Almost 500 years since the death of Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli died almost 500 years ago on 21 June 1527 at the age of 58, and yet he lives on as a founder of modern political analysis and the inspiration for the expression "Machiavellian". He was a great Florentine who is probably too narrowly identified as the author of Il Principe (The Prince) which he wrote around 1513. It was published in 1532, five years after his death. For many years, Machiavelli served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He wrote comedies, carnival songs and poetry, and he has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science

Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito

In 1494, Florence restored the republic, expelling the Medici family that had ruled Florence for some sixty years. In August 1512, the Medici, backed by Pope Julius II, used Spanish troops to defeat the Florentines at Prato. In the wake of the siege, Piero Soderini resigned as Florentine head of state and fled into exile. The experience would, like Machiavelli's time in foreign courts and with the Borgia, heavily influence his political writings. The Florentine city-state and the republic were dissolved, with Machiavelli then being removed from office and banished from the city for a year. In 1513, the Medici accused him of conspiracy against them and had him imprisoned. Despite being subjected to torture, he denied involvement and was released after three weeks.

L'Albergaccio - Casa Machiavelli

Machiavelli then retired to his farm estate at Sant'Andrea in Percussina, near San Casciano in Val di Pesa, where he devoted himself to studying and writing political treatises. During this period, he represented the Florentine Republic on diplomatic visits to France, Germany and elsewhere in Italy. A wonderful letter from Machiavelli to Francesco Vettori, dated 10 December 1513, evokes Machiavelli's life in rural exile:

"When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; and at the door I take off my everyday clothes, covered in mud and dirt, and put on royal and courtly clothes; and dressed appropriately, I enter the ancient courts of ancient men, where, lovingly received by them, I feed on that food which is mine only and for which I was born; where I am not ashamed to speak with them and ask them the reason for their actions; and they, out of their humanity, answer me; and for four hours I do not feel any boredom; I forget every worry, I do not fear poverty, I am not frightened by death; I transfer myself entirely to them. And because Dante says that one does not make science without retaining what has been understood, I have noted what I have capitalised on through their conversation, and composed a pamphlet entitled Principatibus (Of Principalities, later published as in Italian as Il Principe)."

The main idea of Machiavelli's The Prince closely reflects the times in which he lived. An effective ruler must understand how to seize and maintain power rather than attain some kind of moral purity. In other words, princes should learn to rule rather than learn to be "good". As a treatise, the main contribution of "The Prince" to the history of political thought is the distinction it makes between political realism and political idealism. In contrast with Plato and Aristotle, Machiavelli insisted that an imaginary ideal society is not a model that a prince should adopt. Joshua Kaplan maintains that Machiavelli emancipated politics from theology and moral philosophy. He undertook to describe simply what rulers actually did and thus anticipated the scientific spirit in which questions of good and bad are ignored, and the observer attempts to discover only what really happens.

Collected works of Machiavelli

Machiavelli was buried at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence. In 1789 George Nassau Clavering and Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, initiated the construction of a monument on Machiavelli's tomb. It was sculpted by Innocenzo Spinazzi, with an epitaph by Ferroni inscribed on it.

Machiavelli's house is now a well-regarded restaurant where the room and table where Machiavelli worked are preserved and can be visited by patrons of the restaurant.

More about Niccolò Machiavelli.

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Medieval Italy during a thousand years (305-1313)

As my ever attentive and intelligent readers will know, from time to time I draw attention to books of Tuscan interest that seem to me to be unjustly neglected. I have just read and will soon reread H.B. Cotterill's "Medieval Italy".

Cotterill was born into a talented family at Blakeney, Norfolk, but spent most of his early life in Grahamstown, South Africa, where his father was Bishop. He took his degree in Classics in 1869 at St John's, University of Cambridge, where he developed an intense interest in art. He served for a time on the staff at both Harrow and Haileybury, before travelling to East Africa, inspired by Livingstone's "Last Journals" to contribute to the disruption of the slave trade there. This included transporting a steel launch in sections from the coast to the Zambesi where he explored the nothern shores of Lake Nyasa accompanied by, among others, a brother of Cecil Rhodes. After a 400 miles trek through unexplored country, he arrived safely in Zanzibar.

Soon after this he returned to England and married. He spent the rest of his life in Germany, Italy and Switzerland where he produced a number of books including a History of Greece, a History of Art, and two books on Italy, "Italy from Dante to Tasso" and the volume I'm looking at now, "Medieval Italy during a thousand years (305-1313)", published in 1915. His modest personality and residence abroad meant that he received much less attention in England than might have been expected in a man of his ability and distinction. Indeed, he does not rate an entry in Wikipedia.

