On the Use of Machiavelli's Texts

This page intentionally left blank MACHIAVELLI AND EMPIRE Mikael Hornqvist¨ challenges us to rethink the overall meaning and importance of Machiavelli’s political thinking. Machiavelli and Empire combines close textual analysis of The Prince and The Discourses with a broad historical approach, to establish the importance of empire- building and imperial strategy in Machiavelli’s thought. The primary context of Machiavelli’s work, Hornqvist¨ argues, is not the mirror-for- princes genre or medieval and Renaissance republicanism in general, but a tradition of Florentine imperialist republicanism dating back to the late thirteenth century, based on the twin notions of liberty at home and empire abroad. Weaving together themes and topics drawn from contemporary Florentine political debate, Medicean ritual, and Renaissance triumphalism, this study explores how Machiavelli in his chancery writings and theoretical works promoted the longstand- ing aspirations of Florence to become a great and expanding empire, modeled on the example of the ancient Roman republic. Original and thought-provoking, this book makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Renaissance, and of the history of European ideas. mikael hornqvist¨ teaches at the Department of the History of Science and Ideas at Uppsala University in Sweden. ideas in context 71 Machiavelli and Empire ideas in context Edited by Quentin Skinner (General Editor) Lorraine Daston, Dorothy Ross and James Tully The books in this series will discuss the emergence of intellectual traditions and of related new disciplines. The procedures, aims and vocabularies that were generated will be set in the context of the alternatives available within the contemporary frameworks of ideas and institutions. Through detailed studies of the evolution of such traditions, and their modification by different audiences, it is hoped that a new picture will form of the development of ideas in their concrete contexts. By this means, artificial distinctions between the history of philosophy, of the various sciences, of society and politics, and of literature may be seen to dissolve. The series is published with the support of the Exxon Foundation. A list of books in the series will be found at the end of the volume. MACHIAVELLI AND EMPIRE MIKAEL HORNQVIST¨ CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521839457 © Mikael Hornqvist 2004 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2004 ISBN-13 978-0-511-26610-2 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-10 0-511-26610-3 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-13 978-0-521-83945-7 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-83945-9 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. To Justine, Véronique, and Shohreh Contents Acknowledgments page x On the use of Machiavelli’s texts xi 1 Another philosophy 1 2 The republic’s two ends 38 3 The natural desire of states 76 4 To destroy them or to live there 113 5 The triumphator 148 6 Rhetoric of hope and despair 194 7 Sublunar writing 228 Conclusion: cui bono? 264 Index 291 ix Acknowledgments This project began as a doctoral dissertation in the Department of the History of Ideas at Uppsala University and has evolved into a book after a long process of restructuring and rethinking. It would have been impos- sible to follow this crooked path had it not been for the guidance and encouragement from good friends and respected colleagues. The author wishes to thank Rolf Bagemihl, Alison Brown, Salvatore Camporeale, Lorenzo Casini, Gunnar Eriksson, Riccardo Fubini, Ken Gouwens, Stephen Greenblatt, James Hankins, Johan Kohler,¨ Harvey Mansfield, John Najemy, Patricia Osmond, Marco Pellegrini, Mats Persson, and Quentin Skinner for their critical advice and support in this venture. Institutional support has been received from the Department of the History of Science and Ideas at Uppsala University, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Villa I Tatti: The Harvard Univer- sity Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, and the Instituto Nazionale dei Studi sul Rinascimento in Florence. I owe a special thanks to the many institutions that have provided finan- cial support for this venture. I am particularly indebted to the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for the main source of funding without which the project would not have reached completion. Generous funding was also provided by the Swedish Research Council, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Melville J. Kahn Fellowship Fund, the Swedish Institute, the Sweden–America Foundation, and the Wennergren Center Foundation. My greatest debt is to my family, Justine, Veronique,´ and Shohreh. It is with pleasure and a sense of deep gratitude that I dedicate this book to them. x On the use of Machiavelli’s texts For the renditions of Niccolo` Machiavelli’s Prince in English, I have con- sulted the following translations to offer translations of my own: The Prince, trans. W. K. Marriott (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1908). “The Prince,” in The Portable Machiavelli, eds. Peter Bondanella and Mark Musa (London:Viking Penguin, 1979), pp. 77–166. The Prince, trans. Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985). The Prince, eds. Quentin Skinner and Russell Price (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). For Machiavelli’s Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, I have relied on Harvey Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov’s translation in Niccolo` Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) with minor adaptations. Unless otherwise stated, all other translations in the text are my own. As a rule, Machiavelli’s name has been omitted in the notes. xi chapter 1 Another philosophy There is another philosophy that is better suited for political action, that takes its cue, adapts itself to the drama in hand, and acts its part neatly and well. Sir Thomas More In Machiavelli’s most famous comedy, La mandragola (1518), the desperately love-sick Callimaco asks his clever friend, Ligurio, for help in getting into bed with the beautiful Lucrezia, the childless and unhappy wife of Nicia, a wealthy merchant and “the simplest and most stupid man of Florence.”1 Ligurio, a former marriage-broker, who now is said to “make his living out of deceiving people,” accepts the assignment.2 Acting as something of a playwright in the play, at one point likening himself to a military captain giving orders to his troops before going into battle, Ligurio selects his cast, invents his plot, and sets it in motion. Busy attending to things big and small, he provides the other characters with motivations, reasons, and pretexts for their actions, and coaches and supervises their performances. When he first introduces Callimaco to Nicia, presenting him as a famous physician at the court of the king of France, he carefully constructs his friend’s fictitious character, his ethos, so that it will impose itself on the merchant, and win his trust. Knowing that unlettered men like Nicia are easily impressed by people who have a knowledge of Latin, he encourages Callimaco to embellish his speech with a store of Latin stock phrases and maxims. Predictably enough, Nicia is taken in by the charade and comes to view Callimaco, alias the famous physician, as a man of great dignity and worthy of faith. Nicia yearns for an heir, and on Ligurio’s advice Callimaco persuades him that the most effective way of making his wife pregnant is to prepare 1 Niccolo` Machiavelli,“La mandragola” in Opere, vol. iv, ed. L. Blasucci (Turin: UTET, 1989), [hereinafter La mandragola], p. 119:[callimaco]: “el piu` sciocco omo di Firenze.” 2 La mandragola,p.124:[callimaco]: “Io lo credo, ancora che io sappia ch’e’ pari tuoi vivino di uccellare gli uomini.” 1 2 Machiavelli and Empire her for the sexual act by giving her a magic concoction made of mandrake root. The only catch, Callimaco goes on to explain, is that the power of the drink is such that it will cause the death of the first man who has intercourse with her. The ever-resourceful Ligurio has a solution at hand, though. By exploiting Nicia’s simplicity, and by playing on his emotions, his vanity, and his uncontainable desire for male offspring, he makes him accept the idea of having another man sleep with Lucrezia in his place. The plan is put into effect, and the play is brought to a climatic end as Nicia, acting as the unwitting, and ridiculously happy, accomplice in his own cuckolding, leads Callimaco, now disguised as a young street-singer, into his wife’s bedroom in the false belief that the youth, after having made Lucrezia pregnant, will die of the potion she has been given for the purpose. As this brief account makes evident, La mandragola is a comedy imbued with rhetoric. Perhaps, it could even be argued that the main theme of the play is the art of persuasion itself, and its conspiratorial use within the private sphere. Almost every scene of the play is staged as a scene of persuasion: Ligurio filling Callimaco with hope; Ligurio insinuating himself into Nicia’s confidence; Ligurio tempting Father Timoteo, the cunning priest in the play; Father Timoteo and Lucrezia’s mother, Sostrata, seeking to influence Lucrezia; Callimaco exhorting Nicia; Callimaco, in a soliloquy, talking sense to and inspiring courage in himself, and so forth.

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