Machiavelli

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=__**Niccoló Machiavelli**__= = = =__**(1469-1527)**__= = = = = =**Major Works**= //Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio,// 3 vols., 1512-1517 ([|Discourses on Livy]) //Il Principe//, 1513 ([|The Prince]) //Andria,// comedy translated from [|Terence], 1517 //Mandragola,// prose comedy in five acts, with prologue in verse, 1518 ([|The Mandrake]) //[|Belfagor arcidiavolo]// (novel), 1515 //Dell'arte della guerra,// 1519-1520 ([|The Art of War]) //Discorso sopra il riformare lo stato di Firenze,// 1520 //Sommario delle cose della citta di Lucca,// 1520 //Vita di Castruccio Castracani da Lucca,// 1520 (//The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca//) //Istorie fiorentine,// 8 books, 1520-1525 (//Florentine Histories//)

=**Biography**=

Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469, in Florence, Italy. His father, Bernardo belonged to an impoverished branch of an influential old Florentine family. Bernardo was a lawyer and he had a small personal library that included books by Greek and Roman philosophers and volumes of Italian history. Bernardo died in 1500, Machiavelli's mother, Bartolomea de' Nelli, had died in 1496.

As a thinker Machiavelli belonged to an entire school of Florentine intellectuals concerned with an examination of political and historical problems. His important writings were composed after 1512 when he was accused of conspiracy in 1513. The Medici family had returned to power and had ended the Florentine Republic. Lorenzo de' Medici fired Machiavelli who had held the office of Secretary under the previous government. He was suspected of plotting against the Medici, jailed, even tortured, and exiled. Machiavelli found himself unemployed after years of patriotic service, and spent most of his remaining years in producing his major works. He achieved some fame as a historian and playwright, but with //The Prince// he hoped to regain political favor. It tells how to gain, maintain, and centralize power.

In 1519 Machiavelli was partly reconciled with the Medici and he was given various duties, including writing a history of Florence. When the Medici was deposed in 1527 Machiavelli hoped for a new government post. However, now the republican government distrusted him for his previous association with the Medici.

Machiavelli's political writings became more widely known in the second half of the 16th century. When considered dangerous, they were placed in 1564 on the Church Index of officially banned books. Machiavelli's best known works are //Discorsi Sopra La Prima Deca Di Tito Livio// (1531, //Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius//) //The Mandrake//(1528) a satirical play and //Il Principe// (1532, The Prince), whose main theme is that all means may be used in order to maintain authority. //The Prince// was condemned by the Pope and its viewpoints gave rise to the well-known adjective machiavellian, a synonym for political maneuvers marked by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith. This interpretation of Machiavelli's thought is now being challenged on the grounds that it does not take into account any of his works other than //The Prince// and does not consider the political situation in Italy when he was writing.

From 1521 to 1525, Machiavelli was employed as a historiographer. Niccolo Machiavelli died in Florence on June 21, 1527.

From http://www.online-literature.com/machiavelli/

=**Timeline of Machiavelli's Life**=


 * 1469** (May 3) - Niccolò Machiavelli is born


 * 1475**- Bernardo Machiavelli receives Livy's History of Rome from the printer Niccolò Tedesco o Alamanno as compensation for creating the index for the volume.


 * 1478** - Pazzi conspiracy. An attempt by the Pazzi family to kill Lorenzo and Guiliano di Medici and usurp power fails as Lorenzo (later called //il Magnifico//) survives.


 * 1486** - Bernardo puts Niccolò in charge of binding a number of his books, among them the Livy volume.


 * 1489** - Poliziano publishes the first century of the //Miscellanea//.

(aug 11) Rodrigo Borgia is elected pope, becoming Alexander VI. (Oct 12) Columbus lands on San Salvador.
 * 1492** - (April 8) Lorenzo //il Magnifico// dies

Piero di Medici gives up Pisa and Livorno, among other territories, to Charles in order to spare Florence. Popular resentment boils over against the Medici because of this action. The Medici flee the city. The Florence forms a republican government, in which Savonarola is influential. The new government negotiates new terms with Charles, giving him safe passage through the city, but not giving up territory Charles' troops enter Florence.
 * 1494** - Charles VIII of France marches into Italy


 * 1495** - Charles VIII enters Naples. An anti-French league is formed (Ludovico il Moro, the pope, Venice, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire); after fighting the league's forces at the Battle of Fornavo, King Charles barely manages to take his troops back to France.

(Dec 2) In the name of the "Maclavellana familia" Niccolò writes to the Cardinal Giovanni Lopez, bishop of Perugia.
 * 1497** - Five Florentines, sympathetic to the Medici, are accused of conspiring to bring down the Republic and condemned to die. Although the new constitution specifies the right to appeal, Savonarola recommends that they be put to death (as they are political rivals). They are put to death without appeal and popular opinion begins to turn agains Savonarola. Charles VIII dies.

(Apr. 7) Louis XII succeeds Charles VIII as kink of France. (May 23) Without the backing of the Florentine people, Savonarola is vulnerable to the Church in Rome. He is excommunicated and burned at the stake. (June 15) Niccolò enters public life. He becomes Chief of the Second Chancery, in part due to the support of Marcello Virgilio Adriani, Secretary of the First Chancery. As chief of the Second Chancery, Niccolò is Secretary to the Ten of Liberty and Peace, the commission which oversees military matters and foreign affairs. Niccolò is entrusted with keeping the Signoria and the Ten informed in military and political problems so they can make apprpriate and timely decisions.
 * 1498** - (Feb. 13) Marcello Virgilio Adriani succeeds Bartolomeo Scala as the Secretary of the First Chancery of the Florentine Republic.


