History Florence

424 Pages·2008·1.05 MB·English

by  Niccolo Machiavelli

HISTORY OF FLORENCE
AND
OF THE AFFAIRS OF ITALY
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OF LORENZO
THE MAGNIFICENT
By
Niccolo Machiavelli
With an Introduction by
Hugo Albert Rennert, Ph.D. Professor of Romanic Languages and Literature, University of Pennsylvania
A P S E C S P
ENN TATE LECTRONIC LASSICS ERIES UBLICATION
History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy from the Earliest Times to the Death of Lorenzo the Magnificent
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History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy from the Earliest Times to the Death of Lorenzo the Magnificent
by Niccolo Machiavelli, the Pennsylvania State University, Electronic Classics Series, Jim Manis, Faculty
Editor, Hazleton, PA 18202-1291 is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing student
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Cover Design: Jim Manis; image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; crop from Santi di Tito's famous
portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli, now residing in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy.
Copyright © 2007 The Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University is an equal opportunity university.
Machiavelli
HISTORY OF FLORENCE
AND OF THE AFFAIRS OF
ITALY
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES
TO THE DEATH OF LORENZO
Preparer’s Note
THE MAGNIFICENT
This text was typed up from a Universal Classics Library
By
edition, published in 1901 by W. Walter Dunne, New York
and London. The translator was not named. The book
Niccolo
contains a “photogravure” of Niccolo Machiavelli from
an engraving.
Machiavelli
With an Introduction by
Hugo Albert Rennert, Ph.D. Professor of Romanic
Languages and Literature, University of Pennsylvania.
3
History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy
IIIIINNNNNTTTTTRRRRROOOOODDDDDUUUUUCCCCCTTTTTIIIIIOOOOONNNNN ity was soon recognized, and in 1500 he was sent on a
mission to Louis XII. of France, and afterward on an em-
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, the first great Italian historian, and bassy to Cæsar Borgia, the lord of Romagna, at Urbino.
one of the most eminent political writers of any age or Machiavelli’s report and description of this and subsequent
country, was born at Florence, May 3, 1469. He was of an embassies to this prince, shows his undisguised admira-
old though not wealthy Tuscan family, his father, who was tion for the courage and cunning of Cæsar, who was a
a jurist, dying when Niccolo was sixteen years old. We master in the application of the principles afterwards ex-
know nothing of Machiavelli’s youth and little about his posed in such a skillful and uncompromising manner by
studies. He does not seem to have received the usual hu- Machiavelli in his Prince.
manistic education of his time, as he knew no Greek.* The limits of this introduction will not permit us to fol-
The first notice of Machiavelli is in 1498 when we find low with any detail the many important duties with which
him holding the office of Secretary in the second Chan- he was charged by his native state, all of which he ful-
cery of the Signoria, which office he retained till the down- filled with the utmost fidelity and with consummate skill.
fall of the Florentine Republic in 1512. His unusual abil- When, after the battle of Ravenna in 1512 the holy league
determined upon the downfall of Pier Soderini,
* Villari, Niccolo Machiavelli e i suoi tempi, 2d ed. Milan, 1895- Gonfaloniere of the Florentine Republic, and the resto-
97, the best work on the subject. The most complete bibliogra-
ration of the Medici, the efforts of Machiavelli, who was
phy of Machiavelli up to 1858 is to be found in Mohl, Gesch. u.
Liter. der Staatswissenshaften, Erlangen, 1855, III., 521-91. See an ardent republican, were in vain; the troops he had
also La Vita e gli scritti di Niccolo Machiavelli nella loro Relazione
helped to organize fled before the Spaniards and the
col Machiavellismo, by O. Tommasini, Turin, 1883 (unfinished).
The best English translation of Machiavelli with which I am Medici were returned to power. Machiavelli attempted
acquainted is: The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic writings
to conciliate his new masters, but he was deprived of his
of Niccolo Machiavelli, translated by Christian E. Detmold.
Osgood & Co., Boston, 1882, 4 vols. 8vo.
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Machiavelli
office, and being accused in the following year of partici- qualified. The Discourses and The Prince, written at the
pation in the conspiracy of Boccoli and Capponi, he was same time, supplement each other and are really one work.
