iii The Radical Machiavelli Politics, Philosophy and Language Edited by Filippo Del Lucchese Fabio Frosini Vittorio Morfino LEIDEN | BOSTON For use by the Author only | © 2015 Koninklijke Brill NV ContentsContents v Contents Contents v List of Figures viii List of Contributors ix xvi Introduction 1 Part 1 Language, Text and Context of The Prince 1 Il genere e il tempo delle parole: dire la guerra nei testi machiavelliani 23 Jean-Louis Fournel 2 ‘Uno piccolo dono’: A Software Tool for Comparing the First Edition of Machiavelli’s The Prince to Its Sixteenth Century French Translations 39 Jean-Claude Zancarini 3 Of ‘Extravagant’ Writing: The Prince, Chapter IX 56 Romain Descendre 4 ‘Italia’ come spazio politico in Machiavelli 73 Giorgio Inglese 5 Machiavelli the Tactician: Math, Graphs, and Knots in The Art of War 81 Gabriele Pedullà Part 2 Machiavelli and Philosophy 6 Lucretian Naturalism and the Evolution of Machiavelli’s Ethics 105 Alison Brown 7 Corpora Caeca: Discontinuous Sovereignty in The Prince 128 Jacques Lezra 8 The Five Theses of Machiavelli’s ‘Philosophy’ 144 Vittorio Morfino 9 Tempo e politica: Una lettura materialista di Machiavelli 174 Sebastián Torres 10 Imitation and Animality: On the Relationship between Nature and History in Chapter XVIII of The Prince 190 Tania Rispoli For use by the Author only | © 2015 Koninklijke Brill NV vi Contents Part 3 Politics, Religion, and Prophecy 11 Prophetic Efficacy: The Relationship between Force and Belief 207 Thomas Berns 12 Prophecy, Education, and Necessity: Girolamo Savonarola between Politics and Religion 219 Fabio Frosini 13 ‘Uno Mero Esecutore’: Moses, Fortuna, and Occasione in The Prince 237 Warren Montag 14 Machiavelli and the Republican Conception of Providence 250 Miguel Vatter Part 4 Radical Democracy beyond Republicanism 15 Machiavelli, Public Debt, and the Origin of Political Economy: An Introduction 273 Jérémie Barthas 16 Plebeian Politics: Machiavelli and the Ciompi Uprising 306 Yves Winter 17 Machiavelli’s Greek Tyrant as Republican Reformer 337 John P. McCormick 18 Essere Principe, Essere Populare: The Principle of Antagonism in Machiavelli’s Epistemology 349 Etienne Balibar 19 The Different Faces of the People: On Machiavelli’s Political Topography 368 Stefano Visentin Part 5 Machiavelli and Marxism 20 Machiavelli Was Not a Republicanist – Or Monarchist: On Louis Althusser’s ‘Aleatory’ Interpretation of The Prince 393 Mikko Lahtinen 21 Lectures machiavéliennes d’Althusser 406 Mohamed Moulfi For use by the Author only | © 2015 Koninklijke Brill NV Contents vii 22 Machiavelli after Althusser 420 Banu Bargu 23 Gramsci’s Machiavellian Metaphor: Restaging The Prince 440 Peter D. Thomas Index 457 468 Contents Contents v Contents v List of Figures viii List of Figures viii List of Contributors ix List of Contributors ix Introduction 1 Introduction 1 1 ‘A question that will never close’ 1 2 The Prince as a Battlefield 2 3 The Text, the Practice and the Truth 4 4 Language, Text and Context of ‘The Prince’ 7 5 Machiavelli and Philosophy 8 6 Politics, Religion, and Prophecy 10 7 Radical Democracy beyond Republicanism 13 8 Machiavelli and Marxism 16 9 Note on the citation of Machiavelli’s works 18 part 1 21 Language, Text and Context of The Prince 21 ∵ 21 Chapter 1 23 Il genere e il tempo delle parole: dire la guerra nei testi machiavelliani 23 Jean-Louis Fournel 23 1 Preambolo: la lingua dello stato di guerra 23 2 La lingua di Machiavelli come lingua di guerra 26 3 Il lessico della guerra nel testo machiavelliano: distinzioni e composizioni 28 4 Lingua generica: il caso-Principe 30 5 Il tempo delle parole: il confronto con il latino 32 Chapter 2 39 ‘Uno piccolo dono’: A Software Tool for Comparing the First Edition of Machiavelli’s The Prince to Its Sixteenth Century French Translations 39 Jean-Claude Zancarini 39 1 Travelling Texts 39 2 Coherence of the Act of Translation 40 3 An Approach to the Texts: Political Philology 43 4 Stato and Its Translations: Polysemy, ‘Interference’, and ‘Tension in Meaning’ 45 5 Reflections on the Act of Translation 51 6 Some Differences and Their Consequences: The Example of Il Principe XXI, 24 53 Chapter 3 56 Of ‘Extravagant’ Writing: The Prince, Chapter IX 56 Romain Descendre 56 1 Civil Prince and Roman Law 57 2 ‘Avere il populo amico’ 60 3 ‘Dall’ordine civile allo assoluto’ 64 4 Broken Lines 68 Chapter 4 73 ‘Italia’ come spazio politico in Machiavelli 73 Giorgio Inglese 73 Chapter 5 81 Machiavelli the Tactician: Math, Graphs, and Knots in The Art of War 81 Gabriele Pedullà 81 part 2 103 Machiavelli and Philosophy 103 ∵ 103 Chapter 6 105 Lucretian Naturalism and the Evolution of Machiavelli’s Ethics 105 Alison Brown 105 Introduction 105 1 Hard Primitivism and the Growth of Expedient Justice and Religion 109 2 Men and Animals 115 Conclusion 119 Bibliography 123 Primary Sources 123 Secondary Sources 124 Chapter 7 128 Corpora Caeca: Discontinuous Sovereignty