Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, author, political philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise The Prince (), written around 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death.For example: and He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.For example: , ,
For many years he served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs.Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction, chapter 1, pgs. 3-24 He worked as secretary to the second chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power.Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction, chapter 1, pgs. 3-24 He was expelled from his duties as a diplomat when the Medici retook power in Florence in 1512, and soon thereafter would be mistakenly suspected of treason, and sent into exile. A year later, he would take up the life of a political writer.
After his death Machiavelli's name came to evoke unscrupulous acts of the sort he recommended in his most famous work, The Prince. In the treatise, Machiavelli stated that rulers will have to take on unsavory policies in the furtherance of their political society, in contradiction to classical political thought.The Prince, Chapter 18 He advised rulers to engage in evil when political necessity requires it, for example, stating that successful founders and reformers of governments should be excused for killing their political enemies.For example, The Prince chap. 15, and The Discourses Book I, chapter 9 Machiavelli's Prince has been surrounded by controversy since it was published, with many commentators viewing The Prince as a manual that aims to teach would-be tyrants how they should seize authority and establish an absolute regime. Even into recent times, scholars such as Leo Strauss have restated the traditional opinion that Machiavelli was a "teacher of evil".
Even though Machiavelli has become most famous for his work on principalities, scholars also give attention to the exhortations in his other works of political philosophy. The Discourses on Livy (composed ) has been said to have paved the way for modern republicanism. His works were influenntial on later Enlightenment-era political authors such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and James Harrington.Sullivan, Vickie B. "Rousseau and Machiavelli." The Rousseauian Mind. Routledge, 2019. 44-54. Machiavelli's philosophical contributions have influenced generations of philosophers, academics and politicians, with many of them debating the nature of his ideas.
Life
Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy, the third child and first son of attorney Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli and his wife, Bartolomea di Stefano Nelli, on 3 May 1469. The Machiavelli family were a second-rate elite Florentine family in the late 13th to 14th centuries, and likely originated south of Florence near Giogoli and later became substantial landowners around Sant'Andrea in Percussina, possibly descending from minor feudal nobility in the Val di Pesa.Robert Black, "Machiavelli" (2013), pg. 3 Machiavelli's father, Bernardo, was born illegitimately and thus could not become a full citizen of Florence, nor could he participate in Florentine politics.Black (2022), p. 17 and 22 This affected Niccolò as well, who himself could not obtain full citizenship rights.Black (2022), p. 17 and 22 Not much is known about Machiavelli's early life, thus one of the main sources that historians rely on regarding his experiences during his childhood and adolescence exists in his father's diary, often referred to as Libro di Ricordi, found in the 20th century.Vivanti, Corrado. Niccolò Machiavelli: An Intellectual Biography, pg. 3 His family was a significant influence on his life, and his father likely influenced Machiavelli with his later preference in adulthood for a republican form of government.Black (2022) p. 21 There is not much known about Machiavelli's mother, as only few facts have been found about her life by historians.Nederman, Cary J. (December 2012). Machiavelli: A Beginner's Guide. Simon and Schuster. pg. 3 There are no surviving letters or written accounts that exist to describe her or her life.Niccolo's Smile, pg. 8
Machiavelli was born and raised in a tumultuous era. Machiavelli was eight years old when a conspiracy by the Pazzi family was hatched which aimed to assassinate both Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici, the then-de facto rulers of Florence, in a church. Only Giuliano was killed, and the leaders of the conspiracy were arrested and hanged. Machiavelli witnessed the resulting violence of the failed plot. As a young man he would listen, but not be swayed by, the lengthy sermons of Girolamo Savonarola.Viroli, Niccolo's Smile, 11-19 Machiavelli stated that Savonarola colored his "untruths" according to the situation.Capponi, pg. 23 Machiavelli's civil service began shortly after Savonarola was burned at the stake for heresy.
Machiavelli was taught grammar, rhetoric, and Latin by his teacher, Paolo da Ronciglione.Landi, pg. 16 It is unknown whether Machiavelli knew Greek; Florence was at the time one of the centers of Greek scholarship in Europe. In 1494 Florence restored the republic, expelling the Medici family that had ruled Florence for some sixty years.
Diplomatic career
Shortly after the execution of Savonarola, Machiavelli was appointed to an office of the second chancery, a medieval writing office that put Machiavelli in charge of the production of official Florentine government documents. Shortly thereafter, he was also made the secretary of the Dieci di Libertà e Pace, the Florentine council responsible for diplomacy and warfare. His appointment remains a mystery to scholars as he was a very young man, 29 at the time,Black, R. (2010). Machiavelli in the Chancery. The Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli, 31-47. with no experience in law or public office.Viroli, Niccolo's Smile, pg 28, 29
Machiavelli was originally a middle rank civil servant after Savonarola's death, however, his duties and his position within the Florentine Republic would rise during Piero Soderini's tenure as gonfaloniere of the republic. He was important to Soderini's government, and this led many of Machiavelli's contemporaries to view him as a mere extension of Soderini's orders. This led to jealousy within many factions of the Florentine Republic, and Machiavelli was often the subject of much gossip by some of his colleagues. Because he was head of the Chancery of the Ten, this gave him a leading role in the government. He was dispatched to the courts of various powerful rulers and personally represent Florence during these excursions. Like other chancery officials, he was given the task of preparing documents, usually in the form of letters sent on behalf of the Signoria.
Machiavelli married Marietta Corsini in 1501. They had seven children, five sons and two daughters: Primerana, Bernardo, Lodovico, Guido, , Baccina and Totto.
Machiavelli's first diplomatic missions occurred in 1499, where he was sent to the respective courts of Iacopo di Appiano in Piombino, and Caterina Sforza in Forlì. His first major mission was to France in order to placate King Louis XII, and to provide reasons for the failed Florentine assault at Pisa. During the French mission he met and had discussions with Georges d'Amboise, who was the cardinal of Rouen, an experience he would later discuss in his political works.
Machiavelli's position as a secretary enabled him to witness firsthand the state-building methods of the Pope Alexander VI, and his son, Cesare Borgia. Machiavelli often wrote highly about Cesare, stating in one letter that "this lord is splendid and magnificent", and that his pursuit of glory he "knows neither danger or fatigue". Machiavelli personally witnessed the brutal retribution Cesare Borgia inflicted on his rebellious commanders, Oliverotto Euffreducci and Vitellozzo Vitelli in Sinigaglia on 31 December 1502, an event he famously chronicled in a political work, The Description.Vivanti, pg. 34 In many of his early writings, Machiavelli emphasized the danger of offending a ruler and then expecting to trust him afterward. In 1503, Machiavelli was dispatched to Rome to observe the papal conclave that ultimately selected Julius II, who was a bitter rival of the Borgia family, as pope, despite Cesare's support for his election. As Cesare's power waned, Machiavelli documented his downfall in his poem First Decennale.Harvey Mansfield's entry about Machiavelli on Encyclopedia Britannica
Machiavelli was also a witness to Pandolfo Petrucci's consolidation of his rule in Siena, later noting in his works that he "governed his state more with those who were suspected of him than with others".
In the first decade of the 16th century, he carried out several diplomatic missions, most notably to the papacy in Rome. Florence sent him to Pistoia to pacify the leaders of two opposing factions which had broken into riots in 1501 and 1502; when this failed, the leaders were banished from the city, a recommendation which Machiavelli had disagreed with from the outset, and would later advise governments in similar situations to do the opposite. Machiavelli's official duties within the Florentine Republic, including his involvement in the disturbances of Pistoia and the rebellion of Arezzo, served as experiences that shaped his later intellectual development.Ridolfi, pg 52 Biographers noted that he advocated for firm punishment of rebellious cities, a stance consistent with his counsel in his later political treatises.Ridolfi, pg 52-53 These events, and the evident structural weaknesses of Florence's government compared to figures like Cesare Borgia, offered Machiavelli insights into political life. Though he wrote an official report, De rebus pistoriensibus, during this time, his later discourse Del modo di trattare i sudditi della Valdichiana ribellati was notable in that it aimed to combine historical knowledge of Rome's conduct with subject cities with the current political situation in Florence,Vivanti, pg. 23 and is considered his first mature, literary political work not driven by immediate bureaucratic necessity.
At the start of the 16th century, Machiavelli conceived of a militia for Florence, and he then began recruiting and creating it. He viewed that mercenary armies were inferior and instead preferred an army staffed with loyal, professional soldiers, a policy which he derived from observing antiquity. By February 1506 he was able to have four hundred farmers marching on parade, suited (including iron breastplates), and armed with lances and small firearms. Under his command, Florentine citizen-soldiers conquered Pisa in 1509. He was also tasked in gathering soldiers to aid Pope Julius' papal army in overthrowing the local lords of Perugia (Gian Paolo Baglioni) and Bologna (Giovanni Bentivoglio), noting first-hand Julius' audacious conduct.Capponi, pg. 130Vivanti, pg. 36
Exile and later years