imprisoned and tortured, though afterward set at liberty Indeed, the treatise, The Art of War, though not written
by Pope Leo X. He now retired to a small estate near San till 1520 should be mentioned here because of its inti-
Casciano, seven miles from Florence. Here he devoted mate connection with these two treatises, it being, in fact,
himself to political and historical studies, and though ap- a further development of some of the thoughts expressed
parently retired from public life, his letters show the deep in the Discorsi. The Prince, a short work, divided into
and passionate interest he took in the political vicissi- twenty-six books, is the best known of all Machiavelli’s
tudes through which Italy was then passing, and in all of writings. Herein he expresses in his own masterly way his
which the singleness of purpose with which he continued views on the founding of a new state, taking for his type
to advance his native Florence, is clearly manifested. It and model Cæsar Borgia, although the latter had failed
was during his retirement upon his little estate at San in his schemes for the consolidation of his power in the
Casciano that Machiavelli wrote The Prince, the most Romagna. The principles here laid down were the natu-
famous of all his writings, and here also he had begun a ral outgrowth of the confused political conditions of his
much more extensive work, his Discourses on the Decades time. And as in the Principe, as its name indicates,
of Livy, which continued to occupy him for several years. Machiavelli is concerned chiefly with the government of
These Discourses, which do not form a continuous com- a Prince, so the Discorsi treat principally of the Republic,
mentary on Livy, give Machiavelli an opportunity to ex- and here Machiavelli’s model republic was the Roman
press his own views on the government of the state, a task commonwealth, the most successful and most enduring
for which his long and varied political experience, and an example of popular government. Free Rome is the em-
assiduous study of the ancients rendered him eminently bodiment of his political idea of the state. Much that
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History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy
Machiavelli says in this treatise is as true to-day and holds he in nowise extols him as a hero, but merely as a prince
as good as the day it was written. And to us there is much who was capable of attaining the end in view. The life of
that is of especial importance. To select a chapter almost the State was the primary object. It must be maintained.
at random, let us take Book I., Chap. XV.: “Public affairs And Machiavelli has laid down the principles, based upon
are easily managed in a city where the body of the people his study and wide experience, by which this may be ac-
is not corrupt; and where equality exists, there no princi- complished. He wrote from the view-point of the politi-
pality can be established; nor can a republic be established cian,—not of the moralist. What is good politics may be
where there is no equality.” bad morals, and in fact, by a strange fatality, where morals
No man has been more harshly judged than Machiavelli, and politics clash, the latter generally gets the upper hand.
especially in the two centuries following his death. But And will anyone contend that the principles set forth by
he has since found many able champions and the tide has Machiavelli in his Prince or his Discourses have entirely
turned. The Prince has been termed a manual for tyrants, perished from the earth? Has diplomacy been entirely
the effect of which has been most pernicious. But were stripped of fraud and duplicity? Let anyone read the fa-
Machiavelli’s doctrines really new? Did he discover them? mous eighteenth chapter of The Prince: “In what Man-
He merely had the candor and courage to write down what ner Princes should keep their Faith,” and he will be con-
everybody was thinking and what everybody knew. He vinced that what was true nearly four hundred years ago,
merely gives us the impressions he had received from a is quite as true to-day.
long and intimate intercourse with princes and the affairs Of the remaining works of Machiavelli the most impor-
of state. It was Lord Bacon, I believe, who said that tant is the History of Florence written between 1521 and
Machiavelli tells us what princes do, not what they ought 1525, and dedicated to Clement VII. The first book is
to do. When Machiavelli takes Cæsar Borgia as a model, merely a rapid review of the Middle Ages, the history of
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Machiavelli
Florence beginning with Book II. Machiavelli’s method out blemish—few lives are. We must bear in mind the
has been censured for adhering at times too closely to the atmosphere of craft, hypocrisy, and poison in which he
chroniclers like Villani, Cambi, and Giovanni Cavalcanti, lived,—his was the age of Cæsar Borgia and of Popes like
and at others rejecting their testimony without apparent the monster Alexander VI. and Julius II. Whatever his
reason, while in its details the authority of his History is faults may have been, Machiavelli was always an ardent
often questionable. It is the straightforward, logical nar- patriot and an earnest supporter of popular government.
rative, which always holds the interest of the reader that It is true that he was willing to accept a prince, if one
is the greatest charm of the History. Of the other works of could be found courageous enough and prudent enough
Machiavelli we may mention here his comedies the to unite dismembered Italy, for in the unity of his native
Mandragola and Clizia, and his novel Belfagor. land he saw the only hope of its salvation.
After the downfall of the Republic and Machiavelli’s Machiavelli is buried in the church of Santa Croce at
release from prison in 1513, fortune seems never again to Florence, beside the tomb of Michael Angelo. His monu-
have favoured him. It is true that in 1520 Giuliano de’ ment bears this inscription:
Medici commissioned him to write his History of Florence, “Tanto nomini nullum par eulogium.”
and he afterwards held a number of offices, yet these lat- And though this praise is doubtless exaggerated, he is a
ter were entirely beneath his merits. He had been mar- son of whom his country may be justly proud.
ried in 1502 to Marietta Corsini, who bore him four sons
and a daughter. He died on June 22, 1527, leaving his Hugo Albert Rennert.
family in the greatest poverty, a sterling tribute to his hon-
esty, when one considers the many opportunities he doubt-
less had to enrich himself. Machiavelli’s life was not with-
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History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy
THE FLORENTINE that part of them are compelled to abandon their native
soil, and seek a habitation in other countries. The method
HISTORY OF NICCOLO
adopted, when one of these provinces had to be relieved
MACHIAVELLI of its superabundant population, was to divide into three
parts, each containing an equal number of nobles and of
people, of rich and of poor. The third upon whom the lot
fell, then went in search of new abodes, leaving the re-
BOOK I
maining two-thirds in possession of their native country.