in The Prince 128 Jacques Lezra 128 Chapter 8 144 The Five Theses of Machiavelli’s ‘Philosophy’ 144 Vittorio Morfino 144 1 The Thesis of Invariance 147 2 Thesis of Universal Variability 150 2.1 Epistemological Consequences of the Formulation of the First Two Theses 151 3 The Primacy of the Encounter over the Form 158 4 Thesis of the Primacy of the Interweaving of Times over Linear Time 161 5 Thesis of the Disarticulation of Truth and Memory 165 Conclusion 171 Chapter 9 174 Tempo e politica: Una lettura materialista di Machiavelli 174 Sebastián Torres 174 1 Tempo, contingenza, conflitto 174 2 Il tempo controverso 176 3 Il tessuto dei desideri 178 4 Memoria involontaria 181 5 Il tempo della res (publica) 183 6 Considerazioni finali 186 Chapter 10 190 Imitation and Animality: On the Relationship between Nature and History in Chapter XVIII of The Prince 190 Tania Rispoli 190 ∵ 190 part 3 205 Politics, Religion, and Prophecy 205 ∵ 205 Chapter 11 207 Prophetic Efficacy: The Relationship between Force and Belief 207 Thomas Berns 207 Chapter 12 219 Prophecy, Education, and Necessity: Girolamo Savonarola between Politics and Religion 219 Fabio Frosini 219 1 Fanaticism, Religion, and Politics 219 2 A Speculative Re-translation 220 3 Discussing the Reasons 221 4 Necessity, Virtue and Desire 224 5 Interpreting Religion, and Education 226 6 ... One Should Speak with Reverence of Such a Man... 228 7 Savonarola’s Prophetism 230 Chapter 13 237 ‘Uno Mero Esecutore’: Moses, Fortuna, and Occasione in the The Prince 237 Warren Montag 237 Chapter 14 250 Machiavelli and the Republican Conception of Providence 250 Miguel Vatter 250 1 The ‘Providential Logic’ in Chapter 26 of The Prince 253 2 Military Order and Divine Providence: From Moses to Cicero and Augustine and Back 258 3 The Messianic Moment in Machiavelli’s Republicanism 262 part 4 271 Radical Democracy beyond Republicanism 271 ∵ 271 Chapter 15 273 Machiavelli, Public Debt, and the Origins of Political Economy: An Introduction 273 Jérémie Barthas 273 Chapter 16 306 Plebeian Politics: Machiavelli and the Ciompi Uprising 306 Yves Winter 306 1 Who were the Ciompi? 309 2 The Three Acts of the Ciompi Uprising 312 3 Machiavelli’s Two Voices 314 4 A Plebeian Call to Arms 317 5 How to Read an Invented Speech 322 6 Interpreting the Anonymous Voice 326 Conclusion 329 Appendix: Full Text of the Speech 330 Chapter 17 337 Machiavelli’s Greek Tyrant as Republican Reformer 337 John P. McCormick 337 1 Humanism and Tyranny 338 2 The Civil Tyranny 339 3 Corrupt Republics and Tyrannical Reformers 342 Conclusion 346 Chapter 18 349 Essere Principe, Essere Populare: The Principle of Antagonism in Machiavelli’s Epistemology 349 Etienne Balibar 349 1 Knowledge, Conflict, Truth 349 2 The Prince and the People: Knowing Each Other’s Nature 350 3 Embodying Political Antagonism into Knowledge 353 4 Partiality, Truth and the Displacement of the Prince 357 5 Back to the Present: Machiavelli’s Challenge to Universalism 361 Chapter 19 368 The Different Faces of the People: On Machiavelli’s Political Topography 368 Stefano Visentin 368 1 The Apparition of the People 368 2 The People as Plebs 370 3 The People as Multitude 374 4 The Tie between the People and Its Prince 378 5 The People Internally Divided 381 6 The Place of the People, the Place of Machiavelli 385 part 5 391 Machiavelli and Marxism 391 ∵ 391 Chapter 20 393 Machiavelli was Not a Republicanist – or Monarchist: On Louis Althusser’s ‘Aleatory’ Interpretation of The Prince 393 Mikko Lahtinen 393 1 The State and the Law 393 2 Philosopher of the Effective Truth 398 3 Aleatory Dynamics 400 4 ‘Verità effettuale della cosa’ – The Effective Truth 401 Conclusion: Materialist Political Theory 403 Chapter 21 406 Lectures machiavéliennes d’Althusser 406 Mohamed Moulfi 406 1 Résurgence de Machiavel 406 2 Pour une théorie politique 408 3 Machiavel comme philosophe 412 Chapter 22 420 Machiavelli after Althusser 420 Banu Bargu 420 1 Primitive Political Accumulation 424 2 Machiavelli, the Materialist 427 3 An Aleatory Materialist Dialectic? 436 Chapter 23 440 Gramsci’s Machiavellian Metaphor: Restaging The Prince 440 Peter Thomas 440 Index 457 Index 457 For use by the Author only | © 2015 Koninklijke Brill NV Machiavelli, Public Debt, and the Origins of Political Economy 273 Chapter 15 Machiavelli, Public Debt, and the Origins of Political Economy: An Introduction Jérémie Barthas No one can approach Machiavelli without having to face a certain number of stereotypes: Machiavelli as the incarnation of evil in politics; a plagiariser, an incoherent and opportunistic author; an inaccurate historian, a poor interpret- er of his time and a superficial expert in the art of politics, because he lacked adequate analytical tools for understanding the deep functioning of social or- ganisation. These stereotypes, which began to form almost five centuries ago, have been refashioned accordingly through the ages.