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ABSTRACT
In his years as Florentine Secretary, Machiavelli repeatedly faced the problem of interpreting the gestures and words of statesmen that were masters of deception. The strategy he developed to uncover these statesmen’s intentions was based on the analysis of human passions, on uncovering the fundamental trait that defined a man’s character. I apply Machiavelli’s strategy of interpretation to Machiavelli himself and uncover the irreconcilable disconnect which shaped his personal tragedy. On one hand, he related to his objects of desire by entirely abandoning himself to them, regardless of how unachievable they were. On the other, to obtain these objects of desire his analytical mind developed strategies which took pride in their adherence to what he called the “effectual truth of the matter.” His incapacity to reconsider his objectives in light of the means at his disposal and his tendency to transfer all of himself into his objectives determined Machiavelli’s successes and failures. He repeatedly failed when he had to set his own goals, or when he approached a problem with empathy. He succeeded when he was given precise and limited objectives and when he understood that he did not share the goals of those he was studying.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Anthony Grafton, Maurizio Viroli, Marco Cesa and his wife, Domitilla, for their useful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. All remaining errors are mine.
Notes on contributor
Matteo Faini obtained a PhD in the Politics Department at Princeton University and is now a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute.
Notes
1. Machiavelli’s letter to Francesco Guicciardini on 17 May 1521. In Machiavelli, Lettere, 402–5. All translations are mine, except when noted.
2. Letter to Francesco Vettori on 16 April 1513. In Machiavelli, Lettere, 242–4.
3. The Prince, chapter 15.
4. Procacci, Machiavelli, 65–71; and Borrelli, “Agostino Nifo e il plagio del Principe,” 271–3.
5. Procacci, Machiavelli, 257–63.
6. Ibid., 347 and 370.
7. Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli, 55–6.
8. Ibid., 79.
9. Ibid., 72.
10. Machiavelli, Lettere, 305.
11. Ridolfi and Foscolo, Scritti sul Principe, 101–2.
12. Ibid., 119–20.
13. Ibid., 121.
14. See Machiavelli’s letter to Vettori, 16 April 1527. In Machiavelli, Lettere, 504–5.
15. Ridolfi and Foscolo, Scritti sul Principe, 153–4.
16. Cited in Procacci, Machiavelli, 379.
17. Albertini, Firenze dalla repubblica al Principato, 60.
18. Ibid., 65–6.
19. Viroli, Redenzione dell’Italia, xiv-xvi and chapter 2.
20. The most famous of these passages is cited in Strauss Thoughts on Machiavelli, 30.
21. The Prince, Dedicatory letter.
22. Mansfield, Machiavelli’s Virtue, 225. See also Strauss Thoughts on Machiavelli, 17.
23. Viroli, Machiavelli’s Realism, 473–6.
24. Ridolfi, Vita di Niccolò Machiavelli, 75–80; and Viroli, Sorriso di Niccolò, chapters 6–7.
25. “[E]ntrare sotto” is the expression that Machiavelli uses to describe his attempts to unveil the intentions of the secretive Cesare Borgia while discussing with him on 7 October 1502, cit. Najemy, Between Friends, 66.
26. This is one of the three explanations that Machiavelli gives for Ferdinand of Aragon’s behavior in his letter to Vettori on 29 April 1513. See Machiavelli, Lettere, 257; and Najemy, Between Friends, 132–4.
27. The Prince, chapter 18.
28. Bardazzi, Tecniche narrative, 1486–7.
29. In Istorie Fiorentine e altre opere, 91–5. The same point was restated in Machiavelli, Discourses, Book III, chapter 43.
30. Machiavelli, Lettere, 228–31.
31. Ibid., 291–6.
32. In Istorie Fiorentine e altre opere, 225–9.
33. Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini, 32.
34. Machiavelli, Lettere, 275–81. As translated in Najemy, Between Friends, 152.
35. Machiavelli, Lettere, 282–90. As translated in Najemy, Between Friends, 153.
36. Ironically, in a letter to Vettori on 5 January 1514 he mocked two of their common friends writing that “it is a certainly a great thing to consider how blind people are in those things in which they sin, and what sharp persecutors they are of the vices they do not have.” Here, instead, Machiavelli was accusing Vettori of a sin that he himself was most guilty of. See Machiavelli, Lettere, 313–14. The translation is in Najemy, Between Friends, 254.
37. Najemy, Between Friends, 134.
38. Ibid., 27–9.
39. Ibid., 29.
40. Pitkin, Fortune Is a Woman, 6.
41. Machiavelli, Opere, 697–770.
42. Machiavelli, Lettere, 239.
43. Vettori’s letter to Machiavelli on 21 April 1509. Machiavelli, Lettere, 245–9.
44. Machiavelli’s letter to Francesco Vettori on 29 April 1513. Machiavelli, Lettere, 250–8.
45. Najemy, Between Friends, 122–3.
46. Machiavelli, Lettere, 316–20.
47. Machiavelli’s letter to Francesco Vettori on 4 February 1514. Machiavelli, Lettere, 320–3. As translated in Najemy. Between Friends, 268.