These migrating masses destroyed the Roman empire
CCCCCHHHHHAAAAAPPPPPTTTTTEEEEERRRRR IIIII by the facilities for settlement which the country offered
when the emperors abandoned Rome, the ancient seat of
Irruption of Northern people upon the Roman territories— their dominion, and fixed their residence at
Visigoths—Barbarians called in by Stilicho—Vandals in Constantinople; for by this step they exposed the western
Africa—Franks and Burgundians give their names to empire to the rapine of both their ministers and their en-
France and Burgundy—The Huns—Angles give the name emies, the remoteness of their position preventing them
to England—Attila, king of the Huns, in Italy—Genseric either from seeing or providing for its necessities. To suf-
takes Rome—The Lombards. fer the overthrow of such an extensive empire, established
by the blood of so many brave and virtuous men, showed
T
HE PEOPLE who inhabit the northern parts beyond no less folly in the princes themselves than infidelity in
the Rhine and the Danube, living in a healthy and their ministers; for not one irruption alone, but many,
prolific region, frequently increase to such vast multitudes contributed to its ruin; and these barbarians exhibited
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Machiavelli
much ability and perseverance in accomplishing their after the death of Theodosius, determined not to be gov-
object. ernors merely, but to assume sovereign dominion over their
The first of these northern nations that invaded the em- respective provinces. Gildo and Ruffinus were suppressed
pire after the Cimbrians, who were conquered by Caius at their outset; but Stilicho, concealing his design, ingra-
Marius, was the Visigoths—which name in our language tiated himself with the new emperors, and at the same
signifies “Western Goths.” These, after some battles fought time so disturbed their government, as to facilitate his
along its confines, long held their seat of dominion upon occupation of it afterward. To make the Visigoths their
the Danube, with consent of the emperors; and although, enemies, he advised that the accustomed stipend allowed
moved by various causes, they often attacked the Roman to this people should be withheld; and as he thought these
provinces, were always kept in subjection by the imperial enemies would not be sufficient alone to disturb the em-
forces. The emperor Theodosius conquered them with pire, he contrived that the Burgundians, Franks, Vandals,
great glory; and, being wholly reduced to his power, they and Alans (a northern people in search of new habita-
no longer selected a sovereign of their own, but, satisfied tions), should assail the Roman provinces.
with the terms which he granted them, lived and fought That they might be better able to avenge themselves
under his ensigns, and authority. On the death of for the injury they had sustained, the Visigoths, on being
Theodosius, his sons Arcadius and Honorius, succeeded deprived of their subsidy, created Alaric their king; and
to the empire, but not to the talents and fortune of their having assailed the empire, succeeded, after many reverses,
father; and the times became changed with the princes. in overrunning Italy, and finally in pillaging Rome.
Theodosius had appointed a governor to each of the three After this victory, Alaric died, and his successor,
divisions of the empire, Ruffinus to the eastern, to the Astolphus, having married Placidia, sister of the emper-
western Stilicho, and Gildo to the African. Each of these, ors, agreed with them to go to the relief of Gaul and Spain,
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History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy
which provinces had been assailed by the Vandals, upon the nearer shore of the Danube, and which, from
Burgundians, Alans, and Franks, from the causes before their name, is still called Hungary. To these disorders it
mentioned. Hence it followed, that the Vandals, who had must be added, that the emperor, seeing himself attacked
occupied that part of Spain called Betica (now Andalusia), on so many sides, to lessen the number of his enemies,
being pressed by the Visigoths, and unable to resist them, began to treat first with the Vandals, then with the Franks;
were invited by Boniface, who governed Africa for the a course which diminished his own power, and increased
empire, to occupy that province; for, being in rebellion, that of the barbarians. Nor was the island of Britain, which
he was afraid his error would become known to the em- is now called England, secure from them; for the Britons,
peror. For these reasons the Vandals gladly undertook the being apprehensive of those who had occupied Gaul,
enterprise, and under Genseric, their king, became lords called the Angli, a people of Germany, to their aid; and
of Africa. these under Vortigern their king, first defended, and then
At this time Theodosius, son of Arcadius, succeeded to drove them from the island, of which they took posses-
the empire; and, bestowing little attention on the affairs sion, and after themselves named the country England.
of the west, caused those who had taken possession to But the inhabitants, being robbed of their home, became
think of securing their acquisitions. Thus the Vandals ruled desperate by necessity and resolved to take possession of
Africa; the Alans and Visigoths, Spain; while the Franks some other country, although they had been unable to
and Burgundians not only took Gaul, but each gave their defend their own. They therefore crossed the sea with their
name to the part they occupied; hence one is called France, families, and settled in the country nearest to the beach,
the other Burgundy. The good fortune of these brought which from themselves is called Brittany. The Huns, who
fresh people to the destruction of the empire, one of which, were said above to have occupied Pannonia, joining with
the Huns, occupied the province of Pannonia, situated other nations, as the Zepidi, Eurili, Turingi, and Ostro, or
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