E-Book Overview
Edited and translated by Peter Bondanella and Mark Musa, "The Portable Machiavelli" not only gives the casual reader a chance to read different personal and professional works of Machiavelli, but also strives to do away with many of the myths that have plagued the man's posthumous fame. For example, the famous 'the ends justifies the means' quote is actually a gross exaggeration of what Machiavelli originally wrote, which was 'in the actions of all men...when there is no impartial arbiter, one must consider the final result'.The biggest counterargument Bondanella and Musa can supply is the simple fact that they include a less famous piece Machiavelli did called "The Discourses". This piece is often not mentioned or even casually footnoted because it presents the true Machiavelli - a man who was supportive of a Republic government run by the citizens. Any one who believes Machiavelli is a supporter of despots will be surprised to read him speaking in support for fair and public trials and a balance of power between rulers and their people.
E-Book Content
The Portable
Machiavelli Newly translated and edited, and with a Critical Introduction, by PETER BONDANELLA AND MARK MUSA
PENGUIN
BOOKS
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION An Essay on Machiavelli 9 MACHIAVELLI: A Selective Bibliography of Translations, Editions and Criticisms 41 THE PRIVATE LETTERS S3 THE PRINCE 77 THE DISCOURSES (abridged) 167 A FABLE: BELFAGOR. THE DEVIL WHO TOOK A WIFE 419 THE MANDRAKE ROOT 430
From THE ART OF WAR 480
THE LIFE OF CASTRUCCIO CASTRACANI OF LUCCA 518
From THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE 548
INTRODUCTION An Essay on Machiavelli
MACHIAVELLI'S LIFE AND TIMES
When Niccolodi Bernardo Machiavelli entered the world on May 3, 1469, his prospects were modest at best. The Machiavelli were an established middle-class family from the Oltrarno district of Florence, and its members had held an impressive number of offices in the city's government, including twelve terms as gonfaloniere, or standard-bearer, and fifty-four terms as prior. NiccolO's father, Bernardo, however, was not one of the more prosperous members of the clan, and Machiavelli could never hope to riyal the wealth or influence of the greater patrician families of Florence, such as the Ridolfi, the Rucellai, the Strozzi, or the Guicciardini. But if Bernardo's means were insufficient to guarantee his son instant access to economic and political power, his great interest in books, particularly the Latin classics, was perhaps a more valuable legacy. We know that he possessed a copy of Flavio Biondo's Decades. that he borrowed a copy of Justin's history, and that he obtained a prized copy of Livy's history of republican Rome in return for laboriously compiling for the printer an index of Livy's place-names. Relatively little is known of Machiavelli's activities until he entered the Florentine chancery, in 1498, only a few days after the execution of Girolamo Savonarola in the Piazza della Signoria. On June 19, 1498, his election as chancellor of the Second Chancery was confirmed by the Grand Council. Earlier in February of the same year, 9
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The Portable MachlafeW
Machiavelli had been considered for a post in the government but was defeated. This earlier election was the last in which the supporters of Savonarola retained a majority; indeed, Machiavelli's lack of sympathy for Savonarola, the man he would later remember in The Prince as the prototype of the "unarmed prophet" doomed to failure, is already evident in an early letter he composed in 1498 which describes one of the friar's sermons. When Machiavelli was finally elected to the chancery, he benefited from a period of anti-Savonarolan feeling; he filled a vacancy caused by the expulsion of a Savonarola supporter. The secretary's duties in th