Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was born, lived, and died in Renaissance Florence, but his thought was immersed in antiquity, in the Sparta of Lycurgus, the Athens of Solon and Pericles, and most of all in Republican Rome. And it is this immersion that establishes Machiavelli as the central political thinker in the tradition of Renaissance humanism. Its results are reflections about political ideals and political practice, about Fortune and virtù (ingenuity, skill, excellence), about honor, reputation, and power. But Machiavelli’s thoughts are not mere fantasies; they are meant to be effective, to order political life, and to renew the past for the present. Writing to his friend Francesco Vettori in Rome, Machiavelli describes himself as a student of just this kind:
When evening comes, I return to my home, and I go into my study; and on the threshold, I take off my everyday clothes, which are covered with mud and mire, and I put on regal and curial robes; and dressed in a more appropriate manner I enter into the ancient courts of ancient men and am welcomed by them kindly, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born…. I have noted down what I have learned from their conversation, and I composed a little work, De principatibus [The Prince]….
Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469, into a respectable middle-class family. His father had a deep commitment to the Latin classics, a devotion which he obviously conveyed to his son. In 1498, shortly after the execution of the Dominican prophetic prior Girolamo Savonarola, the unknown and inexperienced Machiavelli was installed as chancellor of the Second Chancery of the city, a position which he held for fourteen years. It was not a prestigious or powerful role but one that involved him with the nitty-gritty of domestic and especially foreign affairs. In the course of those years, he served as secretary to the board assigned to establish a citizens’ militia, assisted Piero Soderini, his mentor and the city’s chief executive after 1502, and participated in a number of foreign diplomatic missions. On many occasions, Machiavelli was able to observe major political figures, who subsequently in his writings became models for types of political conduct and leadership. These include Cesare Borgia, whom he observed three times between 1502 and 1503, Pope Julius II, and the Emperor Maximilian.
When Soderini was forced to leave Florence and the republic dissolved, Machiavelli was arrested, tortured, and exiled to his country estate. These political events, as one commentator puts it, were “a personal misfortune” but also a “catalyst for his political imagination.” Forced into retirement, Machiavelli turned to study and writing. He joined a circle of Florentine intellectuals who met for conversation about literary and political matters at the Oricellari Gardens, owned by Cosimo Rucellai. It was here that he presented ideas that eventually became part of his extensive defense of republican liberty or self-government, the causes and nature of political corruption, the need for a civil religion, and the benefits of mixed constitution, the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titius Livius.
The Prince, Machiavelli’s most famous work, was written in this historical setting and for precise purposes. The son of Lorenzo de Medici had been elected Pope Leo X in 1513. With the republic under Soderini in ruins, the Medicis were destined to return to control Florence. The times were propitious for a union of Italian leadership under the Medicis, which would rule both Rome and Florence. In July to December of 1513, Machiavelli interrupted work on his commentary on Livy’s Histories and set out in The Prince his conception of daring political rule, a form of leadership that would exploit the prince’s skill (virtù) to take advantage of what Fortune provided in order to gain power, glory, and security. It was a conception of instrumental morality, ancient in design, that directly conflicted with Christian morality, but that at the same time was tailored to appeal to the Medicis’ needs and aspirations. It was a conception of human excellence appreciating and coping with the changing contingencies of circumstance in such a way that the prince’s ultimate goals could be achieved.
The Prince, then, was Machiavelli’s handbook for the strategies required to capitalize on the rare opportunity the Medicis faced. It was also his way of showing fidelity to that goal and of advancing himself as a candidate for a political role in the Medician government. He hoped that his friend Vettori, the Florentine ambassador to Rome, would intercede with the Medicis on his behalf, and so he wrote to Vettori about his work. But Vettori never did so, and the plan to seek Medician patronage and political office failed.
For the remainder of his life, Machiavelli lived in exile and neglect. He wrote extensively on war, language, and history. But he was never invited to return to public life. In 1527 he died, living long enough to see the Medici driven out of Florence and the republic reestablished. Four years later, in 1531, the Discourses were published, and then in 1532 The Prince, the works on which his fame rests to this day. To some, The Prince is a work of realism and practical sensitivity; to many, a cynical, immoral treatise that borders on the diabolical; to others, however, The Prince exemplifies a return to an early ethic, a morality, born in antiquity, that acknowledges the changes of Fortune, the variety of abilities and skills required to cope with contingencies, and the role of power, boldness, and even violence in political life.
Recommended Readings
Berlin, Isaiah. “The Originality of Machiavelli,” in Against the Current. ed. H. Hardy. London, 1979, 25–79.
Bock, G., Q. Skinner, M. Viroli (eds.). Machiavelli and Republicanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Burns, James (ed.) Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450–1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
De Grazia, S. Machiavelli in Hell. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
Gilbert, Felix. Machiavelli and Guicciardini. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965.
Pocock, J.G.A. The Machiavellian Moment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.
Skinner, Quentin. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. Vol. II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Skinner, Quentin. Machiavelli. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Viroli, Maurizio. From Politics to Reason of State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Wolin, Sheldon. Politics and Vision. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 1960.