Spectacular Tumults: Machiavelli's Florentine Histories and the Notion of Tumulto Mauricio Daniel Suchowlansky A Thesis In the Department of Of Political Science Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Master in Public Policy and Public Administration at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada August 2009 © Mauricio Daniel Suchowlansky, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-63067-9 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-63067-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada ABSTRACT Spectacular Tumults: Machiavelli's Florentine Histories and the Notion of Tumulto Mauricio Suchowlansky I propose that the notion of tumulto in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories should be recognized as having a representational character, meant to provide Machiavelli's readership, the Medici family, with the necessary perspective to build a solid political understanding of the 'movements' of the Florentine Republic. Machiavelli 'spotlights' three tumultuous events -the riots that led to the fall of the tyranny of Walter de Brienne, The Ciompi revolt, and the riots that followed the so-called Pazzi conspiracy- to present the parochial fact that Florence needed a new (Republican) government. Machiavelli employed this history writing as a political device, showing his task as a pedagogue to advice his patrons that political success involved a socially accommodating perspective, which encompasses a republican lesson of political accessibility rather than the elimination of opposition in the vain hope of social harmony and political domination. This 'perspective' of the various social discords of the city is particularly coherent with the context of Florence during the post-1512 Medici regime: the political disenfranchisement of the Ottimatti sectors, the co-optation of the merchant middle sectors, the lack of political leadership and political knowledge on the part of the remaining members of the clan. 111 Table of contents 1-Introduction 1 2-Methodology 4 3-Literature Review 9 4-Tumulto in Context 15 4.1 -Historical Method in Machiavelli's Histories 19 4.2-Tumulto and Tyranny: the Duke of Athens 21 4.3-Tumulto and the Plebs: I Ciompi 32 4.4-Tumulto and the Grandi: The Pazzi Conspiracy 49 5-Pedagogical Spectacles and the Medici Patrons 62 5.1-The Medici post-1512: Who Stands at the Tiller? 67 5.2-Pedagogical Spectacles: Lessons to Giulio de' Medici 76 5.2.1-Tumulto as aPharmakon 77 5.2.2-Parochial Lessons to Giulio 88 6-Conclusion: Republican Tumulto 94 7-Bibliography 99 IV 1-Introduction: In this work, I propose that the notion of tumulto in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories should be recognized as having a representational character, meant to provide Machiavelli's readership, mainly the Medici family, with the necessary perspective to build a solid political understanding of the 'movements' of the republic.1 Tumults are depicted, most of the time, as unexpected events or accidenti; the fact that 'accident' is most often the narrative motor of history makes it an ideal literary form for presenting to rulers the need to constantly make provision for the contingent variable and the unexpectedly exogenous event. These are acts that Machiavelli portrays as emblematic, filled with a detailed narrative of violence, aimed to appeal to the readers so as to convince them that a city's social divisions were both a permanent and a healthy aspect of the social and political life in Florence. I believe this approach to Machiavelli's main historical text should be recognize as relevant since the Florentine Histories have been long neglected as text of rhetorical and political significance.2 For instance, in his Introduction to the Histories, Mansfield states that, "the Florentine Histories, as opposed to The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, makes so little of innovation and founding in 1 In the Preface to his Histories. Machiavelli states, "...if every example of a republic is moving, those which one reads concerning one's own are much more so and much more useful; and if in any other republic there were ever notable divisions, those of Florence are most notable." Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, trans. Laura Banfield and Harvey Mansfield (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990): 6. Some authors have claimed that Machiavelli's major texts were dedicated to the Medici to illustrate the means to found a republic in Florence and perpetuate their ruling over the city. See, Mikael Hornqvist, Machiavelli and Empire (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004): 285. Ed King, "Rolling a Stone for the Medici: Machiavelli Pedagogical Service to the Medici Family" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California Berkeley, 2005) 214-220. Anthony Parel, The Machiavellian Cosmos (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992) 185. 2 Felix Gilbert, "Machiavelli's Istorie Florentine: An Essay in Interpretation," in History: Choice and Commitment, Ed Franklin Ford (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press: 1977): 132. 1 politics and does not dwell on the 'new prince' or 'new modes and orders.'" Mansfield, I believe, misses the main target of the text: a lesson of parochial pedagogy to Machiavelli's Medici patrons. The new Medici rulers needed to be let in on the 'secret' that political success involved a socially accommodating perspective, which encompasses a republican lesson of political accessibility rather than an elimination of opposition in the vain hope of social harmony and political domination. This 'perception' of the various social discords of the city is particularly coherent with the problems of the post- 1512 Medici regime: the political disenfranchisement of the Ottimatti, the co-optation of the merchant middle sectors, the lack of political leadership and political knowledge on the part of the remaining members of the clan. 4 In other words, tumulto takes on relevance once comprehended within a particular contextual framework in order to give a parochial lesson to his readership. Whenever Machiavelli comes across a tumultuous event -the rebellion against Walter de Brienne, the Ciompi or the riots that followed the so-called Pazzi conspiracy against Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici- he reframes it by adding his own perspective. For instance, in Chapter III, Machiavelli recounts in detail the events that followed the Ciompi with the appealing to both the character of the actors and those of the readers. "[Michele di Lando, the spokesperson of the Ciompi,] had gallows erected in the piazza...Ser Nuto was carried by the multitude to the piazza and hung on the gallows by one foot; and as whoever was around tore off a piece from him, at a stroke there was 3 Machiavelli, Florentine Histories: XII. 4 Ottimatti or 'Optimates' were the members of the aristocratic sector of Florence in the Renaissance, who were banned of from the political scene of the Republic by the emerging Mezzani or merchant middle sectors during the fourteenth century. See, John Najemy, A History of Florence: 1200-1575 (Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006): 5-6. 2 nothing left of him but his foot."5 This characterization of the tumults of the city on the part of Machiavelli comes to be much more salient once his account is compared to certain sources and contemporary historians. Machiavelli purposefully alters and inflates the details of previous historical narratives in what can be defined as a process of 'reproduction and appropriation.'6 To provide pieces of pedagogical value, Machiavelli purposefully re-structures these three historical events. He creates three tumults saturated with detail and reduced in scope -in a process of 'historical foreshortening-, as if these events that lasted for long time should be perceived as short, rapid and concise. Harvey Mansfield states in his introduction to the Florentine Histories that Machiavelli fills out the gap between facts with opinion, "and it is the duty of the historian, in the absence of scribes and witnesses, to infer human intention and to make it explicit in speeches, adding sense to actions [...]."7 This particular aspect of Machiavelli's Histories, I believe, is evidence of a work much closer to that of a pedagogue than that of a historian. In a similar vein, I argue that part of the 'pedagogical spectacle' resides in the making and recreating of tumults into artistic representations, or objects of study that, much like a piece of art, are meant to aesthetically awaken certain senses.