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01 - The Prince - Machiavelli · Logic Library

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  This is an introduction by the translator W. K. Marriott. Niccolo Machiavelli
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  was born at Florence on May the third, fourteen sixty nine. He was
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  the second son of Bernardo di Niccolo Macchiavelli, a lawyer of some repute,
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  and of Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli, his wife. Both parents were members of
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  the old Florentine nobility. His life falls naturally into three periods, each of
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  which singularly enough constitutes a distinct and important era in the history of Florence.
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  His youth was concurrent with the greatness of Florence as an Italian power under the
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  guidance of Lorenzo de Medici il Magnifico. The downfall of the Medici in Florence
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  occurred in fourteen ninety four, in which year Machiavelli entered the public service.
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  During his official career, Florence was free under the government of a republic,
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  which wich lasted until fifteen twelve, when the Medici returned to power and Machiavelli
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  lost his office. The Medici again ruled Florence from fifteen twelve until fifteen twenty
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  seven one. They were once more driven out. This was the period of
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  Machiavelli's literary activity and increasing influence, but he died within a few weeks of
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  the expulsion of the Medici, on the twenty second of June fifteen twenty seven,
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  in his fifty eighth year, without having regained office. Youth age one
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  through twenty five, fourteen sixty nine through fourteen ninety four. Although there is
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  little recorded of the youth of Machiavelli, the Florence of those days is so
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  well known that the early environment of this representative citizen may be easily imagined.
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  Florence has been described as a city with two opposite currents of life, one
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  directed by the fervent and austere Savonarola, the other by the splendor loving Lorenzo
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  Savonarola's influence upon the young Machiavelli must have been slight, for although at one
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  time he wielded immense power over the fortunes of Florence, he only furnished Machiavelli
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  with a subject of a gibe in the Prince, where he is cited as
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  an example of an unarmed prophet who came to a bad end. Whereas the
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  magnificence of the Medician rule during the life of Lorenzo appeared to have impressed Machiavelli
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  strongly, for he frequently refers to it in his writings, and it is
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  to Lorenzo's grandson that he dedicates the Prince. Machiavelli, in his History of
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  Florence, gives us a picture of the young men among whom his youth was
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  past. He writes, they were freer than their forefathers in dress and living,
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  and spent more in other kinds of excesses, consuming their time and money
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  in idleness, gaming, and women. Their chief aim was to appear well
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  dressed and to speak with wit and acuteness, whilst he who could wound others
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  the most cleverly was thought the wisest. In a letter to his son Guido,
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  Machiabelle shows why youth should avail itself of its opportunities for study, and
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  leads us to infer that his own youth had been so occupied. He writes,
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  I have received your letter, which has given me the greatest pleasure,
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  especially because you tell me you are quite restored in health, then which I
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  could have no better news. For if God grant life to you and to
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  me, I hope to make a good man of you. If you are
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  willing to do your share. Then, writing of a new patron, he
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  concludes, this will turn out well for you, but it is necessary for
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  you to study, since then you have no longer the excuse of illness.
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  Take pains to study letters and music, for you see what honor is done
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  to me for the little skill I have. Therefore, my son, if
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  you wish to please me and to bring success and honour to yourself, do
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  write and study, because others will help you if you help yourself. Office
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  age twenty five through forty three. Fourteen ninety four through fifteen twelve. The
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  second period of Machiavelli's life was spent in the service of the Free Republic of
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  Florence, which flourished as stated above, from the expulsion of the Medici in
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  fourteen ninety four until their return in fifteen twelve. After serving four years in
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  one of the public offices, he was appointed Chancellor and Secretary to the Second
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  Chancery, the ten of Liberty and Peace. Here we are on firm ground
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  when dealing with the events of Machiavelli's life, for during this time he took
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  a leading part in the affairs of the Republic, and we have its decrees,
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  records, and dispatches to guide us, as well as his own writings.
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  A mere recapitulation of a few of his transactions with the statesmen and soldiers
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  of his time gives fair indication of his activities and supplies the sources from which
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  he drew the experience and characters which illustrate the prince. His first mission was
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  in fourteen ninety nine to Catharine Cephorozza, my Lady of Forli of the Prince,
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  from whose conduct and fate he drew the moral that it is far better
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  to earn the confidence of the people than to rely on fortresses. This is
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  a very noticeable principle in Machiavelli, and it has urged by him in many
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  ways as a matter of vital importance to princes. In fifteen hundred he was
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  sent to France to obtain terms from Louis the twelfth for continuing the war against
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  Pisa. This king, it was who, in his conduct of affairs in
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  Italy, committed the five capital errors in state craft summarized in the US Prince,
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  and was consequently driven out. He also it was who made the disillusion
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  of his marriage a condition of support to Pope Alexander the sixth, which leads
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  Machiavelli to referred to those who urge that such promises should be kept to what
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  he has written concerning the faith of princes. Marchiebelli's public life was largely occupied
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  with events arising out of the ambitions of Pope Alexander the sixth and his son
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  Caesare Borgia the Duke Valentino, and these characters fill a large space of the
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  Prince. Marchiabelli never hesitates to cite the actions of the Duke for the benefit
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  of usurpers who wish to keep the states they have seized. He can,
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  indeed find no precepts to offer for so good a pattern of caeserri Borge's conduct
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  insomuch that Cesare is acclaimed by some critics as the hero of the Prince.
