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Revision as of 20:58, 1 November 2007 by 75.67.195.90 (talk) (→Works)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) "Machiavelli" redirects here. For other uses, see Machiavelli (disambiguation).| Niccolò Machiavelli | |
|---|---|
| Era | Renaissance philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophers |
| School | Renaissance philosophy, Realism, Classical Republicanism |
| Main interests | Politics, Military theory, History |
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (May 3, 1469 – June 21, 1527) was an Italian diplomat, political philosopher, musician, poet, and playwright. He is a figure of the Italian Renaissance and a central figure of its political component, most widely known for his treatises on realist political theory (The Prince) on the one hand and republicanism (Discourses on Livy) on the other.
Life
Machiavelli was born in San Casciano in Val di Pesa village near of the city-state of Florence, Italy, in 1469, and was the second son of Bernardo di Nicolo Machiavelli, a lawyer, and of Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli. His education left him with a thorough knowledge of the Latin and Italian classics. Machiavelli, was born into a tumultuous era, in which Popes were leading armies, and wealthy city-states of Italy were falling one after another into the hands of foreign powers—France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. It was a time of constantly shifting alliances, condottieri who changed sides without warning, and governments rising and falling in the space of weeks. Perhaps most significantly during this erratic upheaval was the sack of Rome in 1527 by rampaging soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire, the first time that Rome had been sacked by a Germanic army in nearly twelve centuries. Rich cities such as Florence and Genoa suffered a similar fate during these years. Machiavelli entered governmental service as a clerk and ambassador in 1494; that same year, Florence restored the republic and expelled the Medici family; rulers of the city for nearly sixty years. Machiavelli was placed as a member of a Council responsible for diplomatic negotiations and military matters. Between 1499 and 1512, he undertook a number of diplomatic missions to the court of Louis XII in France, Ferdinand II of Aragón, and the Papacy in Rome. From 1502 to 1503, he was a witness to the effective statebuilding methods of the soldier/churchman Cesare Borgia, an immensely capable general and statesman who was at that time engaged in enlarging his territories in central Italy through a mixture of audacity, prudence, self-reliance, firmness and, not infrequently, cruelty.
Between 1503 to 1506, Machiavelli was responsible for the Florentine miltia including the defense of the city. He distrusted mercenaries (a philosophy expounded at length in the Discorsi and in Il Principe) and much preferred a citizen militia. In August 1512, following a tangled series of battles, treaties, and alliances, the Medici with the help of Pope Julius II regained power in Florence and the republic was dissolved. Machiavelli, having played a significant role in the republic's anti-Medici government, was removed from office and in 1513 he was accused of conspiracy and arrested. Although tortured on the rack he denied his involvement and was eventually released. He retired to his estate at Sant'Andrea in Percussina near Florence and began writing the treatises that would ensure his place in the development of political philosophy.
In a famous letter to his friend Francesco Vettori, Machiavelli described how he spent his days in exile:
When evening comes, I return home and go to my study. On the threshold I strip naked, taking off my muddy, sweaty workday clothes, and put on the robes of court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the courts of the ancients and am welcomed by them, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born. And there I make bold to speak to them and ask the motives of their actions, and they, in their humanity reply to me. And for the space of four hours I forget the world, remember no vexation, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at death; I pass indeed into their world.
Much has been made of the notion of two Machiavellis: one of The Prince, one of the Discorsi. But Machiavelli himself cut through the alleged confusion when he identified a unifying theme:
All cities that ever at any time have been ruled by an absolute prince, by aristocrats or by the people, have had for their protection force combined with prudence, because the latter is not enough alone, and the first either does not produce things, or when they are produced, does not maintain them. Force and prudence, then, are the might of all the governments that ever have been or will be in the world.
Machiavelli died in San Casciano, a few miles outside of Florence, in 1527. His resting place is unknown; however a cenotaph in his honor was placed at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence.
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Notes
- The Literary Works of Machiavelli, trans. J.R. Hale. (Oxford: 1961), p. 139.
- "Words to be Spoken on the Law for Appropriating Money", in Chief Works and Others , trans. Allan H. Gilbert, 3 vols. (Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press, 1965), v. III, 1439.
Further reading
- Baron, Hans (1961). "Machiavelli: the Republican Citizen and Author of The Prince". English Historical Review (76): 217–253.
- Bock, Gisela (1990). Machiavelli and Republicanism. Cambridge University Press.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Donaldson, Peter S. (1989). Machiavelli and Mystery of State. Cambridge University Press.
- Everdell, William R. (1983, 2000). The End of Kings: A History of Republics and Republicans. University of Chicago Press.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|year=(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - Ingersoll, David E. (December 1968). "The Constant Prince: Private Interests and Public Goals in Machiavelli". Western Political Quarterly (21): 588–596.
- Magee, Brian (2001). The Story of Philosophy. New York: DK Publishing. pp. 72–73.
- Najemy, John M. (1996). "Baron's Machiavelli and Renaissance Republicanism". American Historical Review (101, 1): 119–129.
- Parel, Anthony (1972). "Introduction: Machiavelli's Method and His Interpreters". The Political Calculus: Essays on Machiavelli's Philosophy. Toronto. pp. 3–28.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Pocock, J.G. A. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton.
- Soll, Jacob (2005). Publishing The Prince: History, Reading and the Birth of Political Criticism. University of Michigan Press.
- Sullivan, Vickie B., ed. (2000). The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli: Essays on the Literary Works. Yale U. Press.
{{cite book}}:|first=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Sullivan, Vickie B. (1996). Machiavelli's Three Romes: Religion, Human Liberty, and Politics Reformed. Northern Illinois University Press.
- Viroli, Maurizio (2000). Niccolò's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
- Whelan, Frederick G. (2004). Hume and Machiavelli: Political Realism and Liberal Thought. Lexington.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Wootton, David, ed. (1994). Selected political writings of Niccolò Machiavelli. Indianapolis: Hackett Pubs.
{{cite book}}:|first=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Dirk Hoeges, 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.
External links
- Machiavelli: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- eMachiavelli.com, works and summaries of Machiavelli
- Works by Machiavelli at Project Gutenberg
- Machiavelli at the Marxists Internet Archive, including some of his works
- Works by Niccolò Machiavelli: text, concordances and frequency list
- Machiavelli on the Net, a Machiavelli webliography with a short introduction.
- Early modern philosophers
- 15th century philosophers
- 16th century philosophers
- Political philosophers
- Political theorists
- Italian political theorists
- Italian political writers
- Italian philosophers
- Italian statesmen
- Italian Renaissance writers
- People from Florence
- Italian Roman Catholics
- 1469 births
- 1527 deaths
- Italian Renaissance humanists