Il Duca E Io Epub Gratis

[Charlesetta Blare]

NicoloMachiavelli was born at Florence on 3rd May 1469. He was the secondson of Bernardo di Nicolo Machiavelli, a lawyer of some repute, and ofBartolommea di Stefano Nelli, his wife. Both parents were members of theold Florentine nobility.

In 1500 he was sent to France to obtain terms from Louis XII forcontinuing the war against Pisa: this king it was who, in his conduct ofaffairs in Italy, committed the five capital errors in statecraftsummarized in The Prince, and was consequently driven out. He, also, itwas who made the dissolution of his marriage a condition of support toPope Alexander VI; which leads Machiavelli to refer those who urge thatsuch promises should be kept to what he has written concerning the faithof princes.

On the death of Pius III, in 1503, Machiavelli was sent to Rome to watchthe election of his successor, and there he saw Cesare Borgia cheated intoallowing the choice of the College to fall on Giuliano delle Rovere(Julius II), who was one of the cardinals that had most reason to fear theduke. Machiavelli, when commenting on this election, says that he whothinks new favours will cause great personages to forget old injuriesdeceives himself. Julius did not rest until he had ruined Cesare.

It was to Julius II that Machiavelli was sent in 1506, when that pontiffwas commencing his enterprise against Bologna; which he brought to asuccessful issue, as he did many of his other adventures, owing chiefly tohis impetuous character. It is in reference to Pope Julius thatMachiavelli moralizes on the resemblance between Fortune and women, andconcludes that it is the bold rather than the cautious man that will winand hold them both.

On the return of the Medici, Machiavelli, who for a few weeks had vainlyhoped to retain his office under the new masters of Florence, wasdismissed by decree dated 7th November 1512. Shortly after this he wasaccused of complicity in an abortive conspiracy against the Medici,imprisoned, and put to the question by torture. The new Medicean pope, LeoX, procured his release, and he retired to his small property at SanCasciano, near Florence, where he devoted himself to literature. In aletter to Francesco Vettori, dated 13th December 1513, he has left a veryinteresting description of his life at this period, which elucidates hismethods and his motives in writing The Prince. After describing hisdaily occupations with his family and neighbours, he writes: The eveningbeing come, I return home and go to my study; at the entrance I pull offmy peasant-clothes, covered with dust and dirt, and put on my noble courtdress, and thus becomingly re-clothed I pass into the ancient courts ofthe men of old, where, being lovingly received by them, I am fed with thatfood which is mine alone; where I do not hesitate to speak with them, andto ask for the reason of their actions, and they in their benignity answerme; and for four hours I feel no weariness, I forget every trouble,poverty does not dismay, death does not terrify me; I am possessedentirely by those great men. And because Dante says:

Those who strive to obtain the good graces of a prince are accustomed to comebefore him with such things as they hold most precious, or in which they seehim take most delight; whence one often sees horses, arms, cloth of gold,precious stones, and similar ornaments presented to princes, worthy of theirgreatness.

Desiring therefore to present myself to your Magnificence with some testimonyof my devotion towards you, I have not found among my possessions anythingwhich I hold more dear than, or value so much as, the knowledge of the actionsof great men, acquired by long experience in contemporary affairs, and acontinual study of antiquity; which, having reflected upon it with great andprolonged diligence, I now send, digested into a little volume, to yourMagnificence.

And although I may consider this work unworthy of your countenance,nevertheless I trust much to your benignity that it may be acceptable, seeingthat it is not possible for me to make a better gift than to offer you theopportunity of understanding in the shortest time all that I have learnt in somany years, and with so many troubles and dangers; which work I have notembellished with swelling or magnificent words, nor stuffed with roundedperiods, nor with any extrinsic allurements or adornments whatever, with whichso many are accustomed to embellish their works; for I have wished either thatno honour should be given it, or else that the truth of the matter and theweightiness of the theme shall make it acceptable.

Nor do I hold with those who regard it as a presumption if a man of low andhumble condition dare to discuss and settle the concerns of princes; because,just as those who draw landscapes place themselves below in the plain tocontemplate the nature of the mountains and of lofty places, and in order tocontemplate the plains place themselves upon high mountains, even so tounderstand the nature of the people it needs to be a prince, and to understandthat of princes it needs to be of the people.

