September 09, 2008
the prince
It was a daring political move that the exiled Niccolo Machiavelli, his career in ruin, made in 1512 from his family farm south of Florence. He had sent a short treatise, "The Prince" (Il Principe), as an offering of counsel to the most powerful man in Florence, Lorenzo (called "the Magnificent") de Medici, the man who himself had ordered Machiavelli's dismissal and exile. The cover letter is as masterly as the treatise. "Take this little gift," Machiavelli wrote, "in the spirit I send it, and if you read it diligently you will discover in it my urgent wish that you reach the eminence that fortune and your other great qualities promise you."Renaissance sycophancy aside, it is held that this letter was Machiavelli's pitch for employment with the Medici family. He closed by citing his reduced condition and couching a veiled plea, "And . . . you will realize the extent to which, undeservedly, I have to endure the great and unremitting malice of fortune." It is an irony and a contradiction that "The Prince," the classic handbook on power politics and the guide to gaining and maintaining that power, should have owed its birth to the collapse of the author's political career.
more from the WSJ here.
Posted by Morgan Meis at 11:01 AM | Permalink
Comments
Although The Prince is dedicated to "The Magnificent Lorenzo de Medici," this is not in fact Lorenzo the Magnificent, but his grandson. Lorenzo the Magnificent died in 1492, years before The Prince was written. An easy mistake to make, but the press seems prone to errors like this in discussing historical matters.
By the way, my favorite commentary on Machiavelli comes from Maurice Merleau-Ponty: "How could he have been understood? He writes against good feelings in politics, but he is also against violence. Since he has the nerve to speak of virtue at the very moment he is sorely wounding ordinary morality, he disconcerts the believers in Law