Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 –
21 June 1527) was an
Italian
philosopher/writer, and is considered one of the main founders of
modern
political science.
He was a
diplomat, political philosopher, musician, and playwright,
but, foremost, he was a civil servant of the Florentine Republic
. In June of 1498, after the ouster and
execution of
Girolamo
Savonarola, the Great Council elected Machiavelli as Secretary
to the second
Chancery of the
Republic of Florence.
Like
Leonardo da Vinci,
Machiavelli is considered a typical example of the
Renaissance Man. He is most famous for a short
political treatise,
The Prince,
written in 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after
Machiavelli's death. Although he privately circulated
The
Prince among friends, the only work he published in his
lifetime was
The Art of
War, about high-military science. Since the sixteenth
century, generations of politicians remain attracted and repelled
by the cynical approach to power posited in
The Prince and
his other works. Whatever his personal intentions, which are still
debated today, his surname yielded the modern political word
Machiavellianism—the use of cunning
and deceitful tactics in politics.
Life
Machiavelli was born in Florence
, Italy
, the third
son of attorney Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli, and his wife,
Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli. The Machiavelli family are
believed descended from the old
marquesses of Tuscany, and to have
produced thirteen Florentine
Gonfalonieres of Justice., one of
the offices of a group of nine citizens selected by drawing lots
every two months, who formed the government, or
Signoria.
Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era —
Popes waged war, and the wealthy Italian
city-states might anytime fall,
piecemeal, to foreign powers — France
, Spain
, the
Holy Roman Empire — and
political-military alliances continually changed, featuring
condottieri who changed sides without
warning, and weeks-long governments rising and
falling.
Rigorously trained to manhood by his father, Machiavelli was taught
grammar, rhetoric and Latin. He did not learn Greek, even though
Florence was at the time one of the centers of Greek scholarship in
Europe. In 1494, he entered Florentine government service as a
clerk and as an ambassador; later that year, Florence restored the
republic — expelling the
Medici family, who had ruled Florence for
some sixty years. He was in a diplomatic council responsible for
negotiation and military affairs, undertaking, between 1499 and
1512, diplomatic missions to the courts of
Louis XII in France,
Ferdinand II of Aragón, in Spain, and
the Papacy in Rome, in Italy proper. Moreover, from 1502 to 1503,
he witnessed the effective state-building methods of
soldier-churchman
Cesare Borgia(1475 –
1507), who was then enlarging his
central Italian territories.
Between 1503 and 1506, Machiavelli was responsible for the
Florentine
militia, including the City’s
defence. He distrusted
mercenaries (cf.
Discourses,
The Prince), preferring a
politically-invested citizen-militia, a philosophy that bore fruit
— his command of Florentine citizen-soldiers defeated Pisa in 1509;
yet, in August of 1512, the Medici, helped by
Pope Julius II, used Spanish troops to defeat
the Florentines at Prato;
Piero
Soderini resigned as Florentine head of state, and left in
exile; then, the Florentine city-state and the Republic were
dissolved. For his significant role in the republic's anti-Medici
government, Niccolò Machiavelli was deposed from office, and, in
1513, was accused of
conspiracy, and arrested.
Despite
torture "with the
rope" (the prisoner is hanged from his bound wrists, from the
back, forcing the arms to bear the body's weight, thus dislocating
the shoulders), he denied involvement and was released; then,
retiring to his estate, at Sant'Andrea in Percussina
, near Florence, he wrote the political treatises
that earned his intellectual place in the development of political
philosophy and political conduct.
In a letter to
Francesco Vettori,
he described his exile:
As a writer, Machiavelli identified the unifying theme in
The
Prince and the
Discorsi:
Machiavelli died in 1527.
His grave site is unknown, but a cenotaph
honouring
him was erected at the Church of Santa
Croce
, in Florence. The
Latin
legend reads:
TANTO NOMINI NULLUM PAR ELOGIUM
(
No eulogy would be adequate to praise so great a
name).
Works
Il Principe
The Prince's contribution to the history of political
thought is the fundamental break between political
Realism and political
Idealism. Niccolò Machiavelli’s best-known
book exposits and describes the arts with which a ruling prince can
maintain control of his realm. It concentrates on the "new prince",
under the presumption that a hereditary prince has an easier task
in ruling, since the people are accustomed to him. To retain power,
the hereditary prince must carefully maintain the socio-political
institutions to which the people are accustomed; whereas a new
prince has the more difficult task in ruling, since he must first
stabilize his new-found power in order to build an enduring
political structure. That requires the prince being a
public
figure above reproach, whilst privately acting amorally to
achieve State goals. The examples are those princes who most
successfully obtain and maintain power, drawn from his observations
as a Florentine diplomat, and his
ancient history readings; thus, the
Latin phrases and Classic examples.