Take then, your Magnificence, this little gift in the spirit in which I sendit; wherein, if it be diligently read and considered by you, you will learn myextreme desire that you should attain that greatness which fortune and yourother attributes promise. And if your Magnificence from the summit of yourgreatness will sometimes turn your eyes to these lower regions, you will seehow unmeritedly I suffer a great and continued malignity of fortune.

The new are either entirely new, as was Milan to Francesco Sforza, or theyare, as it were, members annexed to the hereditary state of the prince whohas acquired them, as was the kingdom of Naples to that of the King ofSpain.

Such dominions thus acquired are either accustomed to live under a prince,or to live in freedom; and are acquired either by the arms of the princehimself, or of others, or else by fortune or by ability.

I will leave out all discussion on republics, inasmuch as in another placeI have written of them at length, and will address myself only toprincipalities. In doing so I will keep to the order indicated above, anddiscuss how such principalities are to be ruled and preserved.

I say at once there are fewer difficulties in holding hereditary states,and those long accustomed to the family of their prince, than new ones;for it is sufficient only not to transgress the customs of his ancestors,and to deal prudently with circumstances as they arise, for a prince ofaverage powers to maintain himself in his state, unless he be deprived ofit by some extraordinary and excessive force; and if he should be sodeprived of it, whenever anything sinister happens to the usurper, he willregain it.

But the difficulties occur in a new principality. And firstly, if it benot entirely new, but is, as it were, a member of a state which, takencollectively, may be called composite, the changes arise chiefly from aninherent difficulty which there is in all new principalities; for menchange their rulers willingly, hoping to better themselves, and this hopeinduces them to take up arms against him who rules: wherein they aredeceived, because they afterwards find by experience they have gone frombad to worse. This follows also on another natural and common necessity,which always causes a new prince to burden those who have submitted to himwith his soldiery and with infinite other hardships which he must put uponhis new acquisition.

In this way you have enemies in all those whom you have injured in seizingthat principality, and you are not able to keep those friends who put youthere because of your not being able to satisfy them in the way theyexpected, and you cannot take strong measures against them, feeling boundto them. For, although one may be very strong in armed forces, yet inentering a province one has always need of the goodwill of the natives.

Nevertheless Milan was taken from France both the first and the secondtime. The general reasons for the first have been discussed; it remains toname those for the second, and to see what resources he had, and what anyone in his situation would have had for maintaining himself more securelyin his acquisition than did the King of France.

Now I say that those dominions which, when acquired, are added to anancient state by him who acquires them, are either of the same country andlanguage, or they are not. When they are, it is easier to hold them,especially when they have not been accustomed to self-government; and tohold them securely it is enough to have destroyed the family of the princewho was ruling them; because the two peoples, preserving in other thingsthe old conditions, and not being unlike in customs, will live quietlytogether, as one has seen in Brittany, Burgundy, Gascony, and Normandy,which have been bound to France for so long a time: and, although theremay be some difference in language, nevertheless the customs are alike,and the people will easily be able to get on amongst themselves. He whohas annexed them, if he wishes to hold them, has only to bear in mind twoconsiderations: the one, that the family of their former lord isextinguished; the other, that neither their laws nor their taxes arealtered, so that in a very short time they will become entirely one bodywith the old principality.

But when states are acquired in a country differing in language, customs,or laws, there are difficulties, and good fortune and great energy areneeded to hold them, and one of the greatest and most real helps would bethat he who has acquired them should go and reside there. This would makehis position more secure and durable, as it has made that of the Turk inGreece, who, notwithstanding all the other measures taken by him forholding that state, if he had not settled there, would not have been ableto keep it. Because, if one is on the spot, disorders are seen as theyspring up, and one can quickly remedy them; but if one is not at hand,they are heard of only when they are great, and then one can no longerremedy them. Besides this, the country is not pillaged by your officials;the subjects are satisfied by prompt recourse to the prince; thus, wishingto be good, they have more cause to love him, and wishing to be otherwise,to fear him. He who would attack that state from the outside must have theutmost caution; as long as the prince resides there it can only be wrestedfrom him with the greatest difficulty.

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