changed his mind, siding with Rajna's 1514 date. What then is to be made of Ridolfi's in 1522-23, during the pontificate of Adrian VI? This is answered in part suggestion that the Dialogo by what is perceived to be a was written contradiction between the Dialogo and Machiavelli's Arte delta Guerra - certainly written in 1519-20. In his Arte, Machiavelli wrote that Rome's two legions consisted of 11,000 Roman soldiers and 11,000 non-Roman soldiers, where the Dialogo says that Roman legions consisted of 12,000 Romans and 20,000 others. I Romani erano gli exerciti loro ne non avevono circa dodicimila persone, e And in the Arte delta guerra di poi vi piu che 2 legioni di Romani, quali ventimila de l'altri nazioni avevano . Machiavelli wrote: ordinario, il quale chiamavano piu che due legioni di cittadini romani, che erano secento cavagli e circa undicimila fanti. Avevano di poi altrettanti fanti e cavagli, che erano loro mandati dagli amici e confederati loro;[...] Ne mai permettevano che questi fanti ausiliari passassero il numero de' fanti delle legioni loro[...] Con questo esercito, che era di ventiduemila fanti e circa dumila cavagli utili, faceva uno consolo ogni fazione e andava a ogni impresa26. Voi avete a intendere come in uno esercito romano esercito consolare, non erano There appears to be an inconsistency between these two works, but there inconsistencies between Machiavelli's Discorsi and his Arte. are also The former relied on Livy's calculations to describe the numbers of troops in Roman legions, while the latter relied, primarily, ~5 on Polybius for such numbers. By the same token, the Dialogo appears Dialogo. 1969.372. And Dialogue. 1961. 186. 'The armies of Rome only had two legions of Romans, that is, about 12.000 men. The rest, about 20.000, were from other nations.' 26 Niccolo Machiavelli, "Dell'Arte della guerra" in Tutte le Qpere Storiche e Letterarie Machiavelli A cura di Guido Mazzoni e Mario Casella (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929), 306, di Niccolo column A. Niccolo Machiavelli, The Art of War trans. Ellis Farneworth (New York: Da Capo Press, 1990): 87-88. 'you must know then, that a Roman consular army did not exceed two legions of about 11,000 infantry and 600 cavalry, composed entirely of their own citizens. Besides these they were supplied with as many more of both sorts by their friends and allies[... ] they never permitted the number of these auxiliaries to surpass that of their legions]...with such an army, consisting of about 22,000 infantrymen and 2,000 good cavalrymen, a consul went upon most expeditions'. Date of the 'Dialogo' 191 27 to have relied on Livy for its numbers relating to the makeup of Rome's legions' There is then, no consistency between two of the works known to be by Machiavelli. might One argue, between the then, that it may Dialogo and the Arte token, one may united by an as be a mistake to view the apparent inconsistencies proofagainst Machiavelli's authorship. By the from him to access same notice that despite the differences in the numbers cited, both works interest in Roman military organization Discorsi, the Dialogo and the Arte. Furthermore, it grew one to the next, that he gained or - may access to might yet provide an are linking all three works, the be that Machiavelli's thought different materials which caused change his calculations regarding the make-up of the Roman to the work of Polybius . army. Indeed, his explanation. Baron, following A. Arthur Burd's thesis, illustrated that Machiavelli had recourse 1516. portions of translated versions of Polybius Histories, Book VI as early as to This assertion is corroborated by J. H. Hexter's research on Machiavelli and Polybius VI. Machiavelli cited Polybius' book extensively in the Discorsi, but he did not mention the had makeup of the Roman armies that is included recourse to this section of given his reliance on many Polybius' work as - Histories'? as detail in VI 19-4228. If he 1516, it is at least probable, other sections of Polybius VI, that it would have been inserted into his Discorsi and, if he authored the text, the research early in maybe in 1519 - that Machiavelli Baron's and Burd's work provides a Dialogo. Perhaps it came across was later in his this section of Polybius' satisfactory explanation to the problem For an interesting of the similarities and differences between the Discorsi. the Dialogo and the Arte, see Baron's, "Place of the Dialogo", 454 and note 1; 455 and note 1. "8 Baron, "Place of the Dialogo", 453, n. 3 where Baron focuses on Burd's research in relation to the Polybius VI, the Discorsi and the Arte. Date of the of the 'contradiction' between the Dialogo, it Rather, it seems unlikely that he could have done be that the Dialogo may Dialogo and the and Burd gave more 'Dialogo' 192 Arte"9. If Machiavelli so wrote the after he began his Arte in 1519. written before 1519. In arguing for this, Baron was weight to Rajna's earlier assessment that came to the same conclusion; the Dialogo could not have been written after the Arte. Scholars, one might suggest, have focused too much energy on the contradictions between the Arte and the Dialogo. Rather, it may be more view the evolution of II Principe led the author to grander and helpful to view them in the manner in which and the Discorsi. The first, smaller text more expansive themes. one may appears to Might there be a have similar progression from the Dialogo to the Artel There is further evidence that Machiavelli's ideas young concerning the defence of the Florentine language scholar, Lodovico Martelli, which Martelli may on the Florentine vernacular them, that Martelli borrowed - defence against in Florence in 152 530. This work, the Dialogo'1. Indeed, it of his ideas from that work32. Rajna, appears to The title of Martelli's strength to this notion because it is obvious that he is responding to name work written by Trissino because Trissino's famous works on and does not language were Hexter, "Missing Translation": 75-96. Lodovico Martelli, "Risposta alia Epistola del T rissino" Trattati sulFOrtografia del Vol care. 1524-1526 University Press, 1984): 37-75, XL1I1, where Richardson di Brian Richardson (Exeter: Exeter discusses the date of the Risposta. A a - printed work. The Dialogo does not mention Trissino by mention any 29 some one help to date the treatise. Ridolfi and Baron assert, is similar in some ways to Trissino's known by at least published his Risposta alia Epistola del Trissino Trissino's attack treatise lends were cura 31 Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante": 374-375, nts. 26-27. Grayson summarised the views set forth by Rajna, Ridolfi and Baron. 32 Ibid: 374-375. Date of the not 1520's33. printed until the 'Dialogo' 193 However, Grayson finds fault with this thesis. Martelli, Grayson illustrated, 'appears to have thought he was the first', to defend the Florentine language'4. Grayson cites this nuovo a costoro che io cosi scritto Dante nel suo footnote that there passage risoluto mi opponga a libro de vulg. are from Martelli's Risposta: "E qui parra forse eloquio^5. quella ch'ei dicono che ha lasciato However, Grayson acknowledges in a 'also obvious dissimilarities, especially in Martelli's [Dante's] Convivio 1 and his doubts about Dante's authorship of De vulgari By his own admission, Grayson chose to focus only Dialogo and the Risposta, which are borrowed from Martelli and not vice It appears around of eloquentia'36. the similarities between the few. Yet, he continued to believe that Machiavelli versa1. that Viroli also subscribed to this for he placed the Dialogo scenario, 152438. Unfortunately, he does not provide arguments for this date. The date he selected indicated that he was borrowed from Martelli. Yet, in agreement with Grayson's assumption that Machiavelli Grayson managed this date by positing rather speculatively that Machiavelli would publish his ideas 33 on uses on language without protest39. never a rhetorical sleight of hand; have allowed someone to He concluded that Machiavelli must example, Gian Giorgio Trissino, Dialogo intitulato: II Castellano. nel quale si tratta della lingua (Venezia, 1528). Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 375. Ibid, 375. 'And this will perhaps appear new to them, that I thus resolved to oppose what they say Dante For italiana 4 35 left written in his book De 36 37 '8 Ibid, 375, n. 27. vulgari eloquentia'. Ibid: 374-375. that Viroli is in (Torino: G.Einaudi, 1980): 324-334 and Ornella Castellani Pollidori, ed. Nuove Riflessioni sul Discorso o Dialogo Intorno Alia Nostra Lingua di Niccolo Machiavelli (Roma, 1981), 83; and Brian Richardson, "Prose" in The Cambridge History of Italian Literature Revised edition, eds. Peter Brand and Lino Pertile (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999): 179-232. See 184 in particular where Richardson mentions that the Dialogo was written in 1524-1525. He gives no arguments for this date. All five choose this later date because of the 'problem' represented by Martelli's Risposta. 39 Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante", 374. Viroli, Machiavelli. 169. Concerning the 1524-1525 date for the Dialogo, it appears agreement with Grayson, Carlo Dionisotti and Brian Richardson. See Dionisotti's Machiavellerie Date of the have borrowed from Martelli. It on the apparent seems that Grayson not only placed too as Chapter Five set out, the Dialogo After all, it was Dialogo''s provenance. until the was by no means a well-known treatise. only discovered in 1577. Second, the work is written in the form of a personal letter. The historical record provides its intended much emphasis 'similarities' between the Dialogo and the Risposta, but that he also overlooked certain historical factors linked with the First, 'Dialogo' 194 no evidence that it was ever recipient, who remains unknown. Finally, the Dialogo delivered to was not published 18th century. These combined factors do not point to Grayson's conclusion that Machiavelli would have been upset if some of his ideas appeared in contrary, it seems at least as likely that he would have been Martelli's a later work. On the flattered by the younger emulation40. Perhaps then, there is reason to think that the older and more polished Machiavelli, while at the Orti Oricellari, influenced the budding scholar Martelli. Or, as Brian Richardson put seems that Machiavelli's influence Risposta, not the other the 40 it, Martelli's Risposta 'usufrui di varie idee del way over Martelli is around. With the pontificate of Adrian VI also set aside, one exemplified in the years Dialogo'41. It younger scholar's 1524 and after eliminated, and with is left with only a few years in which the Grayson also overlooks the fact that Machiaveili's II Principe was plagiarized countless times while he still alive. See Peter Godman, From Poliziano to Machiavelli: Florentine Humanism in the High Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998): 252-255. One might find Brian Richardson's comments on Martelli's Risposta helpful. In Trattati suH'ortografia del volaare. 1524-1526 (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1984), p. XXXVII, Richardson wrote, 'usufrui di varie idee del Dialogo. II Martelli, come il Machiavelli, pianse la morte di Cosimo Rucellai (nella canzone "Quando l'alma gentile"), e dovete quindi anch'egli essere vicino all'ambiente degli Orti Oricellari. Egli aveva pero trenta anni di meno del Machiavelli, ed era stato educato in un clima intellettuale molto diverso. Nel 1515, dopo un intervallo di piii dieci anni, Filippo Giunta ricomincio a stampare Libri greci. Tre volumi di grammatica greca che apparvero nel corso di quelli anno furono dedicate ciascuno a tre giovani e promettenti Fiorentini: Luigi Alamanni, Pier Vettori, e Ludovico Martelli'. 41 See p. XXXVII in Richardson's Trattati. was Date of the Dialogo could have been written treatise. These which Gian In are the years 'Dialogo' 195 1513 to 1518, the years in Giorgio Trissino visited Tuscany. 1546, Benedetto Varchi, Luigi Alamanni were a Florentine scholar, wrote that in 1513, when he and boys, they attended, along with Machiavelli, a lecture given by Trissino. Varchi's account reads: gia, essendo io fanciullo, con Zanobi Buondelmonti, e Luigi essendo garzone andava alFhorto de Ruscellai, con messer Cosimo, c piu altri giovani udivano il Trissino, e piu tosto come Maestro, o Superiore, che come compagno, o Perche mi ricorda che Nicolo Machiavegli, dove insieme Tosservavano eguale42. Varchi was well messer respected and had problems with his account. Varchi 10 or 11 years interesting. By no reason to was fabricate such born in 1502 or but Baron found 1503, meaning that he was only old when he went to hear Trissino lecture. Varchi's word selection is even suggesting that he, a 10 or 11 year old boy, would consider himself equal with the older scholar Trissino is odd. The fact that himself to be of lesser This a story, standing than an a boy of 10 older, educated scholar should oddity in Varchi's account led Baron to think that an go 11 considered without saying. one so young as 1513 would not have been allowed to enter the Orti. Baron may assumption, but by dismissing or Varchi was in have been correct in his eyewitness account out of hand, he also damages other m\d-cinquecento accounts that place Trissino at the Orti in the vendemmial of 1515. More will be said of this in due at this point, to leave 1513 account even 42 course. as a if it is somewhat Contrary to Baron's rejection, it is better, at least possible year for the Dialogo''s origin due to Varchi's questionable. For Machiavelli, 1513 was an eventful year. Benedetto Varchi, "Delia poesia", from his lecture delivered in the Florentine Academy OctoberDecember, 1553, in Lezioni.. nelFAccademia Fiorentina (Florence, 1590), 547. Cited in Baron, "The Place of the Dialogo", 457, n. 3. "together with Cosimo [Rucellai], we [he and Alamanni] and other young people listened to Trissino and respected him as a master or our superior rather than considering him our fellow equal' 'Dialogo' 196 Date of the On February 1513 Machiavelli 12 was imprisoned by the restored Medici government as a conspirator against their regime. He was not later 12 - gives and he most March41. no of his time He spent the summer indication that he was released until months in exile. His letters preparing formal studies of writing letters to Vettori but none of these hints at are month without hope any sort. any one He spent sort of scholarly pursuit44. That is, until 10 December 1513 - long after the close of the vendemmial. In letter he told Francesco Vcttori this principatibus -what became II (Machiavelli) led Principe) better at year Principe45. lonely country life and than do the fall from grace was the Orti, but to pay year in which he 4j as 44 lost in the labours was Dialogo. We may on the Prince (II Vettori'46. This evidence provides as a year of his on one or two on occasions; not to hear lectures at him by the Medici47. Thus, 1513 in which it is unlikely that Machiavelli could have add 1514 to that list. Sebastian De Grazia, Machiavelli in Hell De Grazia, In Hell). of this De exiled from Florentine political life. punitive taxes and fines imposed be added to the list of years written the was ironic, referring to Florence's 'tranquillo stato' in 1513; the and the - written. It is impossible to imagine Machiavelli, Furthermore, he only returned to Florence can writing problems with Varchi's account for excluding 1513 in which the Dialogo his most was Baron wrote, 'during the autumn, he vividly described in his famous letter to reasons possible even so a about the little book he (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 34. (Hereafter abbreviated period, analyzed through Machiavelli's letters, John M. Najemy, Between (Princeton. Princeton University Press, 1993). Specifically, refer to Chapter Three, 'Formerly Secretary': 95-135. 45 Niccolo Machiavelli, Machiavelli and his Friends: Their Personal Correspondences trans. James B. Atkinson and David Sices (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996): 262-265. 46 Baron, "The Place of the Dialogo", 457. For a recent account see Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of 1513-1515 47 Ibid, 457. Date of the In 1514 Machiavelli was Just weeks before the start of the 'Ho lasciato up in a vendemmial, dunque i pensieri delle Dialogo springing from this to suppress caught year. cose love affair with on grandi much e gravi'48. appear, took up most on end of March and vendemmial49. or contrived in order language. His next letter is dated He only visited Tuscany once Trissino that early April, when he travelled from Ferrara to unlikely that the Dialogo is a year, was nowhere between 'the Rome'50. It seems product of 1514. regard to the remaining dates 1515-1518, internal evidence in the Dialogo In a possible solution. The text refers to the court of Milan. Speaking to Dante, the author said: 'E Milano as to say, 1514, long after the end of the vendemmial. This year is an impossibility if Tuscany in the provides far of his free time, providing Machiavelli's 'in mio vendemmial negozio' is to be believed, for near as It is difficult to imagine the His love affair, whether genuine his boredom, it would younger woman. 3 August 1514 he went enough distraction to inhibit the writing of a treatise 3 December a 'Dialogo' 197 o se tu mi allegassi il parlar curiale, ti rispondo, Napoli, che tutte tengono del luoco de la patria se tu parli de le corti di loro'31. Francis I, King of France, desired to reassert his claims to Milan and all of its territories. The French army, with Francis as their commander, crushed the Swiss and the Milanese contingent of Leo X and Florence success, Francis was - at Marignano on 13 September32. Riding the - wave allies of his able to seize Milan for himself. With his arrival, the Milanese court 48 Niccolo Machiavelli, Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli. Volume Terzo: Lettere A cura di Franco Gaeta (Torino: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 1984), 465, Letter 238, 3 August 1514. And Personal Correspondences. 292, Letter 238, 3 August 1514. 'I have renounced, then, thoughts about matters great and grave'. 49 Baron, "Place of the Dialogo", 461. Here Baron discusses Trissino's travels. 50 51 Ibid, 461. Dialogo. 1969. 373. And Dialogue. 1961. 186. 'I reply that if you mean the courts of Milan or Naples, that 52 they reflect the language of the locality'. Correspondences. 309. Personal 'Dialogo' 198 Date of the ceased to be and it did not historical evidence regain its independence until 1525. relating to the court at Milan Polybius VI in the Dialogo discussed above, the leaving 1515 The the most likely as year as well years as As a result of the the lack of reference to 1516-1518 may be excluded, that Machiavelli could have written the Dialogo. remaining problem Ridolfi raised concerning Florence's tranquillo stato and Machiavelli's anti-papal language factual evidence of the year The 1515 be solved can are well when the circumstances and as examined. tranquillo stato of Florence and the references to the papacy highlighted by provide an interesting point of discussion. Like Machiavelli's works, the Dialogo is able to stand on its Ridolfi is Ffowever, its subtleties own. perhaps more pronounced when it compared with Machiavelli's Istorie Florentine. If one thinks back to the discussion of Machiavelli's treatment of Cicero in II attitude Principe and in the Discorsi and the 'bi-focal' adopted toward the great Roman in those works, phenomena occur within the pages In his once Dialogo in the Istorie, Machiavelli intersperses flattery with exists throughout Machiavelli's Clement VII, commissioned this year a sense trying to restore his position with the Medici while at the Viroli noted that this pattern same a n. 53 . help 1515. of moral outrage; at time undermining it. Pope, speak. Machiavelli provides the dissenters over tyranny. The telling example: Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country: An Essay 1997), 33 and may Istorie53. The Medici eloquent and patriotic speeches defending love of patria following speech provides find that similar long work. Viroli asserted that Machiavelli's true voice is heard in the Istorie when anti-Mediceans with one may of the Istorie. An examination of this work, to illustrate that Machiavelli could have written the 5j are (Hereafter abbreviated as on Patriotism and Nationalism (New York: Clarendon, Viroli, Love of Country). Date of the Io stimero sempre poco vivere in citta dove possino una meno 'Dialogo' 199 le leggi che gli uomini; perche quella patria e desiderabile nella quale le sustanze e gli amici si sicuramente godere, non quella dove ti possino essere quelle tolte e gli amici per paura di loro propri nelle tue maggiori necessita t'abbandono54. possono facilmente, strongly patriotic and perhaps autobiographical words given to Rinaldo degli These Albizzi, enemy of the Medici, are very 'They would shed their blood for long, as against I said above, as danger you, similar to a passage in II Principe, Chapter XVII: risk their property, their lives, their children, seems remote; but when you are so in danger they turn you'53. In II 'marked Principe, as in the Istorie, Machiavelli's style is, by binary oppositions and his next breath, Machiavelli was as Wayne Rebhorn noted, symmetries'36. Thus, after lambasting the Medici, in just as willing to provide Lorenzo de'Medici with stirring words, fdled with patriotic sentiment 57 . esempli di violenza e di avarizia, quanti sono citta. Dunque questa nostra patria ci ha dato la vita perche noi la togliamo a lei? Ci ha fatti vittoriosi perche noi la destruggiamo? Ci onora perche Ne credo che sia in tutta Italia tanti in questa noi la vituperiamo?58 54 Viroli, Love of Country. 