NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli

Introduction

In the history of Western political thought, few thinkers have been as influential—or as controversial—as the sixteenth-century Florentine statesman Niccolò Machiavelli. The author of a wide-ranging collection of writings, Machiavelli was a true Renaissance man. He lived a political life of both practical and theoretical importance, while making an important contribution to Italian literature as well. Often misunderstood, his writings have been characterized as representing a cynical, duplicitous quest for power at all costs; hence the colloquial term Machiavellian. In fact, the author of The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, among other works, was a founder of modern political thought who never endorsed the idea that “the ends justify the means.” His corpus is rich, complex, and variegated, something that has led to numerous—and sometimes vastly different—interpretations (Vacano, 2007).

Background and Context

Machiavelli was born in the Italian province of Tuscany, in the city of Florence, on May 3, 1469. He studied Latin from an early age, as his father Bernardo was a lawyer and had ties to humanist circles. He entered public life when he was elected second chancellor of the Republic of Florence, which principally managed Florence's territories. He also served as advisor to Piero Soderini, gonfaloniere of republican Florence after the Medici were driven out of power. He was also known as the creator of the city's militia and as secretary of its war magistracy of Ten, or “Ten of War,” the committee responsible for Florence's foreign and diplomatic relations. In addition to his military experience, Machiavelli was involved in many diplomatic missions, including those to France, Siena, the Papal Court, the German emperor, and to Cesare Borgia. His political career ended upon the return of the Medici to Florentine rule, which led to his imprisonment and torture. He wrote his major works thereafter. In 1513 he wrote The Prince, seeking employment and dedicating it to Lorenzo de' Medici, although the work was originally written for Giuliano de' Medici. Around that time he also wrote his defense of republican government, The Discourses on the Ten Books of Titus Livy. He died in 1527, having failed in his attempts to return to political activity.

During much of Machiavelli's life, his homeland, Florence, was in crisis. Constantly at war or in tension with its neighbors, Florence was also prey to internal and external threats. Internally, powerful elites—such as the Medici family—dominated politics and became corrupt, that is, oriented merely toward their own interests. Externally, the city-state was encroached upon not only by regional rivals, such as Siena and Pisa, but also by more distant enemies, such as the French and the Spanish. In this context of instability, Machiavelli found guidance in the writings of the ancient denizens of the Italian peninsula, specifically the Romans (Viroli, 2000).

The Recovery of Classical Civic Humanism

Disgusted by the corruption of his Florentine contemporaries, Machiavelli sought solace in the virtues of the ancients. In his analysis of the first ten books of Titus Livy's history of Rome, Machiavelli analyzed what made Rome strong internally and ...