Niccolo MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527), Italian statesman and writer, was born at Florence on the 3rd of May 1469.
Gregorovius's Lucrezia Borgia (Stuttgart, 1874) contains a great deal of information on the Borgia family; P. Villari's Machiavelli (English translation, new ed., 1892) deals with the subject at some length.
Machiavelli calls luxury, simony and cruelty the three dear friends and handmaids of the same pope.'
Whether as a result of his fear of the rivalry of Jem, or of his personal character, Bayezid showed little of the aggressive spirit of his warlike predecessors; and Machiavelli said that another such sultan would cause Turkey to cease being a menace to Europe.
Between this date and the last month of 1506 Machiavelli laboured at his favourite scheme, working out memorials on the subject for his office, and suggesting the outlines of a new military organization.
The new duke of Urbino was the Lorenzo de' Medici to whom Machiavelli addressed The Prince.
Then, too late, patriots like Machiavelli perceived the suicidal self-indulgence of the past, which, by substituting mercenary troops for national militias, left the Italians at the absolute discretion.
(Stuttgart, 1881); and P. Villari's Machiavelli (London 1892); also C. Yriarte, Cesar Borgia (Paris, 1889), an admirable piece of writing; Schubert-Soldern, Die Borgia and ihre Zeit (Dresden, 1902), which contains the latest discoveries on the subject; and E.
G g measure which he took was the institution of a national militia at the suggestion of Niccolo Machiavelli (105).
Davidsohn's Geschichte der Stadt Florenz (Berlin, 1896); P. Villari's Savonarola (English ed., London, 1896) is invaluable for the period during which the friar's personality dominated Florence, and his Machiavelli (English ed., London, 1892) must be also consulted, especially for the development of political theories.
See also the bibliographies in MEDICI, MACHIAVELLI, SAVONAROLA, TUSCANY, &c. (L.
He was, in fact, a victim to those " halfmeasures " which Machiavelli condemns as fatal to success.
Mahmud's policy was the converse of that recommended by Machiavelli, viz.
Soderini, who was perpetual gonfalonier of Florence, and Machiavelli, the secretary of the Ten, urged on the war.
But now, mainly owing to the efforts of Soderini and Machiavelli, the conquerors showed great magnanimity.
(Milan, 1834); P. Villari, Machiavelli (Eng.
Early in 1498 Adriani became chancellor of the republic, and Machiavelli received his vacated office with the rank of second chancellor and secretary.
In 150o Machiavelli travelled into France, to deal with Louis XII.
These embassies were the school in which Machiavelli formed his political opinions, and gathered views regarding the state of Europe and the relative strength of nations.
In 1502 Machiavelli married Marietta Corsini, who bore him several children, with whom, in spite of his own infidelities, he lived on good terms, and who survived him twenty-six years.
Machiavelli became intimately connected XVII.
More than once, in letters to his friend Vettori, no less than in the pages of the Principe, Machiavelli afterwards expressed his belief that Cesare Borgia's behaviour in the conquest of provinces, the cementing of a new state out of scattered elements, and the dealing with false friends or doubtful allies, was worthy of all commendation and of scrupulous imitation.
That Machiavelli separated the actual Cesare Borgia, whom he afterwards saw, ruined and contemptible, at Rome, from this radiant creature of his political fancy, is probable.
Still the fact remains that henceforth Machiavelli cherished the ideal image of the statesman which he had modelled upon Cesare, and called this by the name of Valentino.
On his return to Florence early in January 1503, Machiavelli began to occupy himself with a project which his recent attendance upon Cesare Borgia had strengthened in his mind.
Early in 1503 Machiavelli drew up for Soderini a speech, Discorso sull y provisione del danaro, in which the duty and necessity of liberal expenditure for the protection of the state were expounded upon principles of sound political philosophy.
Machiavelli immediately became their secretary.
The choice of Soderini and Machiavelli fell, at this juncture, upon an extremely ineligible person, none other than Don Micheletto, Cesare Borgia's cutthroat and assassin.
Meanwhile Italy had been the scene of memorable events, in most of which Machiavelli took some part.
The collapse of the Borgias threw Central Italy into confusion; and Machiavelli had, in 1505, to visit the Baglioni at Perugia and the Petrucci at Siena.
Upon these embassies Machiavelli represented the Florentine dieci in quality of envoy.
Machiavelli had to attend the camp and provide for levies amid his many other occupations.
But at the end of the latter year European affairs of no small moment diverted Machiavelli from these humbler duties.
Though they already had Francesco Vettori at his court, Soderini judged it advisable to send Machiavelli thither in December.
The government on which Machiavelli depended had fallen, never to rise again.
The nove della militia were, however, dissolved; and on the 7th of November 1512 Machiavelli was deprived of his appointments.
Machiavelli had taken no share in that feeble attempt against the Medici, but his name was found upon a memorandum dropped by Boscoli.
Machiavelli now entered upon a period of life to which we owe the great works that have rendered his name immortal.
In retirement at his villa near Percussina, a hamlet of San Casciano, Machiavelli completed the Principe before the end of 1513.
It appears to have grown out of another scarcely less celebrated work, upon which Machiavelli had been engaged before he took the Principe in hand, and which he did not finish until some time afterwards.
Machiavelli judged the case of Italy so desperate that salvation could only be expected from the intervention of a powerful despot.
Up to the date of Machiavelli, modern political philosophy had always presupposed an ideal.
At this moment Machiavelli intervenes.
After finishing the Principe, Machiavelli thought of dedicating it to one of the Medicean princes, with the avowed hope that he might thereby regain their favour and find public employment.
Machiavelli therefore was justified in feeling that here was an opportunity for putting his cherished schemes in practice, and that a prince with such alliances might even advance to the grand end of the unification of Italy.
Then Machiavelli turned his thoughts towards Lorenzo, duke of Urbino.
The Medici, as yet at' all events, could not employ Machiavelli, and had not in themselves the stuff to found Italian kingdoms.
They applied to several celebrated politicians, among others to Machiavelli, for advice in the emergency.
We may regard it as a supplement or appendix to the Principe and the Discorsi, since Machiavelli held it for a fundamental axiom that states are powerless unless completely armed in permanence.
The Vita di Castruccio was composed at Lucca, whither Machiavelli had been sent on a mission.
In the same year, 1520, Machiavelli, at the instance of the cardinal Giulio de' Medici, received commission from the officers of the Studio pubblico to write a history of Florence.
In the Historie fiorentine Machiavelli quitted the field of political speculation for that of history.
It is not so much a chronicle of Florentine affairs, from the commencement of modern history to the death of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1492, as a critique of that chronicle from the point of view adopted by Machiavelli in his former writing5,.
If Machiavelli had any moral object when he composed the Mandragola, it was to paint in glaring colours the corruption of Italian society.
Did not Machiavelli leave good habit, as an essential ingredient of character, out of account?
Machiavelli does not seem to have calculated the force of this recoil.
That Machiavelli invented it to express the irritation of his own domestic life is a myth without foundation.
The story has a medieval origin, and it was almost simultaneously treated in Italian by Machiavelli, Straparola and Giovanni Brevio.
In the spring of 1526 Machiavelli was employed by Clement VII.
After another visit to Guicciardini in the spring of 1527, Machiavelli was sent by him to Civita Vecchia.
Yet we need not run into the opposite extreme, and try to fancy that Machiavelli, who had professed Paganism in his life, proved himself a believing Christian on his deathbed.
Machiavelli taught him the need of speed, decision and unity of command, in war.