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  Yet in the Prince the Duke is, in point of fact, cited as
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  the type of man who rises on the fortune of others and falls with them,
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  who takes every course that might be expected from a prudent man, but
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  the course which will save him, who is prepared for all eventualities. But
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  the one which happens, and who, when all his abilities fail to carry
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  him through, exclaims that it was not his fault, but an extraordinary and
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  unforeseen fatality. On the death of Pious Third in fifteen o three, Machibelli
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  was sent to Rome to watch the election of his successor, and there he
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  saw caeserri Borgia cheated into allowing the choice of the college to fall on Giolano
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  de Rovi, Julius the Second, who was one of the cardinals that had
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  most reason to fear the Duke. Machiavelli, when commenting on this election,
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  says that he who thinks new favors will cause great personages to forget old injuries
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  to see himself Julius did not rest until he had ruined Caesare. It was
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  to Julius the Second that Machiavelli was sent in fifteen o six, when that
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  pontiff was commencing his exercise against Bologna, which was brought to a successful issue,
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  as did many of his other adventures, owing chiefly to his impetuous character.
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  It is in reference to Pope Julius that Marchiavelli moralizes on the resemblance between
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  fortune and women and concludes that it is the bold, rather than the cautious
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  man, that will win and hold them both. It is impossible to follow
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  the varying fortunes of the Italian states, which in fifteen o seven were controlled
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  by France, Spain and Germany, with results that have lasted to our day.
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  We are concerned with those events, and with the three great actors in
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  them, so far only as they impinge on the personality of Machiavelli. He
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  had several meetings with Lewis, the twelfth of France, and his estimate of
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  that monarch's character has already been alluded to. Machiavelli had painted Ferdinand of Aragon
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  as the man who accomplished great things under the cloak of religion, but who
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  in reality had no mercy, faith, humanity or integrity, and who,
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  had he allowed himself to be influenced by such motives, would have been ruined.
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  The Emperor Maximilian was one of the most interesting men of the age.
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  The character has been drawn by many hands, but Machiavelli, who was an
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  envoy at his court in fifteen o seven through fifteen o eight, reveals the
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  secret of his many failures When he describes him as a secretive man without force
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  of character, ignoring the human agencies necessary to carry his schemes into effect,
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  and never insisting on the fulfillment of his wishes. The remaining years of Machiavelli's
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  official career were filled with events rising out of the League of Cambre made in
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  fifteen o eight between the three great European powers already mentioned and the Pope,
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  with the object of crushing the Venetian Republic. This result was obtained in the
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  Battle of Valia, when Venice lost in one day all that she had won
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  in eight hundred years. Florence had a difficult part to play during these events,
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  complicated as they were by the feud which broke out between the Pope and
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  the French, because friendship with France had dictated the entire policy of the Republic.
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  When in fifteen eleven Julius the second finally formed the Holy League against France
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  and with the assistance of the Swiss, drove the French out of Italy,
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  Florence lay at the mercy of the Pope and had to submit to his terms,
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  one of which was that the Medici should be restored. The return of
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  the Medici to Florence on the first of September fifteen twelve, and consequent fall
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  of the Republic was the signal for the dismissal of Macchiavelli and his friends,
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  and thus put an end to his public career. For as we have seen,
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  he died without regaining office literature and death, age forty three through fifty
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  eight fifteen twelve through fifteen twenty seven. On the return of the Medici,
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  Machiavelli, who for a few weeks had vainly hoped to retain his office under
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  the new masters of Florence, was dismissed by a decree dated seventh November fifteen
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  twelve. Shortly after this he was accused of complicity in an abortive conspiracy against
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  the Medici, Imprisoned and put to the question by torture. The new Medician,
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  Pope Leo the Tenth, procured his release and he retired to his small
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  property at San Casicano, near Florence, where he devoted himself to literature.
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  In a letter to Francesco Vittori dated thirteenth December fifteen thirteen, he has left
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  a very interesting description of his life at that period, which elucidates his methods
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  and his motives. In the Writing of the Prince, after describing his daily
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  occupations with his family and neighbors, he writes, the evening being come,
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  I return home and go to my study. At the entrance, I pull
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  off my peasant clothes covered with dust and dirt, and put on my noble
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  court dress. Thus becomingly re clothed, I pass into the ancient courts of
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  the men of old, where, being lovingly received by them, I am
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  fed with that food which is mine alone. Where I do not hesitate to
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  speak with them and to ask for the reason of their actions, and they,
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  in their benignity answer me, And for four hours I feel no weariness.
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  I forget every trouble, Poverty does not dismay, death does not terrify
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  me. I am possessed entirely by those great men. And because Dante says,
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  knowledge doth come of learning well retained unfruitful. Else, I have noted
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  down what I have gained from their conversation, and have composed a small work
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  on principalities, where I pour myself out as fully as I can in meditation
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  on the subject, discussing what a principality is, what kinds there are,
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  and how they can be acquired, how they can be kept, why they
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  are lost? And if any of my fancies ever pleased you, This ought
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  not to displease you. And to a prince, especially to a new one,
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  it should be welcome. Therefore I dedicate it to his magnificence, Giuliano
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  Filippo Casavecchio has seen it. He will be able to tell you what is
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  in it, and of the discourses I have had with him. Nevertheless,
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  I am still enriching and polishing it. The little Book suffered many vicissitudes before
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  attaining the form in which it has reached us. Various mental influences were at
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  work during its composition, Its title and patron were changed, and for some
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  unknown reason, it was finally dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici. Although Machibelli discussed
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  with Casovecchio whether it should be sent or presented in person to the patron,
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  there is no evidence that Lorenzo ever received or even read it. He certainly
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  never gave Machiavelli any employment. Although it was plagiarized during Machiavelli's lifetime, the
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  Prince was never published by him, and its text is still disputable. Machiavelli
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  concludes his letter to Vittore. Thus, and as to this little thing his
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  book, when it has been read, it will be seen that during the
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  fifteen years I have given to the study of state craft, I have neither
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  slept nor idled, and men ought to desire to be served by wa one
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  who has reaped experience at the expense of others, and of my loyalty.
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  None could doubt, because having always kept faith, I could not learn how
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  to break it. For he who has been faithful and honest as I have
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  cannot change his nature. And my poverty is a witness to my honesty.
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  Before Machiavelli had got the Prince off his hands, he commenced his discourse on
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  the First Decade of Titus Livius, which should be read concurrently with the Prince.
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  These and several minor works occupied him until the year fifteen eighteen, when
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  he accepted a small commission to look after the affairs of some Florentine merchants in
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  Genoa. In fifteen nineteen, the Medician rulers of Florence granted a few political
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  concessions to her citizens, and Machiavelli, with others, was consulted upon a
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  new constitution under which the Great Council was to be restored, but on one
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  pretext or another, it was not prompt nugated. In fifteen twenty the Florentine
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  merchants again had recourse to Machiabelli to settle their differences with Lucca. But this
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  year was chiefly remarkable for his re entry into Florentine literary society, where he
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  was much sought after, and also for the production of his Art of War.
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  It was in the same year that he received a commission at the instance
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  of Cardinal de Medici to write the History of Florence, a task which occupied
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  him until fifteen twenty five. His return to popular favor may have determined the
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  Medici to give him this employment. For an old writer observes that an able
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  statesman out of work, like a huge whale, will endeavor to overturn the
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  ship unless he has an empty cask to play with. When the History of
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  Florence was finished, Machiabelle took it to Rome for presentation to his patron,
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  Guilliano de Medici, who had in the meanwhile become pope under the title of
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  Clement the seventh. It is somewhat remarkable that, as in fifteen thirteen,
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  Machibelli had ridden the Prince for the instruction of the Medici after they had just
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  regained power in Florence. So in fifteen twenty five he dedicated the history of
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  Florence to the head of the family, when its ruin was now at hand.
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  In that year, the Battle of Pavia destroyed the French rule in Italy
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  and left Francis the First as a prisoner in the hands of his great rival
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  Charles the fifth. This was followed by the Sack of Rome, upon the
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  news of which the popular party in Florence threw off the yoake of the Medici,
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  who were once more banished. Machibelli was absent from Florence at this time,
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  but hastened his return, hoping to secure his former office of Secretary to
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  the Ten of Liberty and Peace. Unhappily, he was taken ill soon after
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  he reached Florence, where he died on the twenty second of June fifteen twenty
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  seven. End of the introduction