L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE M ore than five cen- turies ago, a Flo- rentine man laid the foundations for modern polit- ical science. His search was so radical that he became famous throughout the Western world. Born 550 years ago in 1469 as Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machi- avelli, the Florentine diplomat, political thinker and writer known as Niccolò Machiavelli remains one of the most influen- tial Italians in world history thanks to a political treatise, Il Principe (The Prince), a seminal masterpiece that was actually published posthumous and under the Latin title De Principatibus. Italy was in a state of political confusion at Machiavelli's time. The turbulent wars of Italian city-states and enervating foreign invasions were the historical con- text in which the book was pro- duced. Through Il Principe, Machi- avelli aimed for the foundation of a new principality and intended to provide a new prince with all the teachings necessary for the establishment and preservation of the new state. Machiavelli sat for 15 years at Palazzo Vecchio as a secretary and chief diplomat in the second chancellery of the Florentine Republic. He was responsible for conducting domestic affairs and defense starting from June 1498. A few days earlier Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola was arrested, hanged and burned in the piazza. The city was puffed up with Medician pride and Machiavelli traveled all around Italy and Europe, meeting the leaders of the time face to face. He was an international man. But in 1513, the Medici accused him of conspiracy against them and had him impris- oned. When he was released after three weeks, he retired to his estate in San Casciano and devot- ed himself to writing the classic of realpolitik, The Prince, and another political treatise, I Dis- corsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy). The Art of War, The Florentine Histories, the Epistolario (his letters) and the play La Man- dragora are also very remark- able Machiavelli works. Machiavelli was so sincere in his desire to get back into the good graces of the Medici family that he addressed The Prince to Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, ruler of Florence from 1513. He calls Lorenzo "magnificent", alluding to Lorenzo's famous grandfather, who was known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. Lorenzo was capable of doing great things for his people like Moses, Theseus or Cyrus did before, Machiavelli wrote. The political innovator really believed that the Medici family was the most suitable to respond to Italian hopes for freedom from foreign domination. The Medici had the favor of the Catholic Church. They could set the Ital- ians free. That was Machiavelli's dream at least. No doubt, Machiavelli laid the groundwork for uniting all of Italy. I like to see him a sort of proto-patriot. Italy was "without leader, order" and "it is beaten, stripped, torn," he wrote. His works were published with the approval of the Roman Curia but in the age of the Catholic Counter-Reformation the terms Machiavellianism and Machiavellian came to indicate a cynical government or leader willing to make use of any means to reach a goal. In that age, Machiavellianism became a synonym for perfidy or cunning wickedness. The nega- tive connotations stemmed from around 1550 during a European movement called anti-Machiavel- MARIELLA RADAELLI A portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli, writer, philosopher and diplomat, who was born 550 years ago Niccolò Machiavelli: A patriot, not a plotter Marking the 550th anniversary of the birth of the author of The Prince Continued to page 14

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