33 Viroli quotes from the Istorie Fiorentina. 'I shall esteem it little to live in a city where the laws can do no less than men. For that patria is desirable in which property and friends can be safely enjoyed, and not that in which property can be taken from you, nor friends, out of fear for their own, abandon you in your greatest necessity'. Viroli cites Machiavelli's Istorie as it appears in Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli ed. A. Montevecchi (Turin, 1986), 33, Book IV. 55 Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince trans. George Bull (London: Penguin Group, 4th ed., 1995), 52. For Italian original see Niccolo Machiavelli, II Principe e Altre Opere Politiche Introduzione di Delio Cantimori Note di Stefano Andretta (Milano: Garzanti Libri, 1999), 65. 'Offeronti el sangue, la roba, la vita, e' figliuoli, come di sopra dissi, quando el bisogno e discosto; ma, quando ti si appressa, e' si rivoltano'. 56 Wayne Rebhom, Foxes and Lions: Machiavelli's Confidence Men (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988): 204-205. 57 Viroli, Love of Country. 39. 58 Viroli, Love of Country. 39. Viroli cites Istorie. Montevecchi. VTI.23. He cites Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine Histories trans. Laura F. Banfield and Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 302. 'Nor do I believe that in all Italy are there so many examples of violence and avarice as in this city. Then did this fatherland of ours give us life so that we might take life from it? Make us victorious so that we might destroy it? Honour us so that we might insult it?'. Date of the Flattery tempered with disdain, or even at times disgust: these elements are often associated with the tone Machiavelli takes when given statement and later completely an 'Dialogo' 200 reverse writing. Machiavelli's ability to write the view set forth in that statement, provides interesting insight into his style of argument but it also provides insight into his irony. This of irony is evident in the Istorie, use evident in the a as use of Viroli illustrated. It is likewise Dialogo. When read in this context, the tranquillo stato of Florence and the harsh criticisms of the papacy can be accounted for and justified Keeping the Istorie in mind it becomes easier to justify Machiavelli's seemingly opposing and II Principe views. On 6 June 1515 Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici dei Fiorentini'59. was installed as On 13 October 1515 Leo X and Francis I of France 'capitano generale signed the Treaty of Viterbo, which guaranteed French protection for the Medici family forever. Following these grand events, November lavish festivals visit, one throughout the saw the first visit of Pope Leo X to Florence, city60. on time of Between the installation of Lorenzo and the papal might easily write of Florence's tranquillo stato, and at the him to comment a the costumi perversi of the papal same time allowing court61. Moreover, Giovanni Battista Gelli, according to Baron, provided a 'semi- contemporary source' supporting the year 1515. In 1551, Gelli wrote: 'Ma se voi forse non ve ne venuta di 59 60 ricordate advertite che Papa Leone, co'l Tressino (perche egli fu che ci condusse la prima volta questa John Stephens, The Fall of the Florentine Ibid, 74. Also Autumn of 1515. 61 que' litteratti dell' Orto de Rucellai, disputando nella see Republic: 1512-1530 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1983), 99. Baron "Place of the Dialogo464. Baron carefully illustrates the importance of the Dialoao- 1976. 20. 776b. 22. Date of the opere)'62. Admittedly, Baron noted that Trissino and Leo X could Florence at the think that this same time. Trissino problem was a was problem at all61. The magnitude of the serve as a Trissino's visit said, there was John men visited Florence. It seems precisely because he visited Florence a mistakenly Gelli may have overlapped the visit of Trissino and Leo X, but it is improbable that he in which both pomp definite historical point of reference by which Gelli remembered and associated these related events. the year not have been in in Florence earlier in the autumn. Baron did not Gelli, writing in 1551, remembered Leo's visit. surrounding this occasion would 'Dialogo' 201 was wrong about likely that Gelli remembered short time before Leo X. That clearly great political tension in Florence in the autumn of 1515. Stephens's, The Fall of the Florentine Republic: 1512-1530 provides insight into the situation in Florence in 1515. Medici. In secret everyone He wrote, '1515 was a disparaged the government and "almost about the sad fate of modern times'"64. And as difficult year everyone for the complained Humphrey Butters wrote concerning the Medici and the autumn of 1515: Ostensibly the year ended on a note of high success for the Medici: the accord with Francis I, the papal entry into Florence, the meeting between Leo X and the French Monarch. But in reality there was much discontent in the city63. Amid the festivities of the autumn of 1515, Florence was, on 'tranquillo' but there citizenry. b" was a sense Butters highlighted that the surface at least of underlying disillusion and discontent many people, proud though they among were to its have the Baron, "Place of the Dialogo465, n. 1: Gelli cited. 'But you, perhaps if you do not look at, nor Gardens, they debated the arrival of Pope Leo X, with Trissino (because he brought us his work there for the first time)'. 6'' Baron, "Place of the Dialogo", 466. 64 Stephens, Florentine Republic. 100. The quotation within Stephens's quotation is from Pietro Parenti, Historia fiorentina. Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Fonclo Principale, II, IV, 171, fol 114r. 65 Humphrey Butters, Governors and Government in the Early Sixteenth-Century Florence: 1502-1519 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), 273. remember those literati of the Rucellai Date of the 'Dialogo' 202 Pope return to his home city, were also upset at the cost of the festivities Medici surrounding his entry66. This with Florence's tranquillo stato and the Dialogo''s references to the costumi perversi of the may go some way to dispel Ridolfi's doubts concerned papal court. Machiavelli's comments and their apparent contradictions echoed the prevailing sentiments of the Florentine public in the vendemmial of 1515. We might suggest then, that if Machiavelli wrote the Dialogo, he may have done so in 1515. That was the year which he link in which Machiavelli completed 11 Principe and, it began his Discorsi, which Machiavelli's works the date of the last on principalities and republics? Might it Scholars as written. with the divided It even seems to when the solve the mystery of dedicatory letter to II Principe and its last Chapter likely that the epilogue's history and origin Dialogo and the vendemmial in which it was are linked directly written. That in turn highlights the special occasione that existed in 1515 in Florence, in the form of Medici in Chapter of 11 Principe? Epilogue to II Principe were year discussed in Chapter One. This chronological was III. The Date of the are also the Could the Dialogo help to explain the transition between tantalising. is was a Medici Pope and a Capitano in Florence. Given the festivities in Florence in 1515 which celebrated the French crown's promise to provide to Florence and the Medici eternal protection, did Machiavelli author the epilogue of 11 Principe to exhort Leo and Lorenzo to throw off the newly fashioned yoke of foreign oppression? Indeed, this, along with the possibility of the unification of a secular Italian patria that this occasione presented may have loomed larger in Machiavelli's thinking than is usually supposed. Neither Sergio Bertelli 66 Butters, Governors. 273. nor 'Dialogo' 203 Date of the gives the Dialogo Hans Baron any close attention in this regard. acknowledging the conditions that the Dialogo from 1515 - contained the which are may recalcitrant to certain However, always be by Machiavelli and that it dates proof - that small tract 'conjectured that the epilogue was composed together with the final dedication of the work to Lorenzo de' Medici, which occurred between September Lorenzo's 1516'67. The position in Florence which gave have preliminary sketches for the epilogue to II Principe. Bertelli and may yet him tremendous reason was at a September 1515 Bertelli chose September 1515 high point. Lorenzo power over was was because Capitano of Florence, political appointments and decision making city and its protectorates. These factors indicate that September of 1515 was a logical time for Machiavelli to re-dedicate his II Principe to Lorenzo while at the same within the time writing its epilogue. Bertelli also thought that September 1516 for Giuliano passed away was a suitable date, in March 1516 and Lorenzo sought to increase his political standing in the wake of his relative's recent death68. Gilbert supported Bertelli's argument: always been examined in the hope of finding a question whether the Italian nationalism of the last chapter formed an integral part of Machiavelli's political outlook or whether it was merely a decorative conclusion - a rhetorical ornament. If we are right in our theory that from chapter 15 onward Machiavelli was inspired by opposition to the humanists who preceded him and that, consequently, the second part of The Prince is very loosely composed and forms no connected unity, I believe we have to accept, as a further result that also the last chapter, which is not prepared for by any hint in the preceding sections of the book, stands by itself, mainly intended as a concluding rhetorical flourish. This conclusion must not be interpreted as a The structure of The Prince has solution to the much debated 67 "The Principe and the Puzzle of the Date of Chapter 26." Journal of Medieval and (1991): 83-102, p. 90. (Hereafter abbreviated as Baron, "Date of Chapter 26"). For Bertelli's edition see Niccolo Machiavelli, II Principe e Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio. A cura di Sergio Bertelli (Milano: Feltrinelli, 1960; reprint 1977): 109-110. Hans Baron, Renaissance Studies 21 68 Stephens, Florentine Republic. 102. Date of the 'Dialogo' 204 feeling in Machiavelli, but it does show that nationalism had prescribed place in his system69. denial of national definite and However, Baron, who proposed a no different date for the last Chapter of II Principe, disputed the conclusions of Bertelli and Gilbert. Baron believed that the last This time was plan to form Chapter of II Principe was written in January 1515 a northern Italian state, which Principe be created under the guidance of was to was originally dedicated71. Leo's plan, Baron hypothesised, caused Machiavelli's spirits to rise at the thought of Italy, prompting him to write II Principe's epilogue the north of Italy, 72 . a unified northern The possibility for unification in when Baron's research is taken to its logical conclusion, the occasione that Machiavelli can an to the a plausible problem of the date of the last Chapter and the dedicatory letter. However, examination of the Principe will be viewed hoped Leo would seize. Only later, after Giuliano's death, did Machiavelli re-dedicate the work to Lorenzo. On the surface this is answer . special, according to Baron, because Machiavelli became privy to Leo X's Giuliano de' Medici, to whom II as 70 prove reasoning behind Baron's proposed date for the last Chapter of II that Bertelli's suggested dates - September 1515 or 1516 - are more probable. Machiavelli learned of Pope Leo's plans for northern-Italian unification in January 1515. In his letter to Vettori he wrote: 69 Gilbert, Machiavelli e i suoi tempi (Bologna, 1977), 340 where Gilbert wrote, 'E sono convinto che capitolo del Principe era una storia dx secondo pensiero: talche ho notato con grande interesse l'ipotesi di Bertelli...che quest'ultimo capitolo I'exhoratio, si connette strettamente alia Dedicatio e deve pertanto essere datato tral ll settembre 1515 e il settembre 1516. Questo tesio mi sembra risolvere le difficolta in discussione'. Cited in Baron "Date of Chapter 26", 90, n. 16. For an earlier interpretation see Felix Gilbert, 'The Humanist Concept of the Prince and The Prince of Machiavelli.' in Gilbert's History: Choice and Commitment ed. Arno M. Mayer, (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard, 1977): 91114, specifically 114. 70 Baron, "The Date of Chapter 26", 90. 71 Ibid, 89. 72 Ibid, 100. Felix l'ultimo Date of the 'Dialogo' 205 qualche ragionamento ha avuto Signoria gli ha promesso farlo governatore di una di quelle terre, della quali prende ora la signoria. Et avendo io inteso, non da Pagolo, ma da una commune voce, che egli diventa signore di Parma, Piacenza, Modena et Reggio, mi pare che questa signoria fosse bella et forte, et da poterla in ogni evento tenere, quando nel principio la fosse governata bene73. e suto qui con il Magnifico, et intra delle speranze sue, mi ha detto come sua Pagolo vostro meco So, Baron posited, the last Chapter of II Principe must be linked to that period and no later, for in August 1515 the French began preparations for a military campaign in northern Italy. army swept The 'French from Beginning in September, under the leadership of Francis I, the French southward across the Alps. Then, victory at Marignano put foreign rule, as well as an over two tragic days, 13-14 September. end to all of Leo's endeavours to his plan to create a new power centre save in northern Milan Italy'74. Surely, Baron posited, the special occasione for Italian unification died with the Italian defeat at Marignano. However, Baron overlooked the fact that Lorenzo, not Giuliano, saved the papal and Florentine armies from destruction. He kept them from the fray, thus preserving their full strength, instead sacrificing the mercenary Swiss7". Despite Lorenzo's role at Marignano, Baron asserted that the epilogue to II Principe could only have been written for Giuliano before Marignano. Furthermore, he posited that the last Chapter to II Principe could not have been intended for Lorenzo, for the 7'' language therein, Baron believed, was not suitably adapted to an individual of 490, Letter 247, 31 January 1515. And Personal Correspondences: 312-313, Letter 247 dated 31 January 1515. 'Your Paolo has been here with His Magnificence [Giuliano] and, among other discussions he had with me about his prospects, he told me that His Lordship promised to appoint him governor of one of those cities over which he is currently taking control. And understood - not from Paolo but from a rumour that His Magnificence is to become lord of Parma, Piacenza, Modena, and Reggio, I think this is a Lettere, - rule that would be considerable and would be strong; outset, it can be held onto under any condition'. 74 75 Baron, "The Date of Chapter 26", 95. Personal Correspondences. 309. it is such that, were it governed correctly from the Date of the Following this logic, the epilogue must have been written to Lorenzo's character. Giuliano before 'Dialogo' 206 Marignano. Baron contended that Machiavelli's references in II illustrious house' 'illustre or casa vostra' were individual like Lorenzo, whom Baron called not Principe's epilogue, to 'your suitably written for presentation to 'proud and imperious' 76 . In other words, gravely offended Lorenzo by not naming him personally Machiavelli would have an as Italy's saviour. Therefore, it must have been written before the defeat at Marignano, with Giuliano in mind. But if the epilogue would have offended Lorenzo, then Machiavelli would have removed it before no evidence to support Lorenzo such what purpose this question answer to II Principe was Baron insists that the one re-dedicating the book to him. There is a need specifically to be ascertained by examining to whom and for can epilogue was 77 intended for a 'casa illustre' - intended for the rather than one as single individual - Giuliano - It must have been written before Marignano, . while the occasione for the unification of northern Italian was him in the name written. specific occasione in mind perhaps the epilogue Baron asserted, claim. After all, given that the dedicatory letter named personally, would there have been epilogue? The with a as eyes was a of two people Baron suggests: - possibility. However, members of the Leo X and Lorenzo, not same Giuliano78. Medici Pope and Medici Capitano working in tandem; church and state temporarily united for the cause of Alexander VI and his of II 76 77 78 unification, mirroring the earlier, successful relationship of Pope son Cesare Borgia - who are so central to the action of Chapter VII Principe. Baron mentioned Borgia, but he surprisingly neglected to mention the role Baron, "The Date of Chapter 26", 91. Ibid, 84. 'Chapter 26 directs an exhortation to some member of the House of Medici'. Peter Laven, Renaissance Italv: 1464-1534. (London: B.T. Batsford, 1966), 155. Date of the of Alexander VI79. So, it was entirely possible for Machiavelli to have written the dedicatory and the last Chapter for Lorenzo and Leo. However, Baron's definition of occasione in Machiavelli's II Principe, Machiavelli may It is one must examine in order to demonstrate that have intended the epilogue for Lorenzo and Leo, not Giuliano. likely that the occasione to which Machiavelli referred in II Principe the occasione was directly related to Giuliano and the possible creation of northern Italian state, it that Machiavelli's occasione was a strong, rather different. His have been linked with the unique position in which Florence found itself occasione may between 1515 and 1516 itself, for Lorenzo Peter Godman appears was Contrary to Baron's assessment that unrelated to the occasione which Baron described. was - a Medici on the papal throne and a Medici 'prince' in Florence in almost complete control of Florence by the latter half of 15 1 580. quoted from Marcello Virgilio Adriani's speech at Lorenzo's coronation describe this to 'Dialogo' 207 special relationship: Lorenzo war', but in peacetime] a different and 'one prince, was more one arbiter, one lord in mighty prince reigned: Leo X'81 Therefore, Machiavelli's occasione existed only after Marignano, when Leo and Lorenzo were no working together, uniting the interests of Florence and Rome. Furthermore, there is indication in the northern epilogue. 79 80 Italy. epilogue that Machiavelli was referring to the possible unification of For example, Machiavelli did not mention, 'northern Italians' in the On the contrary, he wrote of the 'universita delli uomini di Baron, "The Date of Chapter 26", 85. Personal Correspondences. 308. quella'82. 'Di 'By 1515 Lorenzo was the virtual ruler of Florence and he was elected captain general in May. He understood the military; furthermore, he had a military aura about him that Machiavelli respected'. 81 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 243, n. 51 on the same page, where Godman cites Virgilio from BFR, Folio 60r. 'Vocatoque ad militare imperium uno et cive hoc vestro rempublicam tueri simul et ornare cogitis... Unum oportet esse principem in bello, unum arbitrum, unum dominum'. 82 Principe. 1999. 94. the Florentine Date of the quella' in this context refers to 'all and every most may was passage as, made Capitano of Florence have followed this date as on 6 June Bertelli indicated, and it is likely that Machiavelli wrote the last Chapter of 11 Principe with Lorenzo and Leo in mind. the 'Italia'83. Thus, George Bull translated this Italian'84. Given that Lorenzo 1515, the letter of dedication 'Dialogo' 208 Even if epilogue, mind, a January 1515 is left as a possible date for Machiavelli to have written Baron suggested, with the occasione of northern Italian unification in as question arises that cannot be answered by Baron's logic. Machiavelli, given that the occasione no Why would longer existed after Marignano, leave the epilogue unchanged when he re-dedicated // Principe to Lorenzo? Perhaps the occasione referred to the the unique opportunity that existed in the form of Leo and Lorenzo, and thus special relationship that existed between Rome and Florence; which gives still greater weight to Bertelli's date of September 1515. In seems his in September 1515 the special Florentine occasione that Machiavelli realized that the occasione was was at slipping epilogue. With the 'freschi esempli' of Cesare Borgia's its high point. Yet, it away even as successes mind, Machiavelli realised that when the occasione ceased to be, for unification made peace 85 . Pope Leo gave Machiavelli reasons to hold on to with Francis I later in the autumn of 1515. By this he wrote and ultimate failure so did Italy's chance his hope. He met and means, the pope sought to gain standing for the Church and Florence by reaching accords with the French. achieved both by 13 October 1515 at the Treaty of Viterbo. Francis I promised to protect the Medici and their descendants forever. 