This book received a rather negative though not unjustified contemporary review from Norman Parker of the University of Chicago (The School Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Apr., 1916), pp. 323-324) who complained that though there are facts in abundance, the flow of Italian history during the period covered was very difficult to discern, and that the rise of the Italian cities was hardly covered at all. However, I have a very clear idea of the flow of Italian history - what I wanted were the details, especially with regard to the Barbarian invasions following the fall of the Roman Empire - Cotterill supplies these in excellently organised abundance. No other book that I've read on the period provides more information on the origins, alliances and activities of the Barbarian tribes as they swept through Italy during the Dark Age, nor on the coeval succession of mostly appalling Popes (and not always succession - there were overlaps of up to four Popes at the same time).

If you're interested in the history of Italy during the Dark Age or Mediaeval times in general, seek out this book. It's a goldmine of recondite information written in a lucid and enthralling style.

P.S. I'm pleased to say that I've just acquired a copy of Catterill's "Italy from Dante to Tasso (1300-1600)" which answers in part the reviewer's caveat by describing the political history of Italy during the period of the expansion of the city states "as viewed from the standpoints of the chief cities".

More about Tuscany during the early Middle Ages.

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Anglo-American Florence since the mid 19th Century

Not everyone realises just how small Florence was in the mid-19th Century compared with today. The city walls were still intact. The latter weren't demolished until between 1865 and 1871 when Florence was provisional capital of Italy. I recently came across a provincial map dating from 1841. To the NE, Florence more or less ended just behind the railway station!

Florence in 1841

During the second half of the 19th century, a third of the population of Florence was made up of foreigners, the majority of them from England and America - the Anglo-American Florentines - along with numerous Germans, French and Russians. The English foreign colony between 1850 and 1930 included the poet Walter Savage Landor, Robert and Elizabeth Browning with their literary salon in Casa Guidi on Via Maggio, George Nassau, the third Earl Cowper, the countess of Orford, Lady Sybil Cutting (the mother of Iris Origo) at Villa Medici, Longworth Powers, Janet Ross, Norman Douglas, Vernon Lee, Bernard Berenson at Villa I Tatti and many, many others. The last direct connections to the last of the Anglo-American Florentines was probably Sir Harold Acton (1904 - 1994) whose father moved into Villa La Pietra in 1903, or perhaps Harry Brewster who passed away in 1999.

Aside from those who made Florence their home, there was a constant stream of illustrious visitors who came to stay for months at a time. In 1869, Henry James made his first visit to the city that became one of his favorites and one of the settings for his wonderful novel, The Portrait of a Lady.

Since that time, the city has spread out across the flood plain of the Arno, virtually swallowing up Prato and, no doubt soon, Pistoia to the NE, and with hardly a patch of green separating its outskirts from Signa and Lastra d Signa.

Florence in 2022

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Roselle and Grosseto in the Tuscan Maremma: an ancient Etruscan town and a modern cathedral city in Tuscany

Roselle is a picturesque, Etrusco-Roman ruin located on the boundary between the valley of Ombrone and the Maremma, on the shore of the ancient lake Prile (Lacus Prelius). The ruins are about 15 km SE of Vetulonia, another Etruscan site, and 8 km NE of Grosseto, the largest town in this part of Tuscany.

Remains of the Roman amphitheatre at Roselle in the Tuscan Maremma

The relationship between Roselle and Grosseto is quite interesting - to a large extent, Roselle is the ancestor of Grosseto.

Roselle (Rusellae) stood and, as a ruin, still stands on two hills separated by a valley that formed its political, economic and religious nucleus. The area has been frequented humans since prehistoric times, but Roselle became a real city when it was settled by the Etruscans, in the 7 C BC. Roselle was among the Etruscan cities that were not members of the Etruscan Dodecapoli.

In 294 BC, Roselle was conquered by the Romans, led by the consul Lucio Postumio Megelio. Its flowering began in the first century AD. Thanks to the imperial favour and the work of some munificent families of local patrons, there was intense building activity at this time, that extended throughout the county.

From the late imperial age, Roselle was affected by the same decadence that struck numerous Roman cities. Archaeologists have been able to identify signs of this recession in the contraction of the urban area and in the numerous cases of re-use and abandonment of the oldest structures. Roselle was unable to recover its modest but not unimportant status in Tuscany, despite its role as a bishopric.

In fact, it was at Roselle that the first cathedral of this bishopric stood, at least from the 5 C AD, when Bishop Vitaliano participated in the Roman Synod of 499. The first building was built on the remains of a thermal baths complex dating from between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, on the slopes of the northern part of the city and was subjected to various reconstructions, such as the imposing Romanesque phase, characterised by the bell tower of which the foundations may still be seen.

The Duomo of Grosseto

The spiritual and administrative center of the diocese was, however, transferred in 1138 to nearby Grosseto, by a bull issued by Pope Innocent II. Thus, from the 12 C the city of Roselle was gradually abandoned and its remains reused as building or decorative materials elsewhere. Some of them were used to embellish the new Duomo and others were generally transported to Grosseto. Some architectural remains have been recovered and displayed in the Museum and in the Archaeological Garden or form part of the Grosseto street decorations, to illustrate the close link with ancient Roselle.

Decorated stone element from Roselle

More about the Maremma.

More about Grosseto. 

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