The Prince does not dismiss morality, instead, it
politically
defines “Morality” — as in the criteria for
acceptable cruel action — it must be
decisive:
swift, effective, and short-lived. Machiavelli is aware of the
irony of good results coming from evil actions; notwithstanding
some mitigating themes, the
Catholic
Church proscribed
The Prince, registering it to the
Index Librorum
Prohibitorum, moreover, the Humanists also viewed the book
negatively, among them,
Erasmus of
Rotterdam. As a treatise, its primary intellectual contribution to
the history of political thought is the
fundamental break
between political
Realism and political
Idealism — thus,
The Prince is a
manual to acquiring and keeping political power. In contrast with
Plato and
Aristotle,
a Classical ideal society is not the aim of the prince’s will to
power. As a political scientist, Machiavelli emphasises
necessary, methodical exercise of brute force
punishment-and-reward (patronage,
clientelism, et cetera) to preserve the
status quo.
As there seems to be a huge difference between Machiavelli's advice
to ruthless and tyrannical princes in
The Prince and his
more republican exhortations in
Discorsi, many have
concluded that
The Prince is actually only a satire.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for
instance, admired Machiavelli the republican and consequently
argued that
The Prince is a book for the republicans as it
exposes the methods used by princes. If the book was only intended
as a manual for tyrannical rulers, it contains a paradox: it would
apparently be more effective if the secrets it contains would not
be made publicly available. Also
Antonio
Gramsci argued that Machiavelli's audience was the common
people because the rulers already knew these methods through their
education. This interpretation is supported by the fact that
Machiavelli wrote in Italian, not in Latin (which would have been
the language of the ruling elite). Although Machiavelli is supposed
to be a realist, many of his heroes in
The Prince are in
fact mythical or semi-mythical, and his goal (i.e. the unification
of Italy) essentially utopian at the time of writing.
Etymologically, his sixteenth-century contemporaries adopted and
used the adjective
Machiavellian (elaborately cunning),
often in the introductions of political tracts offering more than
government by “Reasons of State”, most notably those of
Jean Bodin and
Giovanni Botero; while contemporary,
pejorative usage of
Machiavellian
(
anti-Machiavellism in the 16th C.) is a misnomer
describing
someone who deceives and manipulates others for
gain; (personal or not, the gain is immaterial, only action
matters, insofar as it effects results).
The Prince hasn’t
the moderating themes of his other works; politically,
“Machiavelli” denotes someone of politically-extreme perspective;
however
Machiavellianism remains a
popular speech and journalism usage; while in psychology, it
denotes a
personality type.
Discorsi
The
Discourse on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy
comprises the early
history of Rome.
It is a series of lessons on how a republic
should be
started and structured, including the concept of
checks and balances, the strength of a
tri-partite political structure, and the superiority of a
republic over a principality.
From
The Discourses:
- “In fact, when there is combined under the same constitution a
prince, a nobility, and the power of the
people, then these three powers will watch and keep each other
reciprocally in check”. Book I, Chapter II
- “Doubtless these means [of attaining power] are cruel and
destructive of all civilized life, and neither Christian, nor even
human, and should be avoided by every one. In fact, the life of a
private citizen would be preferable to that of a king at the
expense of the ruin of so many human beings”. Book I, Chapter
XXVI
- “Now, in a well-ordered republic, it should never be necessary
to resort to extra-constitutional measures. . . . ” Book I, Chapter
XXXIV
- “. . . the governments of the people are better than those of
princes”. Book I, Chapter LVIII
- “. . . if we compare the faults of a people with those of
princes, as well as their respective good qualities, we shall find
the people vastly superior in all that is good and glorious”. Book
I, Chapter LVIII
- “For government consists mainly in so keeping your subjects
that they shall be neither able, nor disposed to injure you. . . .
” Book II, Chapter XXIII
- “. . . no prince is ever benefited by making himself hated”.
Book III, Chapter XIX
- “Let not princes complain of the faults committed by the people
subjected to their authority, for they result entirely from their
own negligence or bad example”. Book III, Chapter XXIX
Other works

Peter Withorne’s 1573 translation of
the Art of War
Besides being a
statesman (political scientist),
Machiavelli also translated classical works, and was a
dramaturge (
Clizia,
Mandragola),
a
poet (
Sonetti,
Canzoni,
Ottave,
Canti carnascialeschi), and a
novelist (
Belfagor arcidiavolo).
Some of his other works:
- Discorso sopra le
cose di Pisa (1499)
- Del
modo di trattare i popoli della Valdichiana ribellati
(1502)
-
Del modo tenuto dal duca Valentino nell’ ammazzare Vitellozzo
Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, etc. (1502) — A
Description of the Methods Adopted by the Duke Valentino when
Murdering Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, the Signor
Pagolo, and the Duke di Gravina Orsini
- Discorso
sopra la provisione del danaro (1502) — A discourse about
the provision of money.
- Decennale primo
(1506), a poem in terza rima.
- Ritratti delle cose dell’ Alemagna (1508–1512)
- Decennale secondo
(1509), a poem.