8' 84 85 He After this meeting, as was illustrated earlier, Principe, 1999. 94. Prince, 1995. 80. Principe. 1999, 37. 'Freschi esempli' is almost impossible to translate into English. While it literally as 'fresh examples', its painterly connotations are lost. 'Freschi esempli' are things which have happened so recently that, if the events were part of a painted fresco, their paint would still be diying. translates Date of the 4 Leo was accepted in Florence as a resented the amount of money 'Dialogo' 209 returning hero in November of 1515, even if the public he spent on the festivities (this previous section). Furthermore, Lorenzo's political standing was was at a discussed in the high point around September of 1515, which only increased after he became the Duke of Urbino early in the following persons When viewed in this perspective, the occasione still existed in the year. and relationship between Leo and Lorenzo, dedicatory letter the how narrow sense of urgency comes to the window of opportunity was even after Marignano. In his the forefront. Fie let Lorenzo know just for Florence's special occasione. Pigli adunque vostra Magnificenzia questo piccolo dono con quello animo che io lo mando; il quale se da quella fia diligentemente considerato e letto, vi conoscera drento uno estremo mio desiderio, che Lei pervenga a quella grandezza che la fortuna e le altre sua qualita li promettano86. Machiavelli may under the or Dialogo carefully defines the her life with the a - could still be united reason that should cause a citizen to lay down duty to honour the patria. These sentiments have much in common epilogue of II Principe. A unifying Prince, Lorenzo, with the cooperation of his uncle Leo X, could unite every common was, leadership of Leo and Lorenzo. The his have thought that Italy, slim though the chance love of it would thus create an Italian patria into provide the Italian national means a single entity. A by which a common patria prince could unite a and a citizenry and identity. If it is by Machiavelli, the Dialogo preceded the epilogue of II Principe and it presented in central to Machiavelli's famous a rough manner some closing Chapter. As a of the ideas that became result of the reasoning set forth above, Bertelli's date of September 1515, just following the Dialogo, is the most likely 86 Prince. 1995. 2. 'So, Your Magnificence, take this little gift in the spirit in which 1 send it; and if you read and consider it diligently, you will discover in it my urgent wish that qualities promise you'. Also Principe. 1999. 14. fortune and your other you reach the eminence that Date of the time in which Machiavelli wrote the last 'Dialogo' 210 Chapter and the dedicatory letter to his II Principe. An examination of the similarities between the Dialogo and II Principe's last Chapter adds VI. The weight to the September 1515 date of the latter's epilogue. Dialogo and Chapter Twenty-Six Machiavelli's may more preoccupation with Italian unity and with Petrarch's patriotic 'Italia mia' have drawn conviction from the influence of Angelo Poliziano. energy to the 'Italia mia' and humanist education Poliziano's of Florentine may have exerted influence on Machiavelli's 87 . writing offers an older yet startlingly similar approach to the history poetic greatness that is illustrated by the author of the Dialogo. Indeed, Poliziano's Raccolta Aragonese, in which the he referred to Dante's 'uncouthness' further to link that work with the D/a/ogo88. The following Poliziano's edition of the Raccolta, and from the in the some He too devoted passages are seem taken from Dialogo®'. Compare Poliziano's words Epistola to his Raccolta with the author of the Dialogo. una latina epistola scrive il Petrarca, ancora romani assai celebrato; il quale, per molto tempo intermesso, Sicilia non molti secoli avanti a rifiorire, e, quindi per la sparto, finalmente in Italia, quasi in un suo ostello, e pervenuto90. Fu l'uso della rima, secondo che in appresso gli antichi comincio poi nella Francia 87 Dionisotti, "Machiavelli, Man of Letters," Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature, eds. Albert (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993): 23-33, where Dionisotti elegantly details Machiavelli's relationship to humanistic studies and training. Poliziano's writings figured Carlo Russell Ascoli and Victoria Kahn centrally in Machiavelli's education. 88 Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli. 75 and note 232 at the bottom of that page. The Raccolta was edited and compiled by Poliziano at the request of Lorenzo de' Medici. Therefore, it is usually included in the Opere of Lorenzo. See Lorenzo de' Medici, Onere A cura di Tiziano Zanato (Torino: Einaudi, 1992), 353 for portions of the Raccolta. For a good summary of the importance of the work carried out by Poliziano and Lorenzo, see Letizia Panizza "The Quattrocento" in The Cambridge History of Italian Literature. Revised edition, eds. Peter Brand and Lino Pertile (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999): 129-177. See 164-165 particularly. 90 Angelo Poliziano, "First Anthology of Vernacular Poetry," Images of Quattrocento Florence, eds. Stefano Ugo Baldassari and Arielle Saiber (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000). 169-174 for the entire section of Poliziano's work: p. 172 for the English translation cited above. 'The use of verse, as 89 Date of the 'Dialogo' 211 And the author summarised: Perche ciascuno Provenza sa ne venne come i Provenzali cominciarono quest'uso in Sicilia, d'ltalia in Toscana; e di tutta Toscana in When Poliziano's are di Sicilia, in Italia; Firenze9'. e in tra le provincie telling. The brief analysis in the Dialogo is perhaps Poliziano's, but this may Poliziano was a more be explained by the four trips that Machiavelli took court, while he was an ambassador for the Ten in Florence to the French the scrivere in versi; di writing is compared with the knowledge of poetry illustrated in the Dialogo, the similarities refined than e a 92 . contemporary of the young Machiavelli. Fie compiled and wrote Epistola to the Raccolta at the request of Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1477, when Machiavelli was 8 years Poliziano's writings as a pupil gained a It is highly likely that the old. - as a part of his humanist deeper knowledge of Poliziano's work by way young Machiavelli studied training93. He most definitely of his superior, the windbag extraordinaire, Marcello Virgilio Adriani, at the Palazzo Vecchio during their Petrarch writes in years epistle, was held in high esteem by the ancient Romans. After having been long time, it began to flourish again in Sicily, just a few centuries ago. It then reached France, and finally Italy, as if that were its home'. For Italian original see Claudio Varese, ed., Prosatori Volgari del Quattrocento (Milano: Riccardo Ricciardi, 1957), 987. (Hereafter abbreviated as Varese, Prosatori Volgari). In the same work, also see p. 987, n. 5. Here Varese details that Poliziano is referring to abandoned for a Latin a Petrarch's Familium Rerum I.I. See Francesco Petrarca, Le Familiari: Edizione Critica Volume Primo: Introduzione e Libri I-IV A cura di Vittorio Rossi (Firenze: G.C. Sansoni, 1933), 4. 'Quod genus, apud Siculos, ut lama est, Grecorum olim 91 ac non multis ante seculis renatum, brevi per omnem Italiam ac Latinorum vetustissimos celebratum' Dialogo. 1969. 375. Dialogue. 1961. 189. 'Everyone write in verse. From Provence the practice spread to longius manavit, apud knows that it was the Provencals who began to Sicily, and from Sicily to Italy, and in Italy particularly to Tuscany, and in Tuscany particularly to Florence'. Roberto Ridolfi, The Life of Niccolo Machiavelli trans. Cecil Grayson (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1963): 34-119, for Machiavelli's missions to France. Also see Niccolo Machiavelli, Ritratti e Rapporti Diplomatici (Roma: Riuniti, 2000): 43-48 for an excellent summation of the important dates in Machiavelli's life up to 1511. This includes specific details concerned with his diplomatic journeys in France. 93 Dionisotti, "Man of Letters": 23-33. Date of the together94. In light of Poliziano's much earlier work, it is clear that the history of poetry and the discussion of it, was The 'Dialogo' 212 entering into the consciousness of the Florentine humanists. opening of Poliziano's Epistola to Frederick of Aragon like Chapter 26 of II Principe, quotes Petrarch. medesimo, illustrissimo signor mio Federico, quale degli antichi tempi fussi la piii eccellente, una percerto sopra tutte l'altre esser gloriosissima e quasi singulare ho giudicato: che nessuna illustre e virtuosa opera ne di mano ne d'ingegno si puote immaginare, alia quale in quella prima eta non fussino e in publico e in privato grandissimi premi e nobilissimi ornamenti apparecchiati. Imperocche, si come dal mare Oceano tutti li fiumi e fonti si dice aver principio, cosi da quest'una egregia consuetudine tutti i famosi fatti e le maravigliose opere degli antichi uomini s'intende esser derivati93. Ripensando assai volte in tra molte The e meco infinite laudi phrase in italics is borrowed from Petrarch's famous CXXVIII. Claudio Quattrocento9^. The passage to Petrarch's Canzoniere made 11 lines separate this illustrated Varese poem 'Italia mia', Canzoniere point in his Prosatori Volgari del which Poliziano referred follows closely the section of more famous by Machiavelli at the end of II Principe. Only the two quotations. Those passages are in italics below: Dio, questo la mente pieta guardate doloroso, che sol da voi riposo dopo Dio spera; e pur che voi mostriate segno alcun di pietate, vertu contra furore Per 90 94 talor vi mova, e con le lagrime del popol Dionisotti, "Man of Letters", 25. For was personally taught by 145, 180-181. Adriani and They worked together from Where Dionisotti illustrates that Adriani similar perspective see Godman, Poliziano to Machiavelli: Machiavelli served as First and Second Chancellors to the Florentine Republic. Poliziano. a 1498-1512; the year ofMachiavelli's exile. Baldassari, Saiber, Images. 170. 'My most illustrious Lord Frederick, I have often debated with myself 95 which among the many and innumerable good customs of ancient times was most excellent. I finally chose one that I believe should be considered the most glorious of all: that in those times, no illustrious and produced by either hands or intellect lacked for rewards and grand tributes, both in private public. Consequently, as all rivers and springs are said to originate in the Ocean, so all famous deeds and wondrous works of the Ancients are held to have derived from worthy custom'. Also see Varese, virtuous work and in Prosatori Volgari. 985. 96 Varese, Prosatori Volgari. 985, n. 1. Here Varese illustrates that Poliziano is borrowing from Petrarch, particularly from line 108 of Canzoniere CXXVQI. Date of the 'Dialogo' 213 prendera I 'arme afia 'I combater corto: che I 'antico valore 95 ne e I 'italici si cor non e ancor Signor, mirate come la vita morto. come '1 tempo vola la morte n'e sovra le spalle. or qui, pensate a la partita: che l'alma ignuda e sola conven ch'arrive a quel dubbioso calle. A1 passar questa valle piacciavi porre giu l'odio e lo sdegno, fugge e Voi siete 100 venti contrari 105 e a la vita serena, quell che 'n altnii pena tempo si spende, in qualche atto piu degno o di mano o d'ingegno91. In Poliziano's letter to 'virtuosa'. Both of these words Frederick, cited above, he used the words 'illustre' and are central in the last refers to the 'illustre' house of the Medici 'virtuoso', the masculine form of 'virtuosa' is last Chapter. This may no a Chapter of 11 Principe. Machiavelli less than four times. Furthermore, pivotal term in the first sentence of the be coincidence, but it certainly adds weight to the possibility that if Machiavelli wrote the Dialogo, he drew on Poliziano's work and that this work in turn shaped the last Chapter of II Principe. The in 11 prefatory remarks in the Dialogo be as patriotic Principe. The Dialogo states that the author's Florentine patria the most noble patria. 97 appear to as the final Chapter was 'piii nobile' or This nobility, in the larger context of the work, is afforded his The Canzoniere. (rerum vulgarium fragmenta) 2 Vols, trans. Frederic J. Jones (Hull: God! Let your minds be led/ grief,/ 90 who, after God, in you relief/ and hope now seek; and should you demonstrate/ some sign of pity for their fate,/ virtue against blind rage/ will take up arms, and short will be the fray/ 95 for age-old courage/ in (Italian) breasts has not yet passed away./ Lords, see how quickly time is borne,/ And just how life thereafter/ Flees, while death already thunders at our heels./ 100 Now you're on earth, but think of your departure,/ at which the soul, naked and forlorn,/ must perforce arrive, as to that grim pass it steals./ When beyond this vale it wheels,/ 105 Winds contrary to life's more peaceful flow;/ and the time which to others' woe/ you spend, apply to finer forms of work/ which in your hands and spirits lurk'. Also see: Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere. Francesco Petrarch, Troubadour and Hull Italian Texts, 2000-2001), Volume One: 158-159. 'Oh To this at times, and with pity contemplate/ The weeping of a people lost in Trionfi. Rime Varie e Una Scelta di Versi Latini A cura di Carla Muscetta e Daniele Ponchiroli Torino, 1958), 179. Also see Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere Introduzione Cudini (Milano: Aldo Garzanti, 1974): 186-187 Giulio Einaudi: e note (Torino: di Piero Date of the patria by the beauty and supremacy of its language. 'Dialogo' 214 The Florentine patria, was according to its author, at least where the realm of language was concerned, the most noble. 11 Principe, on the other hand is concerned with liberation and unification as was argued in the Chapter One. It is interesting to in the compare the view of the Florentine patria Dialogo with Machiavelli's view in the last sentence of 11 Principe. There, Machiavelli wrote, Pigli, adunque, la illustre casa vostra questo assunto con quello animo e con quella speranza che si pigliano le imprese iuste; accio che, sotto le sua insegna, e questa patria ne sia nobilitata, e sotto li sua auspizi, si verifichi quell detto del Petrarch98. Then Machiavelli quotes the famous lines from Petrarch. He desired for his patria to be 'piu nobile' in the realm of political affairs just as it was superior in the realm of language. Leo and Lorenzo, working in unison, could make Florence politically, 'piu nobile' as it was linguistically. Conclusion This Chapter and the previous Chapter have sought to explore the possibility of Machiavelli's written. By authorship of the Dialogo and to set out so doing, distinct similarities attributed to Machiavelli and the of were Dialogo. Indeed, politics and patriotism in Machiavelli's oeuvre, a likely Prince. 1995. 84. in which it was uncovered between works definitely one might argue that the combination and particularly in the epilogue of 11 Principe is mirrored in the Dialogo. This close relationship 98 year may be explained by what 'Let your illustrious House undertake this task, therefore, with the courage and hope belong to just enterprises, so that, under your standard our patria may be ennobled, and under your auspices what Petrarch said may come to pass'. Also see Principe. 1999, 98. which Date of the be close ties between the two works, both in their patriotism and in the time appear to they may have been written - the vendemmial of 1515. When unification considers the different aspects one which republicanism, a were Dialogo, one of Machiavelli's plan for Italian developed in the previous Chapters: secular patriotism, national military and an end to exile, 'nationhood' emerges. in the a startlingly recognisable picture of If one adds to these components unity of language, might suggest that in the pages had seized the occasione a seeking to as called for were sown. If Lorenzo Machiavelli exhorted, could Florence, as a new Rome, have 'benevolent' egemonia answer as of that work and in the political works definitely attributed to Machiavelli, the seeds of the Italian nation exerted 'Dialogo' 215 that question, it politica e linguistica may prove helpful to over see the Italian peninsula?" In if there is further evidence of 'cross-pollination' between works definitely attributed to Machiavelli and the Dialogo. If, for example, one finds further similarities in the language used in these, might one suggest that the possibility of Machiavelli's authorship of the Dialogo is strengthened further still? 99 Bertelli, "Egemonia linguistica", cited above. That article explores the Florentine notion of linguistic and cultural supremacy in the cinquecento. Chapter Seven An Italian Edition of the Dialogo (Following that of Sergio Bertelli With the Addition of Extended Notes) Preface Building upon previous Chapters, it similarities between the Machiavelli. with the may be revealing to illustrate that there Dialogo and other works which Indeed, the author of the Dialogo subjects of unification and the citizen and the Discorsi, appears to army which are many definitely attributed to are have been familiar, not only were discussed in 11 Principe but also with various aspects of the Arte della guerra and the Istorie fiorentine. In particular, the term patria in the Dialogo (see Appendix to Chapter Five) is, as it is throughout the opere which are attributed to Machiavelli, completely secular. Might these factors combined, strengthen the case for Machiavelli's authorship of that work? In this regard, it is helpful to include the complete text of the Dialogo along with extensive annotation, which will indicate similarities between that work and the works of Machiavelli. Very recently, in 2001, Salerno published the 'Edizione Nazionale' of Machiavelli's Opere. Dialogo as a Volume Nine, Scritti in work of Machiavelli text had to be selected upon text that follows is a was not prosa e in poesia which includes the available for this study1. Therefore, another which to base the text of the Dialogo in this Chapter. The transcription of Sergio Bertelli's excellent edition of Machiavelli's 1 Niccolo Machiavelli, Edizione Nazionale delle opere di Niccolo Machiavelli 20 Vols. A cura di Mario Martelli, et. al. (Roma: Salemo, 2001). The Dialogo is in Volume 9, Scritti in prosa e in poesia. After extensive searches utilising www.oopac.ac.uk and after an unsuccessful interlibrary loan, the author was still not able to obtain that volume. The opere which includes the Dialogo as a include further references which may authorship, which were work of that 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 217 author2. Neither his text nor his notes foreshadow Bertelli's doubts about Machiavelli's published later. For example, it is interesting to note that in 1976 argued against Machiavelli's authorship of the Dialogo, where in 1969, when his Bertelli edition of that work Grayson, Bertelli was published, he argued for Machiavelli's authorship'. Like Cecil appears to Dialogo to rejecting have gone from accepting Machiavelli's authorship of the it4. Again, this is indicative of the problems associated with the treatise. With that in mind, this author's notes to Bertelli's published edition of the text give particular attention to its similarities of vocabulary and ideas with 11 Principe, the Discorsi and others of Machiavelli's works. Such the text and shares a a exercise suggests - but no more possible date of composition. than that - Machiavelli's authorship of Whoever wrote the Dialogo, its author preoccupation with the unification of Italy which is also manifest in works which Machiavelli unification 2 an definitely wrote. At the very least, the Dialogo''s case for linguistic complements Machiavelli's plans for political unification. For Bertelli's edition, see Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli 11 Vols. A cura di Sergio Bertelli (Milano: 1968-82). One may find the Dialogo in Volume 4, Teatro e Scritti Letterari (1969): 361- Giovanni Salerno, 377. Sergio Bertelli, "Egemonia linguistica come egemonia culturale e politica nella Firenze cosmiana", in Biblioteque d'Flumanisme et Renaissance. 38 (1976): 249-281. Cecil Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante," Renaissance Studies in Honor of Flans Baron eds. Anthony Molho and John A. Tedeschi (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971): 361-384. 4 The I. 