48. Najemy, Between Friends, 268.
49. For a similar point, see Viroli, Sorriso di Niccolò, ch. XVI.
50. All quotes are from The Prince, chapter 26.
51. Vettori’s letter to Machiavelli on 9 February 1514. Machiavelli, Lettere, 324–6.
52. Machiavelli’s letter to Vettori on 25 February 1513. Machiavelli, Lettere, 327–30.
53. Cf. De Grazia, Machiavelli in Hell, 129.
54. Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini, 44.
55. Viroli, Machiavelli’s Realism, 477.
56. The Prince, chapter 25.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid., chapter 26.
59. Ibid., chapter 6.
60. Viroli, Sorriso di Niccoló, 82–4.
61. Reproduced in Istorie Fiorentine e altre opere, 97–133. See especially the Discorso dell’ordinare lo Stato di Firenze alle armi or La cagione dell’Ordinanza, 99–104.
62. Hörnqvist, Perché non si usa allegare i Romani, 148–91.
63. Ibid., 166–70. See also Machiavelli, Lettere, 229.
64. See especially Machiavelli, Discourses, Book III, chapter 24.
65. Machiavelli, Art of War, Book I, in Opere, 1256–62.
66. Machiavelli, Discourses, Book II, Chapter 18: “How following the authority of the Romans and the example of the ancient militia, we should esteem infantry more than cavalry.”
67. Pieri, Rinascimento, 438.
68. Ibid., 438–42.
69. Viroli, Sorriso di Niccoló, chapter XI.
70. Pieri, Rinascimento, 442.
71. Ibid.; and Pellegrini, Guerre d’Italia, 136–9.
72. Viroli, Sorriso di Niccoló, chapter13; Pieri, Rinascimento, 498–9; and Pellegrini, Guerre d’Italia, 135–9.
73. See Vettori’s letter to Machiavelli on 3 December 1514 and Machiavelli’s first and second replies on 10 and 20 December. Machiavelli, Lettere, 348–9, 351–61 and 363–7, respectively. See also Najemy, Between Friends, 295–310.
74. Cf. Machiavelli, Discourses, Book II, chapter 10.
75. Najemy, Between Friends, 301.
76. Machiavelli’s letter to Vettori, 10 December 1514, in Lettere, 351–61, quote on 356.
77. As translated in Najemy, Between Friends, 303. My emphasis.
78. Machiavelli’s letter to Vettori on 10 August 1513. Machiavelli, Lettere, 275–81.
79. See Discourses, “Proemio” to Book II.
80. Stoppelli, Mandragola: storia e filologia, 69–89. I use Stoppelli’s translation of the text.
81. A partial exception is Ruggiero, Machiavelli in Love, 147–52. Ruggiero notes that Callimaco resembles Machiavelli in his way of abandoning himself to love and in his analysis of the obstacles he faces in conquering Lucrezia. Ruggiero does not note, however, how Machiavellian he is in reconciling what is (or at least initially seems) irreconcilable.
82. Machiavelli, Mandragola, Act I, Scene 3 in Stoppelli, Mandragola: storia e filologia, 188.
83. Machiavelli’s letter to Vettori, 3 August 1514 in Machiavelli, Lettere, 346–7.
84. Machiavelli’s letter to Vettori, 10 December 1513. Machiavelli, Lettere, 301–6. For other similarities between the Mandragola and the epistolary exchanges with Vettori, see Stoppelli Mandragola: storia e filologia, 83–6.
85. Machiavelli, Mandragola, Act I, Scene 1, in Stoppelli Mandragola: storia e filologia, 181–2.
86. Machiavelli, Mandragola, Act I, Scene 3, in Stoppelli Mandragola: storia e filologia, 188.
87. Stoppelli, Mandragola: storia e filologia, 77 and 174.
88. Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini, 44.
89. Machiavelli, Clizia, Act II, Scene 4, 198–9.
90. Machiavelli, Clizia, Act III, Scene 6.
91. See the Canzona at the end of Act II in Clizia : “As much as love is beautiful in a young heart, so it is inconvenient in those whose spring has passed already.”
92. Guicciardini’s letter to Machiavelli on 18 May 1521. Machiavelli, Lettere, 407–8.
93. Machiavelli’s letter to Guicciardini on 15 March 1526. Machiavelli, Lettere, 454–8.
94. Vettori’s letter to Machiavelli on 9 February 1514. Machiavelli, Lettere, 324–6.