- Ritratti delle cose di Francia (1510) — Portrait of
the affairs of France.
- Andria (1517), a Classical comedy, translated from
Terence.
- Mandragola (1518) — The
Mandrake, a five-act prose comedy, with a verse
prologue.
- Della lingua (1514), a dialogue about the
language.
- Clizia (1525), a prose
comedy.
- Belfagor
arcidiavolo (1515), a novel.
- Asino d’oro (1517) — The Golden Ass is a terza
rima poem, a new version of the Classic
work by Apuleius.
- Dell’arte della guerra (1519–1520) — The Art of War, high
military science.
- Discorso sopra
il riformare lo stato di Firenze (1520) — A discourse
about the reforming of Florence.
- Sommario delle cose della citta di Lucca (1520) — A
summary of the affairs of the city of Lucca.
- Vita di Castruccio
Castracani da Lucca (1520) — The Life of Castruccio
Castracani of Lucca, a biography.
- Istorie fiorentine (1520–1525) — Florentine Histories, an
eight-volume history book of the city-state, Florence, commissioned
by Giulio di Giuliano de’ Medici, later Pope Clement VII.
- Frammenti storici (1525) — Fragments of stories.
Revival of interest in the 19th and 20th centuries
Despite remaining a politically-influential writer in the 17th and
18th centuries, it was the 19th and 20th centuries that
rediscovered his political science for its intellectual
and practical applications. The most reliable guide to
this renewed interest is the Introduction to the 1953 (Mentor
Books) edition of
Il Principe, wherein Christian Gauss,
the Dean of Princeton University, discusses, with pertinent
historical context, the commentaries on
The Prince made by
the German historians Ranke (19th c.) and Meineke (20th c.), the
Briton
Lord Acton, and others. Citing the
consensus that Machiavelli was the first political theorist with a
practical,
scientific approach to statecraft, considering
him “the first Modern Man”. The commentators view the political
scientist Machiavelli positively — because he viewed the world
realistically, thus, such statecraft leads to
(generally)constructive results.
See also
Notes
- Moschovitis Group Inc, Christian D. Von Dehsen and Scott L.
Harris, Philosophers and religious leaders, (The Oryx
Press, 1999), 117.
- S. Anglo, Machiavelli: the first century (Oxford,
2005)
- Donna, Daniel, in the introduction to the Bantam Classic
edition of The Prince, Bantam, 1966
- In one scholar's assessment, mistakenly so. Writes
Anthony Parel: "The authentic Machiavelli is one who subordinates
personal interests for the common good . . . If one is to speak of
a Machiavellian personality one should mention Moses and Romulus (to use [M's] own examples)." For more on
the three sources of historical anti-Machiavellism, see
Further Reading, Parel, pp. 14-24, and (in far
greater detail): Sydney Anglo, Machiavelli - the First Century:
Studies in Enthusiasm, Hostility, and Irrelevance, Oxford
University Press, 2005, ISBN 0199267766, 9780199267767.
- The Modern Library, New York, 1950, translated by Christian E.
Detmold.
References
- Machiavelli, Niccolò (1531). The Discourses. Translated by Leslie
J. Walker, S.J, revisions by Brian Richardson (2003). London:
Penguin Books. ISBN 0-140-44428-9
Further reading
- Anglo, Sydney, Machiavelli - the First Century: Studies in
Enthusiasm, Hostility, and Irrelevance, Oxford University
Press, 2005, ISBN 0199267766, 9780199267767
- Hoeges, Dirk. Niccolò Machiavelli.
Dichter-Poeta. Mit sämtlichen Gedichten,
deutsch/italienisch. Con tutte le poesie,
tedesco/italiano, Reihe: Dialoghi/Dialogues: Literatur und
Kultur Italiens und Frankreichs, Band 10, Peter Lang Verlag,
Frankfurt/M. u.a. 2006, ISBN 3-631-54669-6.
- ISBN 978-0-934941-003
- Seung, T. K. (1993). Intuition and Construction: The
Foundation of Normative Theory, New Haven: Yale University
Press. See pp. 133–43.
- Stefano Zen, Veritas ecclesiastica e Machiavelli, in
Monarchia della verità. Modelli culturali e pedagogia
della Controriforma, Napoli, Vivarium, 2002 (La Ricerca
Umanistica, 4), pp. 73–111.
- von Vacano, Diego, "The Art of Power: Machiavelli, Nietzsche
and the Making of Aesthetic Political Theory," Lanham MD:
Lexington: 2007.
- Mascia Ferri, L'opinione
pubblica e il sovrano in Machiavelli, in «The Lab's
Quarterly»,n.2 aprile-giugno,Università di Pisa,2008,
pp. 420–433.
- Giuseppe Leone,"Silone e Machiavelli: una scuola... che non
crea prìncipi", Prefazione di Vittoriano Esposito, Centro Studi
Ignazio Silone, Pescina, 2003.
External links
nan:Niccolò
Machiavelli