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 218 Sergio Bertelli's edition of the Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua3 Sempre che io ho potuto onorare la patria mia eziandio con mio carico e pericolo6 l'ho perche l'uomo non ha maggiore obbligo nella vita sua che con quella, dependendo prima da essa l'essere e di poi, tutto quello che di buono la fortuna e la natura ci hanno conceduto7; e tanto viene ad esser maggiore in coloro che hanno sortito patria piu nobile. E veramente colui il quale con l'animo e con le opere si fa nimico della sua patria meritamente si puo chiamare parricida, ancora che da quella fosse suto offeso. Perche se battere il padre e la madre, per qualunque cagione, e cosa nefanda, di necessita ne segue il lacerare la patria essere cosa nefandissima, perche da lei mai si patisce alcuna persecuzione per la quale possa meritare di essere da te ingiuriata, avendo a riconoscere da quella ogni tuo bene; tal che se ella si priva di parte de' suoi cittadini, sei piu tosto obbligato ringraziarla di quelli che la si lascia che infamarla di quelli che la si toglie. E quando questo sia vero (che e verissimo) io non dubito mai di ingannarmi per difenderla e venire contro a quelli che troppo presuntuosamente cercano di privarla dell'onor suo8. fatto volentieri, cagione perche io abbia mosso questo ragionamento e la disputa nata piu volte ne'passati giorni9 se la lingua nella quale hanno scritto i nostri poeti e oratori fiorentini e fiorentina, toscana o italiana10. Nella qual disputa ho considerato come alcuni meno inonesti vogliono che la sia toscana, alcuni altri inonestissimi la chiamono italiana, e La 5 6 See Opere. Vol. 4, Teatro e Scritti Letterari (1979): 361 -377. 'con. carico e pericolo'. This phase is used in Niccolo Machiavelli, Istorie fiorentine in Tutte le Opere e Mario Casella (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929): 375-621. See 11. 13., p. 417. 'E mentre che si praticava la causa sua, il popolo si armo, e corse alle sue case, offerendogli contro ai Signori e suoi nimici la difesa. Non voile Giano fare esperienza di questi popolari favori, ne commettere la vita sua a1 magistrati, perche temeva la malignita di questi e la instability di quegli; tale che, per torre occasione a' nimici di ingiuriare lui, e agli amici di offendere la patria, delibero di partirsi, e dare luogo alia invidia, e liberare i cittadini dal timore che eglino avevono di lui, e lasciare quella citta, la quale con suo carico e pericolo aveva libera dalla servitu de' potenti; e si elesse voluntario esilio'. Note also that Machiavelli discusses these in relation to 'voluntary exile' - a theme in the Dialogo. 7 'fortuna e natura'. The secularism of the writer is evident in that there is no mention of things divine. 8 See Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997): 32-33 where Viroli discusses Machiavelli's use of Ciceronian themes in the Dialogo. (which he attributes to Machiavelli). Might this Ciceronian tradition link the Dialogo further with the Discorsi? 9 'Ne' passati giorni'. See Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua: Edizione critica A cura di Bortolo Tommaso Sozzi (Torino: G. Einaudi, 1976), 4. n. 26, where Sozzi wrote 'probabile allusione alle discussioni linguistiche tenutesi negli Orti Oricellari, cioe nel dotto circolo di .. Storiche e Letterarie di Niccolo Machiavelli A cura di Guido Mazzoni Palazzo Rucellai'. 10 Niccolo Machiavelli, II Principe e Altre Opere Politiche: Introduzione di Delio Cantimori, Note di Stefano Andretta (Milano: Garzanti Libri, 1999), 61. 'E questo e, che alcuno e tenuto liberale, alcuno misero (usando uno termine toscano, perche avaro in nostra lingua e ancora colui che per rapina desidera di avere, misero chiamiamo noi quello che si astiene troppo di usare il suo)'. language as 'Tuscan' and the author of the Dialogo uses Florentine and of the text. The author of the Dialogo seems to be referring to Machiavelli recognised his Tuscan interchangeably in the course Pietro Bembo (Florentine and Tuscan); Gian Giorgio Trissino and Baldassar Castiglione (Italian or courtly tongue). See Bembo's Prose della Vulgar Lingua. (1525); Castiglione's II Libro del Cortegiano (1528) and Trissino's Dialogo intitulato: 11 Castellano. nel quale si tratta della lingua italiana (1528). See J R. Woodhouse, Baldesar Castiglione: A Reassessment of 'The Courtier' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978): 80-83. The alcuni tengono 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 219 che la si debba chiamare al tutto fiorentina, e ciascuno di essi si e sforzato mi e parso in questo mio di difendere la parte sua in forma che, restando la lite indecisa, vendemmial negozio scrivervi largamente quello che io ne quistione o per dare a ciascuno materia di maggior contesa. senta, per terminare la vedere, addunque, con che lingua hanno scritto gli scrittori in questa lingua celebrati, delli quali tengono, senza alcuna discrepanza d'alcuno il primo luogo Danten, il Petrarca12 e il Boccaccio13, e necessario metterli da una parte, e A volere moderna 11 familiar with the works of Dante, as was the author see Niccolo Machiavelli, Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli. Volume Terzo: Lettere A cura di Franco Gaeta, (Torino: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 1984). Letter 224, 10 December 1513, p. 425. 'Ho un libro sotto, o Dante o Petrarca, o un di questi poeti minori, come Tibullo, Ovvidio e simili'. For references to Dante in the Discorsi see Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi Sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio. Introduzione di Gennaro Sasso, Note di Giorgio Inglese (Milano: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1999), 1.11, pp. 93-94. 'Donde nasce che gli regni i quali dipendono solo dalla virtu d'uno uomo sono poco durabili, perche quella virtu manca con la vita di quello; e rade volte accade che la sia rinffescata con la successione, come prudentemente Dante dice: 'Rade volte discende per li rami/ L'umana probitate, e questo vuole/ Quei che la da, perche da lui si chiami'. Here Machiavelli quotes Dante's Purgatorio. VII. 121-123. Dante's text says 'risurge' rather than 'discende'. For a good bilingual edition of Dante's work, see Purgatorio trans. Charles Singleton (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), 74. Also in the Discorsi see 1.53., p. 169. 'E Dante dice a questo proposito, nel discorso suo che fa De Monorchia, che il popolo molte volte grida «Viva» la sua morte e «Muoia» la sua vita'. See Cecil Grayson, "Machiavelli and Dante," 364, where Grayson illustrates that Machiavelli is in actuality citing Dante's Convivio 1.9., not the Monarchia. In note 6 on the same page in Grayson, he wrote, 'The context of Convivio I, 9 is linguistic. Machiavelli's applies the quotation to polities'. Might the Dialogo be an equally political text? One must note that Grayson also makes a mistake, for the quotation Machiavelli used is actually in Convivio. 1.11. See Dante Alighieri, Convivio: Edizione Critica A cura di Maria Simonelli (Bologna: Casa Editrice Prof. Riccardo Patron, 1966), 1.11.8., p. 23. There, Dante wrote, «Viva la loro morte», e «Muoia la loro As Chapters Five and Six discussed, Machiavelli was For references to Dante in Machiavelli of the Dialogo. vita». Dante in the Istorie: H.2., pp. 408-409 'Egli e cosa verissima, secondo che Dante e Giovanni Villani dimostrano, che la citta di Fiesole, sendo posta sopra la sommita del monte, per fare che i mercati suoi fussero piu frequentati, e dare piu commodita a quelli che vi volessero con le loro mercanzie venire, aveva ordinato il luogo di quelli, non sopra il poggio, ma nel piano intra le radice del monte e del fiume 410. 'Ma come ne' corpi nostri quanto piu sono tarde le infirmita, tanto piu sono pericolose e mortali; cosi Florenzia, quanto ella fu piu tarda a seguitare le sette di Italia, tanto di poi fu afflitta piu da quelle. La cagione della prima divisione e notissima, perche e da Dante e da molti altri scrittori celebrata'. Istorie II I 8., p. 420. 'E trovandosi in arme ambedue le parti, i Signori, de' quali era in quel tempo Dante, per il consiglio e prudenza sua presono animo e feciono armare il popolo, al quale molti del contado aggiunsono'. Istorie 11.20., p. 422. 'Furono pertanto confinati tutti i Cerchi con i loro seguaci di parte Bianca, intra i quali fu Dante poeta, e i loro beni publicati e le loro case disfatte.' Istorie II. 24., p. d'Arno'. H.2., p. 425. 'Donde che restarono fuori la maggior parte de' Ghibellini cjuali furono Dante Aldighieri, i figliuoli di ~ se e Veri de' Cerchi e alcuni di quegli di parte Bianca, intra i di Giano della Bella'. Lettere: p. 371, letter 210 dated 16 April 1513. Machiavelli quotes alcuna volta io rido o canto/ Folio perche io non ho se non questa una/ Via da sfogare il For references to Petrarch Petrarch: 'Pero messer see pianto'. Gaeta notes that this is from Canzoniere CD. 11. 12-14. 'L'ultimo verso suona pero: « via da celare il mio angoscioso pianto». For a good edition of Petrarch's porty, see Canzoniere. Trionfi. Rime Vane e una scelta di versi latini A cura di Carlo Muscetta e Daniele Ponchirolo (Torino: Einaudi, 1958), p. 137 for quotation. Also see p. 423 in Lettere. letter 224 dated 10 December 1513. '«Tarda non furon mai grazie divine». Dico questo, perche mi pareva aver perduta no, ma smarrita la grazia vostra, sendo stato voi assai tempo senza scrivermi, et ero dubbio donde potessi nascere la cagione'. Machiavelli cited Petrarch's Tionfo dell'Eternita. 13. See Trionfo dell'Eternita. p. 542. In the same letter in Lettere. also see p. 425 where Machiavelli mentions carrying a book by Dante or Petrarch with him on his country mio acerbo The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 220 Italia, alia qual provincia, per amore circa la lingua di questi tre pare luogo ceda, perche la spagnuola e la francese e la tedesca e meno in questo caso presuntuosa che la lombarda14. E necessario, fatto questo, considerare tutti li luoghi di Italia e vedere la differenza del parlar loro, e a quelli dare piu favore che a questi scrittori si confanno, e concedere loro piu grado e piu parte in quella lingua e, se voi volete, bene distinguere tutta Italia e quante castella, non che citta, sono in essa. Pero volendo fuggire questa confusione divideremo quella solamente nelle sue provincie, come Lombardia, Romagna, Toscana, Terra di Roma e Regno di Napoli. dall'altra parte tutta che qualunque altro ciascuna di dette parti saranno bene esaminate, si vedra nel parlare di esse grandi differenzie; ma a volere conoscere donde proceda questo e prima necessario vedere qualche ragione di quelle che fanno che infra loro sia tanta similitudine, che questi che oggi scrivono vogliono che quelli che hanno scritto per lo addrieto abbino parlato in questa lingua comune italiana; e quale ragione fa che in tanta E veramente, se walks (Cited above). Also see Lettere. letter 229, dated 4 February 1514, p. 443 where Machiavelli cited Petrarch's Trionfo d'Amore. I. 150-160. See Trionfo d'Amore. p. 471. And Lettere. letter 230 dated 9 February 1514, p. 445 where he cites the Trionfo d'Amore. Ill, 91-93. See Trionfo d'Amore. p. 483. These are detailed by Gaeta. Petrarch in II Principe. 98. 'Pigli, adunque, la lllustre casa vostra questo assunto, con quello animo e con quella speranza che si pigliano le imprese iuste; accio che, sotto la sua insegna, e questa patria ne sia nobilitata, e sotto li sua auspizii si verifichi quel detto del Petrarca: Virtu contro a fiirore/ Prendera I'arme; e fia el combatter corto:/ Che I'antico valore/Nelli italici cor non e ancor morto\ At the end of I) Principe. Machiavelli cited Petrarch. See Canzoniere. CXXVTI, 93-96, p. 179. Petrarch in Istorie. VI.29., p. 553. 'Ma sopra tutto gliene davano speranza quelli versi del Petrarca, nella canzona che comincia: "Spirto gentil, che quelle membra reggi", dove dice: Sopra il monte Tarpeio, canzon, vedrai/ Un cavalier che Italia tutta onora,/ Pensoso piu d'altrui che di se stesso'. Machiavelli quotes from Canzoniere LIII, 11. 99-101. See Canzoniere. p. 77. And Istone. VI.29., p. 553. 'Sapeva messer Stefano i poeti molte volte essere di spirito divino e profetico ripieni; tal che giudicava dovere ad ogni modo intervenire quella cosa che il Petrarca in quella canzona profetizzava, ed essere egli quello che dovesse essere di si gloriosa impresa esecutore; parendogli, per eloquenzia, per dottrina, per grazia e per amici, essere superiore ad ogni altro romano. See the Esortazione alia penitenza in Tutte le opere Storiche e Letterarie di Niccolo Machiavelli A cura di Guido Mazzoni e Mario Casella (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929): 778-780. For the quotation from Petrarch see p. 780. 13 For references to Boccaccio in Machiavelli's letters see Lettere. Letter 231, dated 25 February 1514, p. 450. 'Priegovi seguitate la vostra Stella, e non ne lasciate andare un iota per cosa del mondo, perche io credo, credetti, e crederro sempre che sia vero quello che dice il Boccaccio: che gli e meglio fare e pentirsi, che non fere e pentirsi'. Gaeta noted that Machiavelli was citing the Decamerone. Ill, 5; and that Machiavelli slightly altered Boccaccio's words from 'e egli meglio fare e pentere che starsi e pentersi'. There is also a reference to Boccaccio in the Istorie 11.42., p. 443. 'Mantennesi la citta, dopo questa rovina, quieta infino all'anno 1353; nel corso del qual tempo segui quella memorabile pestilenza da messer Giovanni Boccaccio con tanta eloquenzia celebrata, per la quale in Firenze piu che novantaseimila anime mancarono'. Here, Machiavelli is referring to Boccaccio's masterful description of the plague in Florence. See Boccaccio's The Decameron ed. Jonathan Usher, trans. Guido Waldman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 6-23. 14 Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. Angelo M. Codevilla (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), xxiii. Codevilla's interpretation of this passage is of some interest. 'Language, therefore, is a most powerful weapon in the struggle for primacy, and particularly suited to the unarmed. In the Discourse upon Our iMnguage, Machiavelli notes that the most powerful nations of modem Europe - Spain, France and Germany - "yield" not only to Italy, which did not exist politically, but even to its despised part, Lombardy, for the sake of the language in which Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio wrote'. One might also note that Venice is conspicuously absent. The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 221 lingua noi ci intendiamo. Vogliono alcuni che a ciascuna lingua dia termine la particula affermativa, la quale, appresso alii Italiani con questa dizione si e significata e che per tutta quella provincia si intenda il medesimo parlare dove con uno medesimo vocabolo parlando si afferma; e allegano l'autorita di Dante, il quale, volendo significare Italia, la nomino sotto questa particula si, quando disse: diversita di A hi Pisa, vitupero delle genti la dove il si suona15, del bel paese Allegano ancora l'essemplo di Francia, dove tutto il paese si chiama Francia lingua d'ui e d'oc, che significano appresso di loro quel medesimo che appresso lltaliani si. Adducono ancora in exemplo tutta la lingua tedesca che dice id e tutta la Inghilterra che dice jeh. E forse da queste ragioni mossi vogliono molti di costoro che qualunque e in Italia che scriva e parli, scriva e parli in una lingua. Alcuni altri tengono che questa particula si non sia quella che regoli la lingua, perche se la regolasse, e i Siciliani e li Spagnuoli sarebbono ancor loro quanto al parlare Italiani. E pero e necessario si regoli con altre ragioni; e dicono che chi considera bene le otto parti dell'orazione nelle quali ogni parlare si divide troverra che quella che si chiama verbo e la catena e il nervo della lingua!6, e ogni volta che in questa parte non si varia, ancora che nelle altre si variasse assai, conviene che le lingue abbino una comune intelligenza. Perche quelli nomi che ci sono incogniti ce li fa intendere il verbo quale infra loro e collocato; e cosi per il contrario dove li verbi sono differenti, ancora che vi fusse similitudine ne' nomi, diventa quella un'altra lingua. E per esemplo si pud dare la provincia dTtalia, la quale e in una minima parte differente nei verbi, ma nei nomi differentissima, perche ciascuno Italiano dice amare, stare e leggere, ma ciascuno di loro non dice gia deschetto, tavola e guastada. Intra i pronomi quelli che importano piii sono variati, si come e mi in vece d'io e ti per tu. cioe d'ltalia. ed e detto ancora Quello che fa ancora differenti le lingue, ma non tanto che le non s'intendino, pronunzia e gli accenti. Li Toscani fermano tutte le loro parole in su le vocali, ma li Lombardi e li Romagnuoli quasi tutte le sospendono su le consonanti, come e pane e sono la pan. adunque tutte queste e altre differenze che sono in questa lingua voler vedere quale di queste tenga la penna in mano e in quale abbino scritto Considerato italica11, a 15 For a good bilingual edition see Dante Alighieri, Inferno trans. Charles Singleton (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), XXXIII, 79-80, p. 354. The author of the Dialogo cites Dante's Comedia. frequently. References to Dante are included as a guide to the reader. 16 'II nervo della lingua'. Might this be reciprocal with Machiavelli's use of 'nervo' in relation to military considerations? These are discussed below where the author of the Dialogo also uses 'nervo' in relation to military make-up. 17 'italica'. The only time that the term 'italica' appears in Machiavelli's works is in the epilogue of II Principe. See pp. 96-97 'Volendo dunque la illustre casa vostra seguitare quelli eccellenti uomini che redimimo le provincie loro, e necessario, innanzi a tutte l'altre cose, come vera fondamento d'ogni impresa, provvedersi d'arme proprie; perche non si puo avere ne piu fidi ne piu migliori soldati. E, benche ciascuno di essi sia buono, tutti insieme diventeranno migliori, quando si vedranno comandare dal loro The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 222 prima necessario vedere donde Dante e gli primi scrittori furono e lingua patria o non vi scrissero18; di poi arrecarsi innanzi i loro scritti, e appresso qualche scrittura mera fiorentina o lombarda o d'altra provincia d'ltalia, dove non sia arte ma tutta natura; e quella che fia piu conforme alii scritti loro, quella si potra chiamare, credo, quella lingua nella quale essi abbino scritto. Donde quelli primi scrittori fussino (eccetto che un bolognese, un aretino e un pistolese19, i quali tutti non aggiunsono a dieci canzoni) e cosa notissima come e' furono fiorentini; intra li quali Dante, il Petrarca e il Boccaccio tengono il primo luogo, e tanto alto, che alcuno non spera piu aggiungervi. Di questi, il Boccaccio afferma nel Centonovelle20 di scrivere in vulgar fiorentino; il Petrarca non so che ne parli cosa alcuna; Dante, in un suo libro ch'ei fa De vulgari eloquio21, dove egli danna tutta la lingua particolar d'ltalia, afferma non avere scritto in fiorentino, ma in una lingua curiale; in modo che, quando e' se li avesse a credere, mi cancellerebbe, l'obbiezioni che di sopra si feciono di volere intendere da loro donde avevano quella lingua imparata. Io non voglio, in quanto s'appartenga al Petrarca e al Boccaccio, replicare cosa alcuna, essendo l'uno in nostro favore e l'altro stando neutrale; ma mi fermerd sopra di Dante, il quale in ogni parte mostro d'esser per ingegno, per dottrina e per giudizio uomo eccellente, eccetto che dove egli ebbe a ragionar della patria sua, la quale, fuori d'ogni umanita e filosofico instituto, perseguito con ogni specie d'ingiuria22. E non potendo altro fare che infamarla, accuso quella d'ogni vizio, danno gli uomini, biasimo il sito, disse male de' costumi e delle leggi di lei; e questo fece non solo gli scrittori antichi, se principe, con e essi scrissono nella la e virtu onorare et intrattenere. E necessario, per tanto, prepararsi a queste arme, per potere italica defendersi dalli esterni'. Chronologically, may this seldom used word, link the Dialogo da quello 1515; to the time Machiavelli wrote the epilogue of II Principe? 'Lingua patria'. Machiavelli, unlike his contemporary Guicciardini, used this term. For examples, see Discorsi H5., p. 309. 'Era dunque, come di sopra e detto, gia la Toscana potente, piena di religione e di virtu; aveva i suoi costumi e la sua lingua patria; il che tutto e stato spento dalla potenza romana. Talche, to 18 come si e detto, di lei ne rimane solo la memoria del nome'. Machiavelli also uses this term in the Istorie. 1.5., p. 384. 'Intra queste rovine e questi nuovi popoli sursono nuove lingue, come apparisce nel parlare che in Francia, in Ispagna e in Italia si costuma; il quale mescolato con la lingua patria di quelli nuovi popoli e con la antica romana fanno un nuovo ordine di parlare'. 19 Dialogo. 1976. 8, n. 5. Sozzi noted that the Bolognese, Aretine and Pistoese are 'Guido Guinizelli, Guittone d'Arezzo and Cino da Pistoia' respectively. 20 'Centonovelle'. The author is referring to Giovanni Boccaccio, II Decameron: Edizione Critica A cura di Aldo Rossi (Bologna: Cappelli, 1977), 215. 'Giornata IV', 'Introduzione', where Boccaccio wrote Te presenti novellette sono...in fiorentin volgare'. The author of the Dialogo overlooked, or purposely neglected the words that came between the above quotation, which read as follows; Te presenti novellette riguarda, le quali non solamente in fioretin volgare ed in prosa scritta per me sono senza titolo'. 21 'De vulgari eloquio'. See Dialogo. 1976. 9. n. 29, where Sozzi noted, 'titolo improprio, dato dal codice Trivulziano usufruito dal Trissino, e da altri manoscritti ed edizioni, e presente ancora nel Manzoni. II titolo essatto De \nlgari eloquentia, dato dal codice Berlinese scoperto dal Bertalot nel 1917, era gia noto al Villani e al Boccaccio. Circa la deformazione della tesi linguistica dantesca da parte del Trissino, e circa polemica antitrissimana e antidantesca del Machiavelli'. 