 * 1499** - Mar. - Niccolò's first mission for the Ten: to Jacopo IV d'Appiano, lord of Piombino. July - Niccolò travels to Forlí, to the court of Caterina Sforza Riario. Cesare Borgia, Son of the Pope, Alexander VI, begins to build his dominion with conquests in Romagna. He also takes Forlí—and Florence does nothing to help Caterina Sforza. Florence attempts to retake Pisa. Mercenary troops, however, refuse to enter a breach in the Pisan walls. The condottieri, professional captains, are put to death for treason.

(Jul) Niccolò & Francesco della Casa travel to the court of Louis XII. It is his first foreign commission, Florence seeks redress for the poor showing of French troops in the seige of Pisa. (Oct) Cesare Borgia's campaign: takes Pesaro, Rimini, Faenza (resists), Piombino
 * 1500** - (May) Death of Bernardo Machiavelli.

(Sep) Mission to Siena
 * 1501 -** (Aug) Marries Marieta Corsini, with whom he will have seven children: Primerana, Bernardo, Lodovico, Piero, Guido, Bartolomeo, Baccina, and Totto.

(May) Primerana born. Jun - Borgia takes Urbino. Jun - Niccolò is dispatched to the court of Cesare Borgia for the first time. Sept - In Florence, the office of gonfalonier for life is established-Piero Soderini. Oct 9 - Borgia's lieutenants, fearing his ambition, rebel against him. Oct 11?- Niccolò is dispatched to Borgia a second time. Dec - Borgia kills Orsini, Vitelli, et al. at Senigallia.
 * 1502** -

Jan - Niccolò returns to Florence. Oct - Julius II becomes pope. Nov - Bernardo born. Dec - Without his father as Pope, and with Julius hostile to him, Cesare's power base collapses. He is broght to Rome as a prisoner and disappears. Rumor has it that he has been killed by the Pope. He is never seen again.
 * 1503** -


 * 1504** - //First Decennial// ( A chronicle in verse of the events in Florence in the decade 1494 to 1504)


 * 1506** - Florence's first militia is mustered, with Niccolò playing a significant role.

Nov - Niccolò is removed from government, barred from the Palazzo and forbidden to leave Florence for one year. MiH 32
 * 1512** - Return of the Medici to Florence.


 * 1513** - From 12 Feb. to 13 Mar. Machiavelli is imprisoned in the Bargello and tortured on suspicion of being a supporter of a plot to assassinate Giovanni de' Medici. 11 Mar. - Giovanni de' Medici becomes Pope Leo X and grants an amnesty to those in jail under such suspicion, including Machiavelli.


 * 1514** - //Second Decennial// (A successive chronicle covering the years 1505 to 1509; unfinished)


 * 1513–c.1515** - //The Prince//


 * 1513–1517** - //Discourses//


 * 1517–1520** - Niccolò holds court in the walled gardens (the Orti Orcellari) of the Rucellai family.

"Discursus" a proposal for a new constitution, presented to Giulio de'Madici (future pope Clement VII)
 * 1520** - //The Mandragola//

//Art of War//
 * 1521** May - The government and wool guild of Florence sends Niccolò to a meeting of the Chapter General of Minorite Friars at Carpi


 * 1522** - Younger brother Totto (a priest) dies.

//Clizia -// Affair with Barbera.
 * 1525** - //Florentine Histories//, begun in 1520, presented to Clement VII. Niccolò has brought it up to the death of Lorenzo de'Medici. It is well received by the Pope, who grants him a subsidy for its continuation. Further, Clement sends him to Romagna to advise Francesco Guicciardini, the Pope's representative there, on raising papal troops in the region.


 * 1526–1527** - During the fight between the League of Cognac and the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor, The Pope, the Florentine Government, and the leutenant-general of the pontifical army all use Niccolò with their military forces for various missions of advice, reporting, and evaluation. He also is called upon to inspect the fortifications of Florence. He is appointed a new commission, the "Five Administrations of the [City] Walls," his last official post.

June 22 - Death of Niccolò Machiavelli
 * 1527** - May - second expulsion of the Medici from Florence. A new government


 * Source: http://www.donmacdonald.com/Machiavelli/timeline.html**

=Machiavelli & The Italian Renaissance=

Machiavelli’s political thought represents a shift to a modern way of thinking that began to develop during the Renaissance. One sign of Machiavelli’s modernity comes from his views on how “princes” come to power. To Machiavelli, successful leaders were those who knew “how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity” (chapter xv). This represents a departure from older ideas of who should rule, such as the medieval [|divine right] or [|classical view of rulers as those most endowed with virtue].

Machiavelli is also modern in his reliance on historical events for his conclusions. Much like the [|Scientific Revolution], Machiavelli took what he saw happening around him and drew conclusions based on those observations. In this way, Machiavelli focused on real events that could be “possessed and observed” and not on idealistic expectations like most past political thinkers. Machiavelli spent time in the court of the king of France as a diplomat. While there, he spent his time observing the workings of the king and began contemplating his political theories to explain the events he saw in court. Machiavelli's criticism of the French king is apparent in //The Prince// where he alleges that Louis XII made five important errors in statecraft. Machiavelli was partly responsible for the failed defense of [|Florence] in 1512 //(A Very Short Introduction to Machiavelli).//

Machiavelli’s writings also express the same sort of feelings as were occurring in the Reformation around him. He was similar to other religious thinkers such as Martin Luther in that he realized how hypocritical many church leaders had become. This opinion was emphasized in his writings. Unlike those in the Reformation, however, Machiavelli saw this discontinuity as something to be cultivated, not fixed.