22 Dante Alighieri, Dante in Hell, the De Vulgari Eloquentia trans. Warman Welliver (Ravenna: Ravenna Longo, 1981), I. XIII., p. 72 for the Latin original. 'Post hec veniamus ad Tuscos, qui propter amentiam suam infrontit titulum sibi vulgaris illustris arrogare videntur'; and I.VI., p. 52 for the Latin original. 'Et quamvis ad voluptatem nostram sive nostre sensualitatis quietem in terris amenior locus quam Florentia non existat, revolventes et poetarum et aliorum scriptorum volumina, quibus mundus universaliter et membratim describitur, ratiocinantesque in nobis situationes varias mundi locorum et eorum habitudinem ad utrunque polum et circulum equatorem, multas esse perpendimus firmiterque censemus et magis nobiles et magis delitiosas et regiones et urbes quam Tusciam et Florentiam, unde sumus oriundus et civis, et plerasque nationes et gentes delectabiliori atque utiliori sermone uti quam Latinos'. . - The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 223 parte de la sua Cantica, ma in tutta, e diversamente e in diversi modi; tanto l'offese l'ingiuria deU'esilio! tanta vendetta ne desiderava! e pero ne fece tanta quanta egli pote. E se, per sorte, de' mali ch'egli li predisse le ne fusse accaduto alcuno, Firenze avrebbe piu in una quell'uomo, che d'alcuna altra sua rovina. Ma la fortuna, per farlo per ricoprire con la gloria sua la calunnia falsa di quello, Ilia continuamente prosperata e fatta celebre per tutte le provincie del mondo, e condotta al presente in tanta felicita e si tranquillo stato, che, se Dante la vedessi, o egli accuserebbe se stesso, o ripercosso dai colpi di quella sua innata invidia, vorrebbe, essendo risuscitato, di nuovo morire. Non e pertanto maraviglia se costui, che in ogni cosa accrebbe infamia a la sua patria, volse ancora nella lingua torle quella riputazione la quale pareva a lui d'averle data ne' suoi scritti, e per non l'onorare in alcun modo compose quell'opera, per mostrar quella lingua nella quale egli aveva scritto non esser fiorentina. II che tanto se li debbe credere, quanto ch'ei trovassi Bruto in bocca di Lucifero maggiore23, e cinque cittadini fiorentini in tra i ladroni24, e quel suo Cacciaguida in Paradiso23, e simili sue passioni e oppinioni; nelle quali fu tanto cieco, che perse ogni sua gravita, dottrina e giudicio, e divenne al tutto un altro uomo; talmente che, s'egli avessi giudicato cosi ogni cosa, o egli sarebbe vivuto sempre a Firenze o egli ne sarebbe stato cacciato per pazzo. Ma perche le cose che s'impugnano per parole generali o per conietture possono esser facilmente riprese, io voglio a ragioni vive e vere mostrare come il suo parlare e al tutto fiorentino, e piu assai che quello che il Boccaccio confessa per se stesso esser fiorentino, e in parte rispondere a quelli che tengono la medesima oppinione di Dante26. da dolersi d'aver nutrito mendace e quello dove fussi piu del comune che del proprio lingua; e similmente parlar proprio fia quello dove e piu del proprio che di alcuna altra lingua; perche non si puo trovare una lingua che parli ogni cosa per se senza avere accattato da altri; perche, nel conversare gli uomini di varie provincie insieme, prendono de' motti l'uno dell'altro. Aggiugnesi a questo che, qualunque volta viene o nuove dottrine in una citta o nuove arti, e necessario che vi venghino nuovi vocaboli, e nati in quella lingua donde quelle dottrine o quelle arti son venute; ma riducendosi, nel parlare, con i modi, con i casi, con le differenze e con gli accenti, fanno una medesima consonanza con i vocaboli di quella lingua che trovano, e cosi diventano suoi; perche, altrimenti, le lingue parrebbono rappezzate e non tornerebbono bene. E cosi i vocaboli forestieri si convertono in fiorentini, non i fiorentini in forestieri; ne pero diventa altro la nostra lingua che fiorentina. E di qui dipende che le lingue da principio arricchiscono, e diventono piu belle essendo piu copiose; ma e ben vero che col tempo, per la moltitudine di questi nuovi vocaboli, imbastardiscono e diventano un'altra cosa; ma fanno questo in centinaia d'anni; di che altri non s'accorge se non poi che e rovinato in una estrema barbaria. Fa ben piu presto questa mutazione quando egli awiene che una nuova Parlare comune d'ltalia sarebbe d'alcuna 23 Inferno. Canto XXXIV, 61-66. p. 364. Inferno. Canto XX3V, pp. 246-257 and Canto XXV, pp. 258-269. Florentine citizens. "4 These are filled with references to Alighieri, Paradiso trans. Charles Singleton (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 4th edn, 1991), 170. J' 'rispondere a quelli'. See Dialoao. 1976. p. 11, nts. 773b, 4-5, where Sozzi argued that, 'e evidente che la polemica del Machiavelli contro Dante e in funzione della polemica linguistica contro i contemporanei. (Trissino in primo luogo); la quale a sua volta muove da una sollecitudine prevalentemente politica (il primato linguistico di Firenze come coefficiente del suo primato politico). "5 Dante Canto XV, 130-138, p. The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 224 provincia. In questo caso ella fa la sua mutazione in qualunque di questi duoi modi che la lingua si muti, e necessario che quella lingua persa volendo la sia riassunta per il mezzo di buoni scrittori che in quella hanno scritto, come si e fatto e fa della lingua latina e della greed11. populazione venisse ad abitare in un corso d'un'eta d'un uomo. una Ma in necessaria, per non essere la nostra lingua ancora nella sua declinazione, e tornando donde io mi partii, dico che quella lingua si pud chiamare comune in una provincia, dove la maggior parte de' suoi vocaboli con le loro circonstanze non si usino in alcuna lingua propria di quella provincia; e quella lingua si chiamera propria dove la maggior parte de' suoi vocaboli non s'usino in altra lingua di quella provincia. Ma lasciando stare questa parte come non Quando questo ch'io dico sia vero (che e verissimo) io vorrei chiamar Dante, che suo poema; e avendo appresso alcuno scritto in lingua fiorentina, lo domanderei qual cosa e quella che nel suo poema non fussi scritta in fiorentino. E perche e' risponderebbe che molte, tratte di Lombardia, o trovate da se, o tratte dal latino.... mi mostrasse il Ma perche io voglio parlare un poco con risposi, noterd gl'interlocutori d'avanti2*. N. D. In co del ponte presso a quest'altro: Con voi D. 27 per fuggire egli disse ed io Quali traesti tu di Lombardia? Questa: e N. Dante, nascera e Benevento29; s'ascondera vosco30. Quali traesti tu da i Latini? Questi, e molti altri: 'Lingua Latina'. See Discorsi. H.5., p. 308. 'Vero e che non gli e riuscito spegnere in tutto la notizia cose fatte dagli uomini eccellenti di quella: il che e nato per avere quella mantenuta la lingua latina'. See tstorie VII.33, p. 587. 'Insegnava in Milano la latina lingua a' primi giovani di quella citta Cola Montano, uomo litterato e ambizioso'; and VII. 34., p. 589. 'Era Girolamo di eta di ventitre anni: ne fu nel morire meno animoso che nello operare si fusse stato; perche trovandosi ignudo e con il camefice davanti, che aveva il coltello in mano per ferirlo, disse queste parole in lingua latina, perche litterato era: «Mors acerba, fama perpetua, stabit vetus memoria facti»; and VIII.4., p. 593. 'De' forestieri, oltre a' prenominati, messer Antonio da Volterra e uno Stefano sacerdote, il quale nelle case di messer Iacopo alia sua figliuola la lingua latina insegnava, v'intervennono'. For 'Lingua greca', see Machiavelli's Istorie. See VI.6., p. 567. 'Fu ancora Cosimo degli uomini litterati amatore ed esaltatore; e percio condusse in Firenze lo Argilopolo, uomo di nazione greca e in quelli tempi litteratissimo, accio che da quello la gioventu fiorentina la lingua greca e l'altre sue dottrine potesse apprendere. Nutri nelle sue case Marsilio Ficino, secondo padre della platonica filosofia, il quale sommamente amo; e perche potesse piu commodamente seguitare gli studi delle lettere, e per poterlo con piu sua commodita usare, una possessione propinqua alia sua di Careggi gli dono'. 28 Machiavelli used a similar device in his Arte. See Niccolo Machiavelli, Dell'Arte della guerra. in Tutte le opere Storiche e Letterarie di Niccolo Machiavelli A cura di Guido Mazzoni e Mario Casella (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929): 263-374. See p. 268; there Machiavelli wrote 'Ma per fuggire i fastidi d'avere a repetere tante volte quel disse e quello altro soggiunse, si noteranno solamente i nomi di chi parli, sanza replicarne altro'. Is this a further possible evidence of Machiavelli's authorship of the Dialogo? 29 Purgatorio. Ill, 128, p. 30. 30 Paradiso. XXII, 115, p. 252. This line reads 'con voi nasceva e s'ascondeva vosco' in Dante. delle The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 225 significare per verba31. Quali trovasti da te? Questi: S'io m'intuassi come tu ti immii32. Li quali vocaboli, mescolati tutti con li toscani, fanno una terza lingua. Sta bene. Ma dimmi: in questa tua opera come vi sono di questi vocaboli Transumanar N. D. N. forestieri o trovati da te o latini? o prime due Cantiche ve ne sono pochi, ma nell'ultima assai, massime perche le dottrine varie di che io ragiono mi costringono a pigliare vocaboli atti a poterle esprimere; e non si potendo se non con termini latini, io gli usavo, ma li deducevo in modo, con le desinenze, ch'io gli facevo diventare simili a la lingua del resto de l'opera. N. Che lingua e quella dell'opera? D. Nelle dedotti da i latini, D. Curiale. N. Che vuol dir curiale? D. Vuol dire per essere particulari N. Tu dirai le morsel D. Vuol dire lingua parlata da gl'uomini di corte del Papa, del Duca i quali, uomini litterati, parlono meglio che non si parla nelle terre una d'ltalia33. bugie. Dimmi un poco: che vuol dire in quella lingua curiale, mori. N. In fiorentino che vuol dire? strignere uno con i denti. Quando tu di' ne' tuoi versi: E quando il dente longobardo morse™, che vuol dire quel morsel Punse, offese e assalto: che e una translazione dedotta da quel mordere che D. Vuol dire N. D. dicono i Fiorentini. N. D. N. D. N. 31 ,2 33 Adunque parli tu in fiorentino e non cortigiano. Egli e vero in maggior parte; pure io mi riguardo di non usare certi vocaboli nostri proprii. Come te ne riguardi? Quando tu di': Forte spingava con ambe le piote35, questo spingere che vuol dire? In Firenze s'usa dire, quando una bestia trae de' calci: el la spinga una coppia di calci; e perche io volsi mostrare come colui traeva de' calci, dissi spingeva. Dimmi: tu di' ancora volendo dire le gambe, e quello che piangeva con le zancheM\ perche lo di' tu? Paradiso. I, 70, p. 6. Paradiso. EX, 81, p. 100. In Dante, this line reads 's'io m'intuassi, come tu t'inmii'. De Vulgari, 1981. I.XVI., p. 80. 'Itque, adepti quod querebamus, dicimus illustre, curiale vulgare in Latio, quod latie civitatis est et nullius ponderantur et comparantur'. omnis esse videtur, et omnia Latinorum mensurantur et Paradiso. VI, 94, p. 64. 35 Inferno. XIX, 120. p. 200. Dante wrote 'ambo' rather than 'ambe'. 36 Infemo. XIX, 45, p. 194. Dante wrote 'di quel che si piangeva con la zanca'. 34 quo cardinale, aulicum et municipalia vulargia The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 226 quelle aste sopra le quali vanno gli perche allora e' l'usano per gambe, e io volendo D. Perche in Firenze si chiamono zanche N. spiritelli per Santo Giovanni, e significare gambe dissi zanche. Per mia fe' tu ti guardi assai bene dai vocaboli fiorentini! Ma dimini, piii la, quando tu di': 37 Nan prendete, morta/i, i voti a ciancie perche di' tu ciancie come i Fiorentini e non zanze come i Lombardi, avendo detto vosco e co del pontel Non dissi zanze per non usare un vocabolo barbaro come quello; ma dissi co vosco, si perche non sono vocaboli si barbari, si perche in una opera grande lecito usare qualche vocabolo esterno; come fe' Virgilio quando disse: , D. N. Sta D. No. Troia gaza per bene; ma e e undas38. fu cgli per qucsto chc Virgilio non scrivesse in latino? detto co e vosco, non hai lasciata la tua lingua. Ma disputa vana, perche nella tua opera tu medesimo in piu luoghi confessi di parlare toscano e fiorentino. Non di' tu di uno che ti senti parlare nell'Inferno: Ed ei ch 'intese la parola tosca?39 e altrove, in bocca di Farinata, parlando egli teco: La tua loquela ti fa manifesto di quella dolce patria natio alia quale forse fui troppo molesto?40 N. E cosi tu ancora, per aver noi facciamo D. Gli e vero N. Perche di' libri in D. una ch'io dico tutto cotesto. dunque di inano e con Morgante41. Leggi Nel non parlar fiorentino? Ma io ti voglio convincere leggiamo questa tua opera e il il riscontro; e pero su. mezzo co i del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, che la diritta via era smarrita42. N. E' basta. D. Dove? Leggi N. Dove tu vuoi. D. Ecco: un poco ora Leggi costi il Morgante. a caso. Non chi comincia ha meritato, e scritto nel tuo santo Vangel benigno Padre42. N. Or ben che differenza D. Poca. N. Non mi 7 Paradiso. V, 64, p. ce ne e da quella tua lingua a questa? par veruna. 52. There, Dante wrote, 'Non prendan li mortali il voto a ciancia'. Virgil, The Aeneid of Virgil (Books I-VI) ed. R.D. Williams (Glasgow: MacMillan, 1972), Book I, 119, p. 4. The whole line reads 'arma virum tabulaque et Troia gaza per undas'. 39 Inferno. XXHI, 76, p. 238. Dante wrote 'E un che 'ntese la parola tosca'. 40 Inferno. X, 25-27, p. 100. Dante wrote 'nobil patria'. 41 Luigi Pulci, Morgante e Lettere A cura di Domenico de Robertis (Firenze: Sansoni, n.d.). 42 Inferno. I, 1-3, p. 2. 43 Morgante. 656, XIV. "'8 The D. Qui e pur non so N. Che cosa? D. Quel chi N. Tu farai che. e troppo a ridirti: 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 227 fiorentino. o non di' tu: qual tnodo quaggiu, ma fiorentino...?44 Egli e il vero e io ho il torto. Dante mio, io voglio che tu t'emendi, e che tu consideri meglio il parlar fiorentino e la tua opera, e vedrai che se alcuno s'ara da vergognare, sara piu tosto Firenze che tu; perche se considererai bene a quel che tu hai detto, tu vedrai come ne' tuoi versi non hai fuggito il goffo, come e quello: Poi cipartimmo, e n'andavamo introcque45; non hai fuggito il porco, come quello: Che merda fa di quel che si trangugia46; non hai fuggito l'osceno, come e: Io non so chi tu sia, ne per venuto sei D. N. Le mani alzd con ambedue le fiche47; fuggito questo, che disonora tutta l'opera tua, tu non puoi aver fuggito patrii che non s'usano altrove che in que 11a, perche 1'arte non puo mai in tutto repugnare alia natura. Oltre di questo io voglio che tu consideri come le lingue non possono esser semplici, ma conviene che sieno miste con l'altre lingue. Ma quella lingua si chiama d'una patria, la quale convertisce i vocaboli ch'ella ha accattati da altri nell'uso suo, ed e si potente, che i vocaboli accattati non la disordinano, ma ella disordina loro; perche quello ch'ella reca da altri lo tira a se in modo, che par suo. E gli uomini che scrivono in quella lingua come amorevoli di essa debbono far quello ch'hai fatto tu, ma non dir quello ch'hai detto tu; perche se tu hai accattato da' Latini e da' forestieri assai vocaboli, se tu n'hai fatti de' nuovi, hai fatto molto bene; ma tu hai ben fatto male a dire che per questo ella sia diventata un'altra lingua. Dice Orazio: e non avendo infiniti vocaboli ... quum lingua Catonis et Enni sermonem patrium ditaverit48; quelli come li primi che cominciorno ad arricchire la lingua latina. I Romani ne gli eserciti loro non avevono piu che due legioni di Romani, quali erano circa dodicimila persone, e di poi vi avevano ventimila dell'altre nazioni; nondimeno, perche quelli erano con li loro capi il nervo de I'esercito49, perche militavono tutti sotto l'ordine e disciplina e 44 lauda Inferno, XXXIII, 10, fiorentino'. 45 p. 348. Dante wrote, 'Io non so chi tu se' ne per che modo/ venuto se' qua giu; ma See Niccolo Machiavelli, the "Dialogue concerning our language" in, The Literary Works of Machiavelli Hale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), 185, n. 1, where John Hale noted that trans. John R. 'Machiavelli is confusing two lines, one from Inferno. XXVI. 13, 'Then we set out...' and the other Infemo. XX. 130,'... and we went on our way'. The translations are Hale's. 46 47 48 Inferno. XXVm, 27, p. 294. Infemo. XXV, 2, p. 258. from Horace, Satires. Epistles and Ars poetica trans. H. Rushton Fairclough (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 6lh edn., 1947). See Ars poetica. 454, 56-57. 'Cum lingua Catonis et Enni sermonem patriam ditaverit'. 49 'il nervo dell'esercito'. This phrase in the Dialogo is mirrored in Machiavelli's II Principe, the Discorsi and the Arte della guerra. See II Principe, p. 46 '...et oltre a questo, per potere tenere la plebe pasciuta, e The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 228 quelli eserciti il nome, l'autorita e dignita romana50. E tu che hai messo legioni di vocaboli fiorentini, e usi i casi, i tempi e i modi e ie desinenze fiorentine, vuoi che li vocaboli avventizii faccino mutar la lingua? E se tu la chiamassi o comune d'ltalia o cortigiana perche in quella si usassino tutti li verbi che s'usano in Firenze, ti rispondo che, se si sono usati li medesimi verbi, non s'usano i medesimi termini, perche si variono tanto con la pronunzia che diventono un'altra cosa. Perche tu sai che i forestieri o e' pervertano il c in z, come di sopra si disse di cianciare e zanzare, o eglino aggiungano le lettere, come verra, vegnira; o e' ne lievano, come poltrone e poltron; talmente che quegli vocaboli che son simili a' nostri, gli storpiano in modo che gli fanno diventare un'altra cosa. E se tu mi allegassi il parlar curiale, ti rispondo, se tu parli delle corti di Milano o di Napoli, che tutte tengono del luogo della patria loro, e quelli hanno piu di buono che piii s'accostano al toscano e piu l'imitano; e se tu vuoi ch'e' sia migliore l'imitatore che l'imitato, tu vuoi quello che il piu delle volte non e. Ma se tu parli della corte di Roma, tu parli d'un luogo dove si parla di tanti modi di quante nazioni vi sono, ne se li puo dare, in modo alcuno, regola. Di poi io mi maraviglio di te, che tu voglia, dove non si fa cosa alcuna laudabile o buona, che vi si faccia questa: perche dove sono i costumi perversi conviene che il parlare sia perverso e abbia in se romana, teneano ne' tuoi scritti venti perdita del pubblico, hanno sempre in comune per uno anno da potere dare loro da lavorare in quelli esercizii, che sieno el nervo e la vita di quella citta, e delle industrie de' quali la plebe pasca'; the Discorsi. It. 10, p. 318. 'Dico pertanto non l'oro, come grida la commune opinione, essere il nervo della guerra, ma i buoni soldati; perche l'oro non e sufficiente a trovare i buoni soldati, ma i buoni soldati sono bene sufficienti a trovare l'oro'; and 11.18, p. 341. '...ma il fondamento e il nervo dello esercito, e quello che si debbe piu stimare, debbano essere le fanterie'. Also see the Arte. I., p. 272, 'Dove ancora da' re deono esser temuti quegli che prendono per loro arte la guerra, perche il nervo degli eserciti, sanza alcun dubbio, sono le fanterie'; also in Arte I., p. 280. 'Perche era costume che qualunque di loro avesse due legioni d'uomini romani, le quali erano il nervo degli eserciti loro'; and in the same treatise, n, p. 303; 'perche il nervo e la importanza dello esercito e la fanteria; l'altra, perche questa parte di milizia e meno corrotta che quella de' fanti; perche, s'ella non e piu forte dell'antica, ell'e al pari'. Some commentators seize on the discrepancy between the descriptions of the Roman military in the Arte and the Dialogo as evidence against Machiavelli's authorship of the latter. There appears to be an inconsistency between these two works, but there are also inconsistencies between Machiavelli's Discorsi and his Arte. The former relied on Livy's calculations to describe the numbers of troops in Roman legions, while the latter relied, primarily, on Polybius for such numbers. By the same token, the Dialogo appears to have relied on Livy for its numbers relating to the makeup of Rome's legions. For example, see Disco rsi. II. 16., p. 330, where Machiavelli follows Livy's example, without providing a number of troops. 'E di questa opinione e Tito Livio, perche in ogni parte fa gli eserciti pari, di ordine, di virtu, d'ostinazione e di numero; solo vi fa differenza, che i capi dello esercito romano furono piu virtuosi che quelli dello esercito latino'. See Livy's Ab urbe condita. VHI. vi. 14-16, and XXXV. xx and xli, where Livy uses '20,000' troops, the same number used by the author of the Dialogo. The passage in the Arte, relies on Polybius, see Book HI, 306 in the former. 'Voi avete a intendere come in uno esercito romano ordinario, il quale chiamavano esercito consolare, non erano piu che due legioni di cittadini romani, che erano secento cavagli e circa undicimila fanti. Avevano di poi altrettanti fanti e cavagli, che erano loro mandati dagli amici e confederati loro;[...] Ne mai permettevano che questi fanti ausiliari passassero il numero de'fanti delle legioni loro[. .] Con questo esercito, che era di ventiduemila fanti e circa dumila cavagli utili, faceva uno consolo ogni fazione e andava a ogni impresa'. For an interesting discussion of these 'inconsistencies', see Hans Baron, "Machiavelli on the Eve of the Discourses'. The Date and Place of the Dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua," Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 23 (1961): 449-76,454 and note 1; 455 and note I. Regarding the use of Tautorita...romana' in the Dialogo - this also may be reflected in the Discorsi. II.18., p. 340. See the title of that discourse which links Roman authority with their military organization. 'Come per / 'autorita de ' Romani e per lo esemplo della antica milizia si debbe stimare piu le fanterie che i sanza . cavagli'. The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 229 quello effeminato lascivo che hanno coloro che lo parlono. Ma quello che inganna molti che hanno scritto essendo stati celebrati e letti stati imparati da molti forestieri e osservati da loro, tal che di proprii nostri son diventati comuni. E se tu vuoi conoscer questo, arrecati innanzi un libro composto da quelli forestieri che hanno scritto dopo voi, e vedrai quanti vocaboli egli usano de' vostri, e come e' cercano d'imitarvi. E per aver riprova di questo, fa lor leggere libri composti dagli uomini loro avanti che nasceste voi, e si vedra che in quelli non fia ne vocabolo ne termine: e cosi apparira che la lingua in che essi oggi scrivano, e la vostra, e, per consequenza, vostra; e la vostra non e comune con la loro. La qual lingua ancora che con mille sudori cerchino d'imitare, nondimeno, se leggerai attentamente i loro scritti, vedrai in mille luoghi essere da loro male e perversamente usata, perche gli e impossibile che l'arte possa piu che la natura. circa i vocaboli comuni e che, tu e gli altri in varii luoghi, molti vocaboli nostri sono dignita della tua lingua patria: scrivano, se prendano alcuno soggetto nuovo dove non abbino esemplo di vocaboli imparati da voi, di necessita conviene ch'e' ricorrino in Toscana; o vero, s'e' prendano vocaboli loro, gli spianino e allarghino all'uso toscano, che altrimenti ne loro ne altri gli approverebbono. E perche e' dicano che tutte le lingue patrie son brutte s'elle non hanno del misto, di modo che veruna sarebbe brutta, ma dico ancora che quella che ha di esser mista men bisogno e piu laudabile, e senza dubbio ne ha men bisogno la Considera ancora un'altra cosa se tu vuoi vedere la che i forestieri che fiorentina. Dico proprii patrii ancora come non sono si scrivano molte belle. Di questa sorte cose sono che senza scrivere i motti le commedie; perche ancora e i termini che il fine d'una commedia sia proporre uno specchio d'una vita privata, nondimeno il suo modo del farlo e con certa urbanita e termini che muovino riso, accio che gli uomini, correndo a quella delettazione, gustino poi l'esemplo utile che vi e sotto51. E percio le persone con gravi la trattano; perche non pud esser gravita in un servo fraudolente, in un vecchio deriso, in un giovane impazzato d'amore, in una puttana lusinghiera, in un parasito goloso; ma ben ne risulta di questa composizione d'uomini effetti gravi e utili alia vita nostra. Ma perche le cose sono trattate ridiculamente, conviene usare termini e motti che faccino questi effetti; i quali termini, se non son proprii e patrii, dove sieno soli interi e noti, non muovono ne posson muovere. Donde nasce che uno che non sia toscano non fara mai questa parte bene, perche se vorra dire i motti de la patria sua fara una veste rattoppata, facendo una composizione mezza toscana e mezza forestiera; e qui si conoscerebbe che lingua egli avessi imparata, s'ella fusse comune o propria. Ma se non gli vorra usare, non sappiendo quelli di Toscana, fara una cosa manca e che non ara la perfezione sua. E a provare questo io voglio che tu legga chi difficilmente possano essere persone 51 might suggest that there is a similarity between this passage in the Dialogo and one of Machiavelli's plays. See Niceolo Machiavelli, Clizia A cura di Guido Davico Bonino (Torino: Einaudi. 1977). 5. 'Sono trovate le commedie, per giovare e per dilettare alii spettatori. Giova veramente assai a qualunque uomo, e massimamente a' giovanetti, cognescere la avarizia d'uno vechio, il furore d'uno innamorato, l'inganni d'uno servo, la gola d'uno parassito, la miseria d'uno povero, l'ambizione d'uno ricco, le lusinghe d'una meretrice, la poca fede di tutti gli uomini. De'quali essempli le comedie sono piene, e possonsi tutte queste cose con onesta grandissima rappresentare. Ma, volendo dilettare, e necesario muovere gli spettatori a riso: il che non si puo fare mantenendo il parlare grave e severo, perche le parole, che fanno ridere, sono o sciocche, o iniunose, o amorose: e necessario, pertanto, rappresentare persone sciocche, malediche, o innamorate: e percio quelle comedie, che sono piene di queste tre qualita di parole, sono piene di risa; quelle che ne mancano, non truovano chi con il ridere la accompagni'. One The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 230 52 degli Ariosti di Ferrara ; e vedrai una gentil composizione e uno stilo ornato e ordinato; vedrai un nodo bene accomodato e meglio sciolto; ma la vedrai priva di quei sali che ricerca una commedia tale, non per altra cagione che per la detta, perche i motti ferraresi non gli piacevano e i fiorentini non sapeva, talmente che gli lascio stare. Usonne uno comune, e credo ancora fatto comune per via di Firenze, dicendo che un dottore de la berretta lunga pagherebbe una sua dama di doppioni. Usonne uno proprio, per il quale si vede quanto sta male mescolare il ferrarese con il toscano; che dicendo una di non voler parlare dove fussino orecchie che l'udissino, le fa rispondere che non parlassino dove fossero i bigonzonr, e un gusto purgato sa quanto nel leggere e nell'udire dir bigonzoni e offeso. E vedesi facilmente e in questo e in molti altri luoghi con quanta difficulty egli mantiene il decoro di quella lingua ch'egli ha accattata. una commedia fatta da uno • • * quelle che non si possono scriver bene proprie e particolari di quella lingua che e piu in prezzo; e volendolo proprii conviene andare alia fonte donde quella lingua ha auto origine, altrimenti si fa una composizione dove l'una parte non corrisponde a l'altra. E che l'importanza di questa lingua nella quale e tu, Dante, scrivesti, e gli altri che vennono e prima e poi di te hanno scritto, sia derivata da Firenze, lo dimostra esser voi stati fiorentini, e nati in una patria che parlava in modo che si poteva, meglio che alcuna altra accomodare a scrivere in versi e in prosa. A che non si potevano accomodare gli altri parlari d'ltalia. Perche ciascuno sa come i Provenzali cominciarono a scrivere in versi; di Provenza ne venne quest'uso in Sicilia e, di Sicilia, in Italia; e, intra le provincie d'ltalia, in Toscana; e di tutta Toscana, in Firenze, non per altro che per esser la lingua piu atta. Perche non per commodita di sito, ne per ingegno, ne per alcuna altra particulare occasione merito Firenze esser la prima, e procreare questi scrittori, se non per la lingua commoda a prendere simile disciplina; il che non era nell'altre citta. E che sia vero, si vede in questi tempi assai Ferraresi, Napoletani, Vicentini e Viniziani53, che scrivono bene e hanno ingegni attissimi alio scrivere; il che non potevano far prima che tu, il Petrarca e il Boccaccio avessi scritto. Perche, a volere ch'e' venissino a questo grado, disaiutandoli la lingua patria era necessario ch'e' fussi prima alcuno il quale con lo esemplo suo insegnassi com'egli avessino a dimenticare quella lor naturale barbaria, nella quale la patria lingua li sommergeva. Pertanto io concludo che molte senza intendere le cose sono cose Concludesi, pertanto che non c'e lingua che si possa chiamare o comune d'ltalia o curiale, perche tutte quelle che si potessino chiamare cosi, hanno il fondamento loro da gli scrittori fiorentini e dalla lingua fiorentina, alia quale in ogni defetto come a vero fonte e fondamento loro e necessario che ricorrino; e non volendo esser veri pertinaci hanno a confessarla fiorentina [ ] Udito che Dante ebbe queste cose, 5" le confesso vere, e si parti; e io mi restai tutto Dialogo is referring to Lodovico Ariosto's poem Orlando furioso. circulated in manuscript form in 1515 and published in 1516,1521 and 1532. The pressure to 'Tuscanize' literary works was so great that Ariosto re-wrote his 1532 version of the Furioso to conform to Tuscan Italian. See John Hale, A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance (London: Thames and Hudson, 1981): 34-35 for a brief history of Ariosto's career. 53 It is interesting that the author of the Dialogo should include Venice here, while leaving it out earlier. The author of the The 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 231 parendomi di averlo sgannato54. Non so gia s'io mi sgannerd coloro che sono si conoscitori de' beneficii ch'egli hanno auti da la nostra patria, che e' vogliono accomunare con essa lei nella lingua Milano, Vinegia e Romagna, e tutte le bestemmie di contento poco Lombardia. II. Bertelli's 'Nota al testo': A Comment Bertelli concluded his edition of the the arguments Dialogo with a brief 'nota'. There he summarised for Machiavelli's authorship of the Dialogo. These included references to scholarship cited in previous Chapters, such as Pio Rajna's and Hans Baron's53. Interestingly, Bertelli concluded that Machiavelli authored the text and that 'si ha in tal modo dello un arco cronologico possibile: il 1513-1518, entro le quali fissare la composizione scritto'56. As the introduction to this dubious about Machiavelli's Dialogo same was Chapter pointed out, in 1976, Bertelli became authorship, where in 1969, at the time his edition of the published, he had obviously accepted it. This inconsistency operates in the direction to that of authored the text, to Grayson who also went from believing that Machiavelli doubting his authorship. Carlo Dionisotti, another eminent Italian scholar, operated in the opposite direction authorship, to supporting the the 54 case - for it. Such moving from doubts about Machiavelli's are the problems associated with studying Dialogo51. The Prince. 1997. interesting introduction, xxii-xxiii. 'At the end [of the Dialogo] he Dante and promises to do the same to all who show insufficient reverence to Florence. Sgannare appears to be a pun. Ingannare means "to deceive". Sgannare is a rare, contrived way to say "un-deceive". That is, Machiavelli claims to have set Dante straight. However, the very common word scannare means to kill by bleeding to death. Even Machiavelli's jokes tell us that he plays for keeps'. 55 Pio Rajna, "La Data del 'Dialogo int. alia lingua' di N. Machiavelli," Rendiconti dell R. Accad. dei Lincei. Classe Scienze Morali. Memorie, serie V. II (1893): 203-222. Hans Baron in Hans Baron, "Machiavelli on the Eve of the Discourses: The Date and Place of the Dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua," Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 23 (1961): 449-76. 56 See Bertelli's 'Nota al testo' in Dialogo. 1969. 377. 57 Cecil Grayson, went from accepting Machiavelli's authorship in "Lorenzo, Machiavelli and the Italian Language," Italian Studies, ed. E.F. Jacob (London: Faber and Faber, 1960): 410-432; to rejecting it in "Machiavelli and Dante," 361-384; and Carlo Dionisotti, Machiavellerie (Tonno: G. Einaudi, 1980): 267claims to See Codevilla's have sgannato The This Chapter did not set out to prove impossible given the holes in the Dialogo's notes, Machiavelli's authorship provenance - Dialogo made the same up part - for that is but to show, with extensive the similarities between the Dialogo and works which Machiavelli. By how 'Dialogo' with Extended Notes 232 token, it is not possible to conclude with are any of Machiavelli's plan for Italian unification, but definitely by certainty that the one may now ask, might it fit in? 363. Also see Carlo Dionisotti, "Machiavelli, Man of Letters," Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993): 17-51. eds. Albert Russell Ascoli and Victoria Kahn Plate 12: Discorso o Nazionale di Firenze dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua. Manoscritto E.B. 15 10 deila Biblioteca (11 pp., da c. 133r a 138r). Abbreviated as Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 1 Mi^ w wfn"* uJ. ™Ji*$ «£ »— i T — 'k u WA."^" ^ »*■«*» w W X ► v*9Lfr* '• *Tf *<J -r — a —-r ■> ■ * wfte Uw«i«fcf nAlcJut ^renuinc , come f nt#wj "irf ' /? rtft«"/' **• >** r^'w ^"****?■ Mi* i £w»>fitfiW!>tW)«e»w is. «j * f'» i *f an lomWvVa / ^Mbi'fae,, fejcwuj, mnw «/ Xflmo, J« dajiune. 1i lebt |»vK Jit armc btnj osnnivufc «' uA*«_, «j«. ^awW-i^n»o<8a_ L»w_o naff«t vmojatc. %JX |»»aAa ^Mfh z ^yw XtVa^li , ft UBcAtotf tiff hnh^ <t l a w* VIAVM |«*W» in(JnwntiM tfjilw** tfi <juJt valuine ,tk.m fo*V tnh&imn*- V«A»*» alwwj <k a ciifcuvia Info* fnotWii- |w*«* nu^tAvie «A«*6c. mfonrV o«X / «fi fan* <X i^fu Uioo ti» tiwil&fu^W <k jvurib' cftt W>??tjw*«»«a utyione |i«L' 1 too , 1 tun u '6»Wc«n^--^rV«ie;jjr' ,sfkJJnBa. 4m1U |««Wii v in(X« if tniht^ j*wW- W* »n >» uoX ^w»Wt»*o «i ,ef X?o»u> i'wtfe»t'f>i Y^& it fude tiohle UjYnj'cavt jfo Uu u M r*° fa**' U^»*1w«la oJ^muW k Is. • wWtto ^ki j>$* tti|u|»*U V&*./ j; " . Ui/S)/ive>H0i / a'opViftita lUtg tfikom l'e»n>u, {Si'J&Uu inu fiiilh «( fji itoama jitoi10 ,r£ t'bflh ancotu li*iduA ^ Hv^rf- "b eef A JlXjfalteo ^ Uwi |n{ jfc, aJI^ || fXtof t st/ ./ftiuane 5^ fiftjjU, tfc iifc /« \yyk(ttw* Jtt^/QL jek &«a^<« "wjarJ:tuAiw w»k^ «ji^/X'i|iJi^»>>t'«, fn f&L. ^ W ttolu~. dlumt «&/tS^^wWuJp. W jtotto XJ 4R * ' " • V ^ — tXh*~ WW**- 4/*"** ^ Plate 13: Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 2 Plate 14: Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 3 i/- SSSS Plate 15:Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 4 «■ ^ Plate 16: Ricci/Machiavelli - ; S&?dbj&£ :i / ' '-- --:>& fe Apograph, 5 Plate 17: Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 6 Plate 18: Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 7 Plate 19: Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 8 Plate 20: Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 9 Plate 21: Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 10 > • ie/&* ^f- k*?f y&stif * *C2> a. /I I i, £z \*3x.c td* ^-y-- t<rf>ViV#y ^ y» c*/i'- 6t U ^r^u* "/« <r J*1 « ■ u3c' &r*K£~*r -— /^^Xvt i* / Li/ 4 A y^-Cci/ 4 A/ uz/rL-^f£^di ,^y -/j a cL/f** /£/ire* , V ^ /-v /*-•>— - * ' / £ 4^" b;jt**J 'ffy'tfchu» $/lA£Jt-+ jfa~)r-IL<r JL^J ^ '"' 4 <'>'-% l<*- ;' "HJ/ \» ■ •*•- .^j,, {. * *"V • ' i — - '~ a ^C C>-k '' - i"**! Plate 22: Ricci/Machiavelli Apograph, 11 [MWB ftfftftft*-' mm- ft.-'' •• * ' ■ ■ ' . ■ 'oA *! -? ^ ^ ,r '■,.■(« *■ ■ : ' " * ^ *. / o'lWtAr • -.A. "*.) ~ ■ •,- ./ v. yv - * •'. - r?; 4 4 /I . > t. ft' /ft" ».At ' - r- 4- /-» -£. ft.ft—- V V'* / •Tfejiif /.*. /.'. \ j - c^'rr . .... .t-.-/*"•.• " .- ; .•.-r_.. " ft:. *■■', • . $' ;. V - ,. i'.( - <;-vV,x: & Cs- t*-*^S?Ct'£:r.' V * .... /,■'./ h'p'ffnr .y'&i V •. >v■-?/•>» ■-' ' - - ft7 .: ■6 .-■.-V ' ;' - A-; yVA --^ '*<>) ' ... •; ; ■ ..: ,!j ., ":I ftftftftftftft -fty.ft .-.■ I '■ :' it? ft *■ '■* -ft ?:■ .-i' -V ft- .>. r ' TV ■ '* f '*• ' A" •"••"• 'ft;-. ■hi &_ ' ■ i-.PWf"''-~ -'-V". ft:/-. ; : Vv^'-:' < ■ . • '•"• - c?' ■''. -•".: ••i.--.'- :s "A A * < ": V,. 5V..^ "-i.' -;..._■■. ' -'-A 90,A'f ^ ■ , ■: • ■ ■,t'y < ;■'. ■ , Ci^ rt'-7 i ■n 'KiCi ' V .^ V?.-;. •* \ " ft" A.:' - £ h. jfr.-fti ' <.-v ft. ?'!*•.1" v4>" ft-'' ;..' ' A f ^ ' ^ ftr}?" " "" •.■ •''rft -ft 'ft ftftfti•?ftftft'ft ' .«Xy i e<t ^ <>^v.*.■ /• ■ • .• . . ** ^ i'-.v.• • .\; /. V,1 ' _ft •/?.;.< '....ft. -,/ft r; .ft;. ., ^.ftftftftv W' ' \ !- • .-V •<-.-'1, k • < ft'vftft •>••• <J,^£ -fC;jAA ■ . . ' • '^'V . V>.\' frr: " ■ , ■■■■■• ":Ssr.s-sr. ' '■ [ ■/ r' •*' y" 'A'. ■ ■ . •- ■ . ' ;i V'4;' ;-•>••: ■ . • .'.'; «*": ' • m §:.■ ' >-.;v -. ^ai jr ;• . ' ii^'.'ini • i i niTi i.nVi ii -• ,ri-'^,h' „-v ■ • ■ .*v= Plate 23: Discorso di Nic". Machiavelli nel quale - •: V.-V.^> f si tratta [delta lingua/. Manoscritto Miscell. Borghini III, Filze Rinuccini 22,9 pp, da c. lr a c. 5r. Abbreviated as Borghini Fragment, 1 Plate 24: Borghini Fragment, 2 Plate 25: Borghini Fragment, 3 Plate 26: Borghini Fragment, 4 ••* "*"■ ^ « >&&■:£', ; a-:'' '^S|; * -:/r I'/* - ?* >.*»■* " '.*.5*«« **&*+*. ('«^ "'.v •-»-Sr , f." . f •"i-•■:■-. -•"*•'• "t *t* j ! --* ♦ ?*-*£, *..<, -~,' ;<£•"»<••*«. / /•>. .-c \ 6, Vf,> .-i-^ £oT/i-|^ /e 7 .r.' > /■■ =''/-» '■ • r.% >! .. 4 r „ , >;. - ^ VvVr: " v:-,/.' uvtv ^ ^ ,-ti ' /-"i'/v> '^---.v..... ,/ '•«>• A'~; " v, . .fjj, -; ? w-T. • > 7 y-y V *:-4r -...,,y;; f -'•• . -y. ."• J(7 .&' K ' v . '•' •'•' :-• «* . ^ . v • ^ .. Boi-ghini Fragment, 5 i >- <V;-V "*'i" '•• ' -• •V^rv. ./" /*' -;>4 *V ^-*3- - y-■¥?%*? ;p - > • ""':7 v«'- .'-1' /•: /..•/• ;-?7V f •* Plate 27: i i'. >V" T ' -7 v%- /■•Wt f'-/•_. -/''-Si- j-,.f /I A-.'-i - .. ..." - -v. /• -J•''••% . <•'/vf; >•• '• 'S "• '^-V • . v^, ,/;'. . „ '.* // ... / "tt .>7» .•'•X'- .». " ■ ill '-•'<o* •• '. «. '"-V k .; fy7;* ^v--, •r .ir*/> "• :* -7 >. ^ •" j' £ ✓ <r ; 'C* ! / ' - •'•'« ,'.;'A.y') . a;- ■V^Sj r /.'■ A?t J) *' f.y; t: '/f.rJr v 5 ^ "a5v . • $.;■■*/.■<: ;4^ '■-> *" ■ < i ''f-"-iT "'/■ • - ' -*r ■> -;Mc .x_ i-y^:. ./. r/"W;- -'V 'r"< -A- - ^ ri **•;•->■ ifi" i ; j?A a . >£?'%■*■ -"^<•.*£-.).'//£.">-i •'■>••"' VAHV,;»! ^ .*^A.-- -•«•«->/* s... / -y^ A '~£V** /^■ /f /* y/"r^prit^ *\&*t&$£ *** ■ ~" //■' • • y:C xjy Hi r<^/L / » w*. y 'jr-> -t. JV -•i/iuo^. *<S.\, *v «Aw<nr - ■" ' . 'ii>f .., ^ w'A-' '7 .;A.t-. ■A°- A-Au r .Qrs:' py*: ... .' } r * -* " O. y ' / „ •'"* C-'XO~^. — ■ J ,/t-r . ^ V' V' : y/f<uys Plate 28: ' "c - " 7^' ^ " '■■«£•« /i>:v • H-.SfSr-. f!**>'*&< -*1.. *p,-f ' ''' 'c- U - •■ " -. ' , *' /» /. ./ -"'-o - *i /ir :. . * /' ■*' •c-'- • A-.r'i **%•/' '"'J« ^ •<: .'•„<,/? J *i' . "* , A ' , f —•' "'A-?-. ^/'ov ^ '/I . ■ ? 't , . A ' " /"I'V/y' ' •' v • **•*•' ?»: C&S^jji Sr ■SrxU^.^j.z'u-i ftCciArf* y ( - ' ■>/■"■>%' -vi "*K'pA'o JL- y »/(*-*.: ^-fvi ' ,A> J ft ^ ' . • ^ n ;^..AA /?■!,<*' X4.V-.+ f/y.^vV1 "-» ' <£/ f j, -i ,'l V".^ <*'Kv«V ,7^'V," £r/\-j.'._(>iyv^.' " n '. • A;*-. *).,'£ ■ \ ^ ; A ^v " -' ' c. - r^*. *-/*'. .-•*' - *•' 4,yvv- »<•«< ,■> ■«'•,* /A . -< -^''''vv ^ T\ , tvf -4 s * ■-■ < .' ' "", -% . / * c,>y-^ ^ S*"i ,C,V „ ,, •i-c n- <- •-> '? £ ciij&stjz, . &>&*«'-.* , £"2*'.A>,:r/Vj M fitfj-,Sr**j' "'_•* 3 . '*•**"-> ^ - -'? • . .*$:£'«^.,'*'jCT*9?*' arc*.*tv • "-" t>.in}ra -*-»' c-,(/>-» (,'.-.,if ,J " 3,< *-*& -y~\ 'VftttsAa,.^ y"~iS ..'/".vr-1 ' / /j? <- •'•A" ' • "7 - f'cj'XsK.y opfn'*;+** ' • ■ ''; -»V t"-;V *"•/** /«-~.V*» •'•'• , • t*'*>:£SA, > ' ' .'*}'/& V' " ''Vi^'t <o*-tt}U.t'* /SS.r ■>,/>-<«. •-■?•'■ A- /f^ 1 ^/V. " • Caiiest u r ^ ^ s^.S?< e-yA.Sn.Uf'*- .// A* - - .-.v.-^ srs,; ■/ V>. .* » r \ci :A\. € *vX fs*:<!*"* *' " f/«A^.j-A*:& ' '-v,.;^. ;• Boi-ghini Fragment, 6 , ' ... ; ' uy .'*./*■ 8 .itiVij'. •' A'f/ -it '*/■'■* ■,'~R; ^3 V- *#*v n a»V .-J* ■ -fy+A pj}?i ■i-A-&?■£..**t *'"'■• . $ <"< a"»i- s:'- -W • r.f >*4-J i.A>. «• _-ifrv. ** .?"'"**! ;V '' 4*. ?&'*••:■ -rv'r.: <MV;«-*/£>»-.»,<■'..•> v>-. }.*' ••>«£ ,T C'V1»AJ. .»> - ',*>;«.* e . fy/rwi., .'. #j/ - v-i / *.«»A - ^ ' V * - '^r< / V.„ I-• (-$*?* £•/*'. ■ *§ '/V*??*''**'' * aa/I ' f» '. /**/*«. ' % %w' ** 4t *,??•■ £~^S -v » ■ ^ r J* r " ' ✓"* r' / J , • "- :v (C - " /"x £i .'■ * , :> ,-y^Z C'U <y*i ijjF*'* *5* •• c'* •"•' >• J '. -"?■ '* ^/\{- , ' V,v:v, X 'ff;?'* ■ ^2ag-> • . . •• v i Plate 29: *Ai **/•' * *r" T'j '•£ " '«* -yf'.' -r*'rt.'.~ >fj/" A<, <:**• f>*'~x< v* >•<$> > fc. t>>r, m^v;w r V>«Mni ^ ■••.' « i, *J*/-*v :V:«'^:- „ J*-}K-KxJt; . V^v'V ."O 'v A«^1'^1(;A(. . **• «v *■» ,v ^~ J? "* . i. frriv- fri* "■* ^ - ITS - »,„ v • • Borghini Fragment, 7 A '** ."*•.' t v.V',.' i f*. w35.V ...' • i ^yv#r •',£•<, . .; - . , . * J ■ . / > - >'■ • " ■-'/.' «>- ■"• '• -' / •' ' •-•*•-." •*.- '. •-;:> - * v.\$f $'t ^'V% '-. . \ '.< 'v^VXVM? ' ■ ;••. ■ ■ ■ ■ : :.'. .. '.--• ■ - rsZfti •■'?' 'ii-7 *••.•>"9 • .••■':•? •••••• ■ - "y \ ; r|gj . *••••:. ■. * :r Borghini Fragment, 8 • C "»i • >: -• ,!V" • . Plate 30: v;-' ',■ . .'V' "\-. :,r; , •- -■*. -*?V** •r Bernardo Machiavelli: Discorso r KQfh I n 4- C?XD 1 A r- over dialogo circa la linguafiorentina. J Plate 32: Vatican MS, 2 "7* 4* : XA-J. •A- .<_«»*-" *^4*- 1+X7/y~ C<w*' ,. /<^ / <dc Ji-* /ir'*. /•/ ■ - /. ^i^ir . \ ^ r. v-a A»y - . / r*.2~*K> • if I. * r^ <->^- —4y<^-^</.«-' g \rL." "2X ^ -T5-—- '*"'" . X/.,' ■ ^-t. Uiz^ * X V^T :, ^ //X' /'/ >r '/ 7fc«J 5 -• ;'" S*M£: -r . ^ A ,Jgt~ZZ&^^x <,q/3^ S ^4 - - /*-*-* j_ *H^XZ;X , ^^ ✓*-* I * /X /X • „. ( j /«*'»4vjxr XZuXQ^XX 0M:•* '<*/msX",'-^ yz£r<*~.±<.< ' ■■&* C^'s [ (Jl^u.-i/:^C cA*^M~Ar * Zvn.fe** Xn.3^1 - /o v— ut/ /4 :r -2*4i~sa^-> uA eem2&~^"~T-g-r! - -■ «- _,.v- "Y*^*^0*. ' 'X*- YJ»- ■ ■'*■■■ ^ / — - v%«^•> **mmt. <7.&? £+v~ ' W' f'li m f '' M. Tnr tPtoL^\- i-( ' XX ,;>e*s- ai Xu.XX.<C/X9v -<^.r> :' Ju/B3&£. S~*< W — XX7^,/•■"> ■*"**<****-.xZs?f*jr*' .„A*-yfc ' >-•* -i^r* Plate 33: Vatican MS, 3 Xtv,3, A Plate 34: Vatican MS, 4 •' V. .Ov; •• IfJ- * ■ ^'■'° LJbr4>*~<l *4 a /6A> ob^fjLZ/-' ■$&> -I Si- ftU-B C, .fc^v^fllZ. -u. ./ *t *s*.\£e, _.•> l4 *«vt*-yj&t i-u? V "» Ci-K*- ^ • 'Y A_ ' ^ '■ _>•' -y^Jpf^pkCO^ jj^ '. r f \ I J. iJJ>-~ /V»A*«,.^'._ *&**&&»/ It—'' vr^. .<■*—* <-w - ' ;. ,- - / . i #■ Ti,A.~e<+ *** <*- „£•' // - T ■f^ v-, / /*. :..Z'.^ ^ '' f " 7 / *'< • ^: <-5^Cw*vrf «*«»••* :< /, ;. O ■ <t.Jir!S»p*fc' :' ,l-.£.«v"- ^'4: 0 a ^^'nT"-- •»'• y /*■/ - UlfcW i-^ikjk*"*- "$&** |Wf -'*- ' **" ~Z ./- y. #5fe *W * T,/ ^ W; /J, '— • ^ fU^^'TM^ArT-^az* •■- i£: /-^f^^-^r *~jri- '■ ■- g/^uk* . ;<,. -ft, Mi ;"- ■ * I jLJiScr ^--^v«>' i S j\s.m 'n F ■ y*/^T^c~S.C , "*" / £Si, i Plate 35: Vatican MS, 5 > , ft I ci*itf^,vZ *-h- f+fe-A- e*... '*>. y'' "~. £_ tl'-, _ ~ --—' s>» • ^ if• k <■ <g»^-'' >/*/,jL?, ' -; £Z;*-~*-" ~ i ~ ;,v s *■ A%£_ v£L ^L*>>:ft dZ~ cA&&f$r****** &* (j.^J, <-w- X Asc*%ItM. t^S+Zk?Xl ^ . Sm-'s£' y ■K, •-■^ t - d*. .te&suz6%*> - ^Cwx^,. c ^—— * -- f 'ItuAL Ass.* 6 , - / /' r ' -: ^ ^ , '^. ' :l*t S?f» - - %.e*4y>£% '<%*■ tS~ .Ai,r. f-'(f<J iZc. ^■jU*.. . • /L, cv /f^r ,r,./(/ ./ ^/ > / -..^. - jifUiMM^XAhL. J, ^ . ■xAZ!*Z'a, , V'. r*il. . ^ .->io«.-'<t,^ A<:<^v- 'A-" '« >. -^V/ • . .< .✓*■)• r*,'» /L^E £-<JcAz^c**. J'cjjil-' rj ._ *:« St':-,A*Z i4r.X&g<£jU.:' ^'. ds- ' 't\ / ' / ./ *' o >- -**<z*.ji»,. .Kri^^a,i 4- ^ r.„;, .- m-.:;" Plate 36: Vatican MS, 6 ^ • ''■ /' # d) £5 ■ ^ V • / Jn. at:£-' "" y iLSy^ ^ fhp*. >-i d f£6s_H-v- ^ .—N Ur ^ . v.^ t/ .. , ~ A' £•■ *-'.'-^V^_-ju*L<U-* 'Ytl—ru~J& v Y-u • ^"- ./' jJtYY ,*Y' / A / grar **<*Cc /k.—**» -J* •* ~ v^L i^u x~ i* , AJ^.C—'- ^^*y£uc» *w c~*\ . $4$T~iYYfLY^Ca*JL. ktC&JX?'Ys\ 4*~fh+ C,*wJ2* A%yLje**\* ~ ._* * # tA Y~jl U&,Cr. sa M: A cy *-'dS^C.'/ e*dL*%~-<d~%}kn2. KJL/£C dC&^z^Yy^L. r* ^■■' Yr\ tyLjr&Z*— ^M- i- yarf* £>A. - C<</ tr-' yyf* j?yfx. w* &£*-£&*- m&tZjL jl9 |/V^&- i^':^ife j^ii iri /jOks^ffr- <Q ^ iV a/> ' . ■: Plate 37: Vatican MS, 7 fVA.*,.J>. «? SI t £.vt- ,, U- ^ K. "Tl :*** ''&■*$»AJ . c Ui,_ L . < <-' < c ***"" •'- Ci£.C£- *-i< ^ ,Cr £_/?j:Vv-. ' ^ . r^ ^ *4-A.~'Z §-t*7.'/A'-<_ '" /.. ,K?5LJ i*Sl^Kr ^ TLU gb-iK*- g - — — -"' SlIcA* Tx' /C<< -V>- i -> O ■ f * '^—yf .s^JMlsr At .-—\ •> Hsr/Xt^£--' £S~£~ -—;-!—. - -."l^ — -U /-> ^SL-jc.. At -£ <<A» (.''«> "C. AJ~ , -v -,X/ ' ... - " . 4^T'-• £ v i-A-Ar!-.' -Uy- - ^-MVZT —V ,- . ,- — ^ tiiv X '._ ,._r-£ c ' ' r .• - "N , „-v^. ~ ~^-a' Xt. &-,r~ ~<uh~r£:^*£'llseLr^ r"*- ^ ' ^ ^ A '/■ *" / . v ^ ^ «-"." -V^_ ; ..' ^.w>v. 1-'^ J?-|*V'-'*~ ' C /' • • ^ yL -: ,.;. •' JA/X-~ -r7'?A- i '' .■•> :■■ •»>*- '-v ^ •" ^ ' •■< '* /;,:■- "V^- f-"'-' - - - ;■■' // - K^AJ^^Z V^^,5L, 9aS^5*.--,C4c< 'rsCr*,*' ^ "W, ^ ■•' '*de„s i C^ , -<4.-c&3tS 7 • , / e i /'st :^. 'ut ' o ^ ■y P ■*■«-' <--JL Zii'iSi' J^czU- /C t.^' ^^LU^JcuJko *Y~ ^ 44^' ^ ilf'toc Jm. '<■'$£-' ■■'"£& * ^ .. * <-'/ / .;• .;^-'._) ^ -'V^-' /.'^L ^S<Q^- At •{ ^W- ' O-AB-U.,4 r-7 (aX fL'rt./jfrr^'-i— uf/h' •* -a 7j?Ti, /*- f <.' t ,* rA, *X^~ x~-~-'c-j -'A- -T^CO^ 'A^.«. ^ ^ t ■ -/V , -i'-i, sacTcSx-vu >c<4 £>- ^sOuf£^£X/^ ^ ■ "" ;-y .. 2 . --VWiufe ku£jMptfr MsUa. Ante aS~*&K* ^t.'-3ci $1" U*"*^"' ..-4 xf ' 'r7'7 iJttjis . t— — ^ r»£urL.iSi* -u^ ' / •-' - <•'•>•- "■ i/ ""5 c :.1., ". •'" " • L->jKk &<. cr'i. <**^'^u Jr'j.//hj*^ ''grit****- v.. -2* '7 "- r^l/LjJz 77 ~ ~ Wc * i-S\ '.. ,^*S. v ■••■--' '•"/>■-> Plate 38: Vatican MS, 8 r -■ ' -,-; **& <*. / ' A. ; '$*:-.■ *~+-K& ' .. ,, - - -'/^.-jl.A*- Plate 39: Vatican MS, 9 .,, .u.4-1 .. ...:.-—■ }■. ,.': Plate 40: Vatican MS, 10 - . •- ... ■ u-u- uam/u. Plate 41: Discorso o dialogo hi tor no alia nostra lingua. Manoscritto Palatino 815 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, pp. 820-839. Abbreviated as Palatino MS, 1 Plate 42: Palatino MS, 2 idVi MAX. & fe'ta/n/^*/crt4%£$ eeiax^rus^t.'^nMes/&^B3^^ox' ae&*J(pAJipa^v <^^^t»^An/^J2]/di^UA3 <&s$*><ytAA. <j>^7t-&3&G^i&zj^t*fi/)ij^cj!^[grt_&.7i-&v7i&i (Jeic/is/xaj a $fn£m/vi&> • <s ^ i ■^jUt^Ei. C%SL>U>/7VZ* J&n6z&0^ aj ccoq <su/n&{ °cer?i&£4)aj .tff /oiil&z •zii. j^£^^sasffc^A> . l^° Plate 43: Palatino MS, 3 <%*$&£ &n.- Plate 44: Palatino MS, 4 _—^ .CPAS- cojric>i&$6uj fe/r^rne^ ahi~*<^Q)lfaj>^T^ui6^exjScu i/£f /sjrrv */<&>a&j <&*■&? c&Gu >, 1 r£. * *&•■•*•'•» jt& ^1|j|j$lji i^^<(jifi|pi8 V*"v Plate 45: Palatino MS, 5 ^•6r^M4> '-' / " * ■ 5 Us* Plate 46: Palatino MS, 6 Plate 47: Palatino MS, 7 Plate 48: Palatino MS, 8 Plate 49: Palatino MS, 9 Plate 50: Palatino MS, 10 Plate 51: Palatino MS, 11 Plate 52: Palatino MS, 12 , $! e^<aJL\4&n Plate 53: Palatino MS, 13 COgJ. Plate 54: Palatiiio MS, 14 M80- —n-s\V . *-. »..>< ?~J^r *? t/2J'fLt3Bin?2J i ZZ^&zZjffffifc 2H ;f^ £^7.JI 'i* ftft'-'i''"^ —F—vfec. ~ C £ "'ft*.' i^08&g&isa>>&e8& u <5,Vt< £^sa&s#u,-i]^^'a&j!^'''««^di«ff-. rfi®* / > /, ' . '!* !W i)£?-.-b>Zid- &&£§/£&?&£?l&rUUit% j4^s*Jtpmk> *p£s0h- &* " CgTZ^e/L &.<C'CAt &J <><& &"(■■% ■*K. Su£z/S%Bi?3/t& fRjffJ £i / >?" «■ -■SSSgHgJ «■' ' 'irm&z S vr~>' Plate 55: Palatino MS, 15 Plate 56: Palatino MS, 16 Plate 57: Palatino MS 17 Plate 58: Palatino MS 18 'O-vta Jt&Vt Plate 59: Palatino MS 19 Plate 60: Palatino MS 20 if ^ Tfe/yyjj "ifU5£s?i&iJn<j -'■■Mi ■§^ c Irti m ^C.xi/-. aSL»,-!u x^p&pLr^ fLy t*s.'rU^O/J?,t*> *>tf-,Qi'eijrtaQ& fP*- »£«>? .S ■ C. ::S£, .. ypOt/r>y3&^u? t/rte&^rx^^c<rrn cerbi . Wnu Ci£c&t>n0 ^'j,^ ^%j^-s^ne^n^~i^£SAAj tf^gux&4Aa$t>. fc&i&tM&rta&Lyit . ~2>J gsmr ^&t£^yaA^t>cS& j'i(<f?'- -. ^ oa&f ; j2gJ>&U CfU^TiOAX^U C.6t fW««CB C -■-fri J/J ; -Mil /c ^&nvrn£^eyv^^rx^£i.^j^-)O0i / s<Lffn> c c.' ■'If.i^.iti. > <ttL>«X> 0cd£*D '$&&*» *■(&*<***#*??*&>, &*<&*%&• 3^rmr Jc>Ugtevv^r^fL¥inC ■■*: 't a^L>puut\ "■^litvffa/yujC&TH&kj veto jferxjfcf Z)^Srn~^to?m^i(ft iiiytjr'<iJ(pz*aotetsrli ?-V&l&L>ril?.- Z&uJ Cj&TZ f&tt&Qf I d jjfftiipnpf ^ytvsgsA* "9taJs. V «•* • Plate 61: Palatino MS 21 Conclusion Niccolo Machiavelli's II plan for Italian liberation and unification, detailed in the pages of Principe and the Discorsi, highlights his genius. Indeed, his concept of the 'secular patria', when linked with the idea of a national 'citizen army' and of exile within the peninsula, it contemporary eye at least different aspects - seems, encompasses end to the practice startlingly familiar elements - to the of an Italian 'national identity'. In seeking to bring out these of Machiavelli's plan, several longstanding issues related to the interpretation of II Principe and the Discorsi less an were brought to the fore and shown to be 'damaging' to his political thought than scholars such as Hans Baron were willing to admit. The Florentine's founded in II conception of an Italian patria, Principe and consolidated under a as that which he desired to be republican regime in the Discorsi provides continuity to Machiavelli's political thought. By the of the term patria in both works seems same token, the to reconcile the other well-documented differences in their vocabulary and genre. II Principe's focus on the person and the Discorsi's focus, in by a general terms, consistency in Machiavelli's seems that in the definition. It use on republican government of patria as are something that was of the prince drawn together Chapter One illustrated. Indeed, it latter, Machiavelli's concept of the 'secular patria' took was presence fundamental, something that on a a broader republican government should strive to protect and maintain. In other words, the considerations on patria in II Principe which focused on the prince's role in founding and uniting a patria, were expanded upon in the Discorsi, to include the maintenance of the 'bene comune' Conclusion 234 and the 'comune an patria'. There is then, in Machiavelli's concept of the 'secular patria' evolution from the individual's citizenry whole to protect and defend their communal patria. as a Machiavelli to come occasione - Machiavelli of a But what led to such conclusions? This Dissertation Florence and responsibility to the corporate responsibility of the Medici argued that in the autumn of 1515, with Pope in Rome, Machiavelli saw a the link between Florence and Rome, that argued in the epilogue of II Principe, could a Medici Capitano in This unique opportunity. briefly united their interests see - the unification and liberation Italy. Following the example of Cesare Borgia and his father, Pope Alexander VI, Lorenzo and Leo X could establish a use their familial bond and the 'national' citizen army, prestige this afforded to expel the barbarians and then, out of duty to the united patria which they helped to create, immediately end their union. Then, following the example of the Roman dictators, Lorenzo would magnanimously lay aside his allpowerful office allowing not only for the creation of a republican government, but for the separation of Church and patria. Machiavelli's ever saw, plan never made it off the ground. It is arguable whether Lorenzo let alone took the time to read, the work companion work on republicanism1. so earnestly dedicated to him perished. Lorenzo, his would-be prince, following the precedent set by Giuliano de'Medici (Lorenzo's predecessor) had 1 its Indeed, with Lorenzo's death in 1519, all of Machiavelli's hopes for Italian greatness for the or no time outspoken republican patriotism of an exiled has-been. Francesco Guicciardini, Godman, From Poliziano to Machiavelli: Florentine Humanism in the High Renaissance (Princeton: University Press, 1998), 237. '... Lorenzo was more interested in the gift of a pair of dogs than in the presentation of Machiavelli's book, there is no evidence that it ever reached the duke of Urbino or any Peter Princeton other Medicean magnate at Florence'. Conclusion 235 Machiavelli's friend and confidant in the last years though he had read Machiavelli's work, he Guiccardini's commentary on ai Discorsi del Machiavelli sopra Machiavelli's was of his life, was more accessible, and scathingly critical. Machiavelli's Discorsi, the Considerazioni intorno la prima deca di Tito Livio illustrates a recognition of plan for the liberation and unification of Italy. In Book One, Chapter 12 of that work, Guicciardini even discusses the transition from the government monarchia') to government by the such a transition was many laudable, but in practice, laughable. As Chapters Two, Three and argued that aside his dictatorial power honour it may a prince (Lorenzo in this case) would have been enough to Machiavelli's gross only all can cause mercenary misunderstanding of Italian warfare soldiers, but also artillery - Machiavelli is the ' - By the a savvy friend comment willingly lay on a . same token, which led him to deride not caused Guicciardini to chide his friend. imagine Guicciardini's dismay at his friend's refusal to politically never him to quit his office, but in practice it is hard Machiavelli, the master of the 'verita effettuale' more length and breadth after unification. In theory, love of patria and the duty to imagine Lorenzo acting with such selfless magnanimity. One ('una political theory. Guicciardini to one ('republiche'). In theory, Guicciardini argued Four illustrated, Guicciardini's criticisms of Machiavelli crossed the of his of was see the 'real truth'. taken to school by his younger The picture painted by Guicciardini's commentary theory which was and on woefully unsuited to its time. However, unsuitability of Machiavelli's call for liberation and unification of Italy which Niccolo Machiavelli, II Principe e Altre Qpere Politiche Introduzione di Delio Cantimori, Note di Stefano (Milano: Garzanti Libri, 1999), 60; and Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince trans. George Bull (London: Penguin Group, 4th ed., 1995), 48. Andretta Conclusion 236 sounded so out of touch in the historians and politicians cinquecento was of the Risorgimento era. taken up and expounded upon by the Standing in stark contrast to the reprimands of Guicciardini, Francesco de Sanctis, recognising Machiavelli's idealism, sounded the praises of his call of unification. "3 Encapsulating the spirit of his generation, de Sanctis wrote': Niccold propone addirittura la costituzione di un grande Stato italiano, che sia baluardo d'ltalia contro lo straniero. II concetto di patria gli si allarga. Patria non piccolo comune, ma e tutta la nazione. L'ltalia nell'utopia dantesca e il "giardino dell'impero"; nell'utopia del Machiavelli e la patria, nazione autonoma e indipendente[ .] La patria del Machiavelli e una divinita, superiore anche alia moralita e alia legge. A quel modo che il Dio degli ascetici assorbiva in se l'individuo, e in nome di Dio gl'inquisitori bruciavano gli eretici; per la patria tutto era lecito, e le azioni, che nella vita privata sono delitti, diventavano magnanime nella vita pubblicaf...] La divinita era scesa di cielo in terra e si chiamava la patria, ed era non meno terribile4. e solo il . . Machiavelli's precocious idealism which de Sanctis found fitted in century Italy, may also have been reflected in a work which many attribute to the famous Florentine The arguments those that deny it as the Discorso o - well in nineteenth- but by no means all - dialogo intorno all nostra lingua. for Machiavelli's authorship of that work appear to Chapters Five through Seven illustrated. While there holes in the provenance 3 - so outweigh are too many of the Dialogo to attribute the work to Machiavelli with Giuseppe Mazzini or Francesco Crispi as other examples. See Roland Sarti, Mazzini: (West Port, Conn.: Praeger, 1997), 150; and Federico Chabod, Italian Foreign Policy: The Statecraft of the Founders trans. William McCuaig (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 418. 4 Francesco de Sanctis, Storia della letteratura Italiana. nuove edizione 2 Vols. A cura di Benedetto Croce (Bari: Laterza e Figli, 1912). See Vol. 2., p. 68. For an adequate translation see Francesco de Sanctis, History of Italian Literature 2 Vols, trans. Joan Redfern (London: Humphrey Milford, 1930). See Vol. 2., p. 547. 'The scheme that Machiavelli proposed was nothing less than a great Italian state, to be the bulwark of Italy against the foreigner. So the conception of the fatherland was no longer the little commune, but was the whole of the nation. In Dante's Utopia Italy was the "garden of the empire"; in Machiavelli's Utopia Italy is the patria, the fatherland, an independent autonomous nation[. .] Country to Machiavelli was a god, higher even than morality, and higher than law. Just as the ascetics saw the individual as absorbed into the Godhead, and just as the Inquisitors burned heretics in the name of God, so for one's country everything was lawful - actions that in private life would be crimes, when done for the sake of country became magnanimousf.. ] God had come out of Heaven and descended to earth, and had changed his name to "Fatherland" but was no less terrible'. One could also cite A Life for the Religion of Politics . Conclusion 237 certainty, the call for political unification in 11 Principe and the Discorsi seems to be complemented in the Dialogo's call for linguistic unification. Working in combination, the secular patriotism of 11 Principe and the Discorsi called for a new prince to rise, unite Italy and then resign his all-powerful office, allowing the peoples of Italy to form republican government. may a The Dialogo and its call for Florentine linguistic dominance complement the secular patriotism of Machiavelli's two most famous works. Politics, secular patriotism and perhaps language, defended by a 'national citizen' army; are these the elements of an Machiavelli, at least, they Italian national were. maligned in the cinquecento, Risorgimento. Discorsi is Those appear to identity? This Dissertation argued that for same elements for which Machiavelli have enjoyed a was renewed topicality in the In conclusion, while Machiavelli's authorship of II Principe and the incontestable, the Dialogo is another story. whether Niccolo Machiavelli authored the One cannot know for sure Dialogo, but it is tempting to ask, what if he did? At the very least, treatise which he may national identities in a comparison of Machiavelli's best-known works with have written may add to our Italy and elsewhere since the Renaissance. Moreover, was cinquecento, ultimately resulting in his work being banned by the Church - gave way in the Risorgimento era to short understanding of the complexities of surmise, that the suspicion with which Machiavelli's political theory purgatory a one might viewed in the - his time in his vindication and restoration. Bibliography Primary Sources I. Manuscripts [All attributed to] Machiavelli, Niccolo. Discorso di Nicu. Machiavelli nel quale si tratta Idella lingua] .Manoscritto Miscell. Borghini III, Filze Rinuccini 22, 9 pp, da c. lr a c. . 5r. dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua. Manoscritto E.B. 15 (11 pp., da c. 133r a 138r). Discorso o dialogo Intorno alia nostra lingua. Manoscritto Palatino 815 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, pp. 820-839. Messer Niccold di Bernardo Machiavelli: Discorso over dialogo circa la lingua fiorentina. Manoscritto Vat. Barb. Lat. 5368, cc. 44-53. Discorso o 10 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze . . Parenti, Pietro. Historia fiorentina, Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, Fondo Principale, II, IV, 171, fol. 114r. Ricci, Giuliano de'. Priorista. Manoscritto Palatino E.B. 14.1. Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze. II. Printed Italian Editions of the . Dialogo Dialogo in: Varchi, Benedetto. L 'Ercolano: dialogo di Messer Benedetto quale si ragiona delle lingue, ed in particolare della Toscana e della Fiorentina. Milano: Societa Tipografica de'Classici Italiani, Contrada di S. Margherita, N ° 1118, 1804. (Unknown editor). The Dialogo in: Varchi, Benedetto. L 'Hercolano, dialogo nel quaI si ragioni generalmente delle lingue, et in particolare della Toscana, e della Fiorentina; compos to sulla occasione della disputa occorsa tra 'I Commendator Caro, e M.L. Castelvetro. Nuovamente stampato. 2 vols. A cura di Giovanni Bottari. The Varchi nel . ... ... Franchi, 1730. Dialogo Intorno Alia Nostra Lingua: Edizione Critica. A cura di Bortolo Tommaso Sozzi. Torino: G. Einaudi, 1976. Discorso o dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua in Opere di Niccold Machiavelli. A cura di Sergio Berteill. 11 vols. Milano: Giovanni Salerno, 1968-82. See Volume 4, pp. 261-277 Discorso o dialogo intorno alia lingua in Tutte le Opere Storiche e Letterarie di Firenze: Tartini . . . Discorso e o Niccold Machiavelli. A . cura di Guido Mazzoni Barbera, 1929: 770-778. Discorso, overro dialogo, in cui si esamina, e Mario Casella. Firenze: G. se la lingua, in cui scrissero Dante, il il Petrarca, si debba chiamare Italiana, Toscana, o Fiorentina, in Opere: Volume Otto: Commedie, terzine ed altre opere. Cosmopoli, 1769. Boccaccio, e Bibliography 239 . The Dialogo in Opere minori di Niccold Machiavelli: Rivedute sulle migliori filologiche e critiche di F.-. Polidori. Firenze: Le Monnier, edizioni. Con note 1852:589-603. Niccold Machiavelli . e il 'Dialogo intorno alia nostra linguacon una edizione Olschki, 1978. Nuove Rijlessioni sul Discorso o Dialogo Intorno Alia Nostra Lingua di Niccold Machiavelli. A cura di Ornella Castellani Pollidori. Roma: Salerno editrice, 1981. del testo A . cura di Ornella Castellani Pollidori. Firenze: III. Translated Edition of the Dialogo Machiavelli, Niccold. The Dialogo in: The Literary Works ofMachiavelli. Trans. John R. Hale. London: Oxford University Press, 1961: 173-190. IV. Editions of Works of Machiavelli in Italian Machiavelli, Niccold. Opere. 8 vols. Cosmopoli, 1769. Opere di Niccold Machiavelli cittadino e segretario fiorentino. 10 vols. . tipografica de' classici italiani, 1804. Opere complete di Niccold Machiavelli, con molte correzioni e giunte rinvenute sui manoscritti originali. Firenze: S.I., 1843. Opere di Niccold Machiavelli. Scelte da Giuseppe Zirardini. Parigi, 1851. Opere minori di Niccold Machiavelli rivedute sulle migliori edizioni. A cura di Filippo Luigi Polidori. Firenze: F. Le Monnier, 1852. Tutte le Opere Storiche e Letterarie di Niccold Machiavelli. A cura di Guido Milano: Societa . . . . Mazzoni . e Mario Casella. Firenze: G. Barbera, 1929. Opere di Niccold Machiavelli. 3 vols. A cura di Franco Gaeta. Torino: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 1984. V. Political and Literary Works of Machiavelli in Italian Machiavelli, Niccold. Clizia. A . Lettere . . . . cura di Guido Davico Bonino. Torino: Einaudi, 1977. Frencesco Veltori e a Francesco Guicciardini. A cura di Giorgio Inglese. Milano: R.C.S. Libri & Grandi Opere, 1996. Principe e Altre Opere Politiche. Introduzione di Delio Cantimori, Note di Stefano Andretta. Milano: Garzanti Libri, 1999. II Principe e Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio. A cura di Sergio Bertelli. Milano: Feltrinelli, 2nd edn., 1977. Discorsi Sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio. Introduzione di Gennaro Sasso, Note di Giorgio Inglese. Milano: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1999. Istorie fiorentine in Opere di Niccolo Machiavelli. Vol. 2. A cura di A. Montevecchi. Torino, 1986. Opere di Niccold Machiavelli, Volume Terzo, Lettere. A cura di Franco Gaeta. Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1984. II . a Bibliography 240 . . ofthe First Edition ofFebruary, 1506. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969. Ritratti e Rapporti Diplomatici. Roma: Riuniti, 2000. The First Decennale: A Facsimile VI. Political and Literary Works of Machiavelli in Translation Machiavelli, Niccolo, The Art of War. Trans. Ellis Farneworth. New York: Da Capo Press, 1990. The Chief Works and Others. 3 Vols. Trans. Allan Gilbert. Durham: Duke University Press, 1965. The Discourses ofNiccold Machiavelli. 2 Vols. Trans. Lesley J. Walker. London, Routledge, 1950. Florentine Histories. Trans. Laura Banfield and Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. The Prince. Eds. Quentin Skinner and Russell Price. Cambridge: Cambridge University IVess, 10th edn., 1998. The Prince. Trans. Harvey C. Mansfield. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, . . _. . . " 1985. . . . George Bull. London: Penguin Group, 4th ed., 1995. Stephen J. Milner. London: J.M. Dent, 2000. Machiavelli and His Friends: Their Personal Correspondence. Trans, and Eds. James B. Atkinson and David Sices. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, The Prince. Trans. The Prince. Trans, and Ed. 1996. . The Prince: Also 'The Life of Castruccio Castracani ofLuca' and 'The Means Duke Valentino us'd to put to death Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto of Fermo, Paul and the Duke of Gravina'. Trans. Edward Dacres. Amsterdam: Da Capo, 1969 - a printed in London by R. Bishop for Wil. Hils. The Prince. Trans. Angelo M. Codevilla. New Haven: Yale University Press, facsimile of 1640 edition _. " 1997. VII. Primary Sources Alighieri, Dante. De Vulgari Eloquentia. Trans. Warman Welliver. Ravenna: Ravenna Longo, 1981. The Divine Comedy: Inferno. Trans. Charles Singleton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970. The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio. Trans. Charles Singleton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973. The Divine Comedy: Paradiso. Trans. Charles Singleton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 4th edn., 1991. . . . Bembo, Pietro. Prose della volgar lingua. A Italiani, 1966. cura di Carlo Dionisotti. Torino: Classici Bibliography 241 Boccaccio, Giovanni. 11 Decameron .../ricorretto in Roma et emendato secondo I'ordine del Sacro Cone, di Trento, et riscontrato in Firenze con testi antichi & alia sua vera deputati di loro Alt. Ser. [i.e. Vincezo M. Borghini, Pier Antinori], Fiorenza: I Giunti, 1573. Edizione Critica. A cura di Aldo Rossi. Bologna: Cappelli, 1977. lezione ridotto da' F. Cambi and Sebastiono . II Decameron: The Decameron. Ed. Jonathan Usher and Trans. Guido Waldman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Borghini, Vincenzo, Prose fiorentine. Firenze, 1745. Bruni, Leonardo. Dialogi adPetrum Paulum Histrum. A Firenze: Olschki, 1994. cura di Stefano Ugo Baldassari. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De re publico et De legibus. Trans. Clinton Walker Keyes. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 11th edn., 1994. De Officiis. Trans. Walter Miller. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, . """ 1997. con M. Trifon Gabriele in Bassano: di Lino Pertile. Bologna: Carducci, 1993. Gabriele, Trifon. Annotationi nel Dante fatte Edizione critica. A cura Gelli, Giovanni Battista. Ragionamento... sopra le difficolta di mettere in regole la nostra lingua. Florence, 1551. Letture edite e inedite sopra la Commedia di Dante. Firenze: Bocca, 1887. Guicciardini, Francesco. Considerations on the 'Discourses ofNiccoloMachiavelli' in, The Sweetness of Power: Machiavelli's 'Discourses' and Guicciardini's . Considerations'. Trans. James B. Atkinson and David Sices. DeKalb: Northern . . Illinois University Press, 2002. Opere. 9 Vols. A cura di Constantino Panigada Laterza, 1929-36. e Roberto Palmarocchi. Bari: Ricordi. Trans. Ninian Hill Thomson. New York: S.F. Vanni, 1949. Horace. Satires, Epistles andArs poetica. Trans. H. Rushton Mass.: Harvard University Press, 6th edn., 1947. Fairclough. Cambridge, Lenzoni, Carlo. In difesa della lingua fiorentina, e di Dante. Fiorenza: [appresso L. Torrentino], 1556. Livy, Titus. Ab urbe condita. Vol I. (Books I-II). Trans. B.O. Foster. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 10th edn., 1998. Ab urbe condita. Vol. II. (Books III-IV). Trans. B.O. Foster. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 6th edn., 1997. Ab urbe condita Vol. III. (Books V-VII). Trans. B.O. Foster. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 7th edn., 1996. Ab urbe condita. Vol IV. (Books VIII-X). Trans. B.O. Foster. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1926. . . . Marlowe, Christopher. The Jew ofMalta. Ed. James R. Siemon. London: A. and C. Black, 1997. Bibliography 242 Martelli, Lodovico. "Risposta alia Epistola del Trissino." Trattati sull'Ortografia del Volgare, 1524-1526. A cura di Brian Richardson. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1984: 37-75. Medici, Lorenzo de\ Opere. A cura di Tiziano Zanato. Torino: Einaudi, 1992. Petrarca, Francesco. Canzoniere, Trionfi, Rime Varie e Una Scelta di Versi Latini. A cura di Carla Muscetta e Daniele Ponchiroli. Torino: Giulio Einaudi: Torino, 1958. Canzoniere. Introduzione e note di Piero Cudini. Milano: Aldo Garzanti, 1974. Le Familiari: Edizione Critia: Volume Primo. A cura di Vittorio Rossi. Firenze: . . Sansoni, 1933. Petrarch. Trans, and Ed. Morris Bishop. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966. The Canzoniere, (rerum vulgarium fragmenta). 2 Vols. Trans. Frederic J. Jones Hull: Troubadour and Hull Italian Texts, 2000-2001 Poliziano, Angelo. "First Anthology of Vernacular Poetry." Images ofQuattrocento Florence. Eds. Stefano Ugo Baldassari and Arielle Saiber, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000: 169-174 Polybius. The Rise ofthe Roman Empire (Selections). Trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1979. Pulci, Luigi. Morgante e Lettere. A cura di Domenico de Robertis. Firenze: Sansoni, n.d. . Letters from . Ricci, Giuliano de'. Cronaca: 1532-1606. A cura di Giuliano Sapori. Milano: Riccardo Ricciardi, 1972. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Le Contrat Social. Paris, 1782. Sanuto, Marino. I Diarii, Volume XV. Reprint of Venezia: F Visentini, 1879-1903; Bologna: Forni, 1969. Shakespeare, William. "Henry VI, Part III." The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972: 190-232. Trissino, Gian Giorgio. Dialogo intitulato: 11 Castellano, nel quale si tratta del/a lingua italiana. Venezia, 1528. Varchi, Benedetto. "Delia poesia", from his lectures delivered in the Florentine Academy October-December, 1553, in Lezioni di M. Benedetto Varchi, accademico fiorentino : lette da lui publicamente nell'Accademia Fiorentina, sopra diverse materie, poetiche, e filosofiche, raccolte nuovamenta, e la maggior parte non piii date in luce, con due tavole, vna delle materie, I'altra delle cose piii notabili / con la vita del I'autore. Fiorenza: Filippo Giunti,1590. Virgil. The Aeneid of Virgil (Books I-VI). Ed. R.D. Williams. Glasgow: MacMillan,1972. VIII. Collections of Primary Sources Baldassari, Stefano Ugo, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Images of Quattrocento Florence. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Bibliography 243 Varese, Claudio, ed. Prosatori Volgari del Quattrocento. Milano: 1957. Riccardo Ricciardi, Secondary Sources Anglo, Sydney. "Machiavelli as a Military Authority. Some Early Sources." Florence and Italy: Renaissance Studies in Honour of Nicolai Rubinstein. Eds. Peter Denley and Caroline Elam. London: Committee for Medieval Studies, Westfield College, 1988:321-334. Machiavelli: A Dissection. London: Victor Gollancz, 1969. Atkinson, Catherine. Debts, Dowries, Donkey: The Diary ofNiccold Machiavelli's Father, Messer Bernardo, in Quattrocento Florence. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002. . Barbi, Michele. Dante nel Cinquecento. Pisa: Tip. T. Nistri e. c., 1890. Baron, Hans. The Crisis ofthe Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny, Volume 2, Appendices. University Press, 1955 ofthe Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966. Humanistic and Political Literature in Florence and Venice at the Beginning of the Quattrocento. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1955. "Machiavelli on the Eve of the Discourses-. The Date and Place of the Dialogo intorno alia nostra lingua.'" Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 23 (1961): Princeton: Princeton . . . The Crisis 449-76. Republican Citizen and Author of The Prince" Hans Baron. In of Florentine Civic Humanism: Essays on the Transition from Medieval to Modern Thought. Vol. 2. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988: 101-157 "The Principe and the Puzzle of the Date of Chapter 26." Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 21 (1991): 83-102. "The Principe and the Puzzle of the Date of the Discorsi" Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 18 (1956): 405-428. Bertelli, Sergio. "Egemonia linguistica come egemonia culturale e politica nella Firenze cosmiana." Biblioteque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 38 (1976): 249-281. Bock, Gisella, Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli, eds. Machiavelli andRepublicanism. New York: Cambridge University Press,1999. Brand, Peter and Lino Pertile, eds., The Cambridge History ofItalian Literature. Revised ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Bujunda, J.M. de, ed. Index de Rome 1557, 1559, 1564: Les premier Index romains et l'lndex du Concile de Trent. Index de Livres interdicts 8. Sherbrooke, 1990. Burke, Peter. The Fortunes of the Courtier. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995. Butters, Humphrey. Governors and Government in Early Sixteenth-Century Florence: 1502-1519. Oxford: Clarendon, 1985. ■"Machiavelli the Search . . Bibliography 244 Cassirer, Ernst. The Myth of the State: A reduced photographic reprint of the 1946 edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961. "Science and Political Theory." Machiavelli, Cynic, Patriot or Political Scientist? Ed. De Lamar Jensen. Boston: D C. Heath and Co., 1960. Chabod, Federico. Italian Foreign Policy: The Statecraft of the Founders. Trans. William . McCuaig. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Machiavelli and the Renaissance. Trans. David Moore. London: Bowes and . Bowes, 1958. Chiappelli, Fredi. Studi sul Linguaggio del Machiavelli. Firenze, 1952. Cochrane, Eric. Italy: 1530-1630. Ed. Julius Kirshner. London: Longman, 1988. Cohn, Samuel K., Jr. Creating the Florentine State: Peasants and Rebellions, 1348-1434. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999. Condorelli, Ottavio. "Per la storia del nome "Stato, (il nome "Stato" in Machiavelli)". Archivio Giuridico 89 (1923): 223-235. Dionisotti, Carlo. Machiavellerie. Torino: G. Einaudi, 1980: 267-363. "Machiavelli, Man of Letters Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature. Eds. Albert Russell Ascoli and Victoria Kahn Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993: . 17-51. D'Entreves, Alexander Passerin. Dante Fido, Franco. "The Politician as as a Political Thinker. Oxford: Clarendon, 1952. Writer." The Comedy and Tragedy ofMachiavelli. Ed. University Press, 2000: 138-158 Vickie B. Sullivan. New Haven: Yale Gilbert, Allan H. Machiavelli's 'Prince' and Its Forerunners: 'The Prince' as a Typical Book 'de Regimine Principum'. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1938. Gilbert, Felix. "Bernardo Rucellai and the Orti Oricellari: A Study on the Origins of Modern Political Thought." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 12 (1949): 101-131. Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965. Machiavelli e i suoi tempi. Bologna, 1977. "Review-Discussion: The Composition of Machiavelli's Discors i." Journal ofthe History ofIdeas 14 (1953): 136-156. "The Humanist Concept of the Prince and The Prince of Machiavelli." Felix Gilbert. History: Choice and Commitment. Ed. Arno M. Mayer. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard, 1977: 91-114. Godman, Peter. From Poliziano to Machiavelli: Florentine Humanism in the High Renaissance. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. The Saint as Censor: Robert Bellarmine Between the Inquisition and Index. Leiden: Brill, 2000. Godorecci, Barbara J. After Machiavelli: "Re-writing" and the "Hermeneutic Attitude." West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1993. Goldscheider, Ludwig. ed. Michelangelo: Paintings, Sculptures, Architecture. 4th edn. London, 1962. . . . . . Bibliography 245 Grayson, Cecil. "Lorenzo, Machiavelli and the Italian Language." Italian Renaissance Studies: A Tribute to Cecilia M. Ady. Ed. E.F. Jacob. London: Faber and Faber, 1960:410-432. "Machiavelli and Dante." Renaissance Studies in Honor . of Hans Baron. Eds. Anthony Molho and John A. Tedeschi. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971:362-384. Grazia, Sebastian de. Machiavelli in Hell. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Hale, John R. ed. A Concise Encyclopaedia ofthe Italian Renaissance. London: Thames and Hudson, 1981, Florence and the Medici: The Pattern ofControl. London: Thames and Hudson, . ~ 1977. . Machiavelli and Renaissance Ltd, 1966. Italy. London: The English Universities Press Harvey, Michael. "Lost in the Wilderness: Love and Longing in L'Asino." The Comedy and Tragedy ofMachiavelli: Essays on the Literary Works. Ed. Vickie B. Sullivan. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000: 120-137 Hay, Denys. "The Italian view of Renaissance Italy." Florilegium Historiale: Essays Presented to Wallace K. Ferguson. Eds. J.G. Rowe and W.H. Stockdale. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971: 3-17. Hearder, Harry. Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento: 1790-1870. London: Longman, 1983. Hexter, J.H. "IIprincipe and lo stato." Studies in the Renaissance 4 (1957): 113-38. "Seyssel, Machiavelli, and Polybius VI: the Mystery of the Missing Translation." Studies in the Renaissance 3 (1956): 75-96. Holmes, George. Dante. Oxford: Clarendon, 1980 . Jensen, De Lamar, ed. Machiavelli: Cynic, Patriot, or Political Scientist? Boston: D.C. Heath, 1960. Larner, John. Lords ofthe Romagna. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1965. Laven, Peter. Renaissance Italy: 1464-1534. London: B.T. Batsford, 1966. Mackenney, Richard. Sixteenth-Century Europe: Expansion and Conflict. London: Macmillan, 1993. Mallett, Michael. Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. London: Bodley Head, 1974. "The Theory and Practice of Warfare in Machiavelli's Republic." Machiavelli and Republicanism. Eds. Gisela Bock, Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993: 173-180. Mattingly, Garrett. Renaissance Diplomacy. New York: Dover, 1988. Mayor, Arno M., ed., History: Choice and Commitment. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap . Press of Harvard, 1977. Najemy, John. Between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli Vettori Letters of 1513-1515. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Bibliography 246 Niccoli, Ottavia. Prophecy and People in Renaissance Italy. Trans. Lydia G. Cochrane. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. Panizza, Letizia. "The Quattrocento." The Cambridge History of Italian Literature, Revised edition. Eds. Peter Brand and Lino Pertile. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999: 129-177. Pertile, Lino "Trifone Gabriele's commentary on Dante and Bembo's Prose della vulgar linguaItalian Studies 40 (1985): 17-30. Polizotto, Lorenzo. The Elect Nation: The Savonarolan Movement in Florence, 14941545. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994 Prezzolini, Giuseppe. Machiavelli anticristo. Rome: G. Casini, 1954. . Niccolo Machiavelli: The Florentine. Trans. Sons, 1928. . Ralph Roeder. London: G. Putnam's Vita di Niccold Machiavelli Fiorentino. Milano: Rusconi, 2nd edn. 1982. Quevedo, Francesco. "Lince de Italia." Obras. Madrid, 1880. Rajna, Pio. "La Data del Dialogo int. alia lingua di N. Machiavelli" Rendiconti dell R. Accad. dei Lincei, Classe Scienze Morali. Serie V. II (1893): 203-222. Rebhorn, Wayne A. Foxes and Lions: Machiavelli's Confidence Men. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988. Richardson, Brian. "The Prince and its Early Italian Readers." Niccold Machiavelli's 'The Prince': New Interdisciplinary Essays. Ed. Martin Coyle. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995. 19-39. "Prose." The Cambridge History ofItalian Literature. Revised edition. Eds. Peter Brand and Lino Pertile. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999: 179-232. Ridolfi, Roberto. Vita di Girolamo Savonarola. 2 Vols. Roma: A. Belardetti, 1952. The Life of Niccold Machiavelli. Trans. Cecil Grayson. London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1963. Vita di Niccold Machiavelli. Roma: A. Belardetti, 1954. Rowe, J.G. and W.H. Stockdale, eds. Florilegium Historiale: Essays Presented to Wallace K. Ferguson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971. Rubinstein, Nicolai. "Notes on the word stato in Florence before Machiavelli." Florilegium Historiale: Essays Presented to Wallace K. Ferguson. Eds. Rowe, J.G. and W.H. Stockdale. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971: 314-326. The Palazzo Vecchio, 1298-1532: Government, Architecture, and Imagery in the Civic Palace of the Florentine Republic. Oxford-Warburg Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. . . . . Salmone, A. William, ed. Italy: From the Risorgimento to Fascism, an Inquiry into the Origins of the Totalitarian State. Devon: Redwood Press, 1971. Sanctis, Francesco de. Storia della letteratura Italiana, nuova edizione. 2 Vols. A cura di Benedetto Croce. Bari: Laterza e Figli, 1912. History ofItalian Literature. 2 Vols. Trans. Joan Redfern. London: Humphrey Milford, 1930. . Bibliography 247 Sarti, Roland. Mazzini: A Life for the Religion of Politics. West Port, Conn.: Praeger, 1997. Sasso, Genarro. Machiavelli e Cesare Borgia: Storia di un giudizio. Roma: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 1966. Shaw, Christine. The Politics ofExile in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Shell, Susan Meld. "Machiavelli's Discourse on Language." The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli: Essays on the Literary Works. Ed. Vickie B Sullivan. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000: 78-101. Sherberg, Michael. "The Accademia Fiorentina and the Question of Language: the Politics of Theory in Ducal Florence." Renaissance Quarterly LVI. 1. Spring 2003 Renaissance Society of America, New York, 2003: 26-55. Skinner, Quentin. "The State " Political Innovation and Conceptual Change. Eds. T. Ball, J. Farr and R.L. Hanson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989: 90131. University Press, 1996. ofModern Political Thought: Volume One: The Renaissance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978. Spackman, Barbara. "Politics on the Warpath: Machiavelli' sArt of War" Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature. Eds. Albert Russell Ascoli and Victoria Kahn. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993: 179-193. Starn, Randolph. Contrary Commonwealth: The Theme ofExile in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. "Petrarch's Consolation on Exile: a Humanist Use of Adversity." Essays Presented to Myron P. Gilmore Vol. 1. Eds. Sergio Bertelli and Gloria Ramakus. .Machiavelli. Oxford: Oxford . The Foundations . Firenze: La Nuova Italia Editrice, 1978: 241-254. Stephens, John. The Fall ofthe Florentine Republic: 1512-1530. Oxford: Clarendon, 1983. Sullivan, Vickie B. Machiavelli's Three Romes: Religion, Human Liberty, and Politics Reformed. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1996. Ed. The Comedy and Tragedy ofMachiavelli: Essays on the Literary Works. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. . Tedeschi, John. "Florentine Documents for a History of the Index ofProhibited Books" Renaissance Studies in Honor of Hans Baron. Eds. Anthony Molho and John A. Tedeschi. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971: 577-605. The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy. Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1991. Tommasini, Oreste. La vita e gli scritti di Niccolo Machiavelli nella loro relazione col machiavellismo.VcA. I. Torino: E. Loescher, 1883. Turner, A. Richard. Inventing Leonardo. New York: Knopf, 1993. . Villari, Pasquale. Niccolo Machiavelli e i suoi tempi. 3 Vols. Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 2nd edn., 1895. Machiavelli e i suoi tempi. 3 Vols. Le Monnier: Firenze 1877. . Bibliography 248 . Niccold Machiavelli and his Times. 4 Vols. Trans. Linda Villari. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1878-83. Viroli, Maurizio. For Love ofCountry: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism. New York: Clarendon Press, 1997. From Politics to Reason of State: The Acquisition and Transformation of the Language ofPolitics: 1250-1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the 'well-ordered society'. Trans. Derek Hanson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. .Machiavelli. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Niccold's Smile: A Biography ofNiccold Machiavelli. Trans. Antony Shugaar. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. Republicanism. Trans. Antony Shugaar. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, . . . . ~ 2002. Wemstein, Donald. Savonarola and Florence: Prophecy and Pattiotism in the Renaissance. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970. Whitfield, J.H. Discourses on Machiavelli. Cambridge: Heffer, 1969. .Machiavelli. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1947. Woodhouse, J.R. Baldesar Castiglione: A Reassessment of'The Courtier'. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978. 4

RELATED PAPERS

RELATED TOPICS

Log In

Language, politics and patriotism: Niccolo Machiavelli's 'Secular Patria' and the creation of an Italian national identity

Language, politics and patriotism: Niccolo Machiavelli's 'Secular Patria' and the creation of an Italian national identity

Related Papers

RELATED PAPERS

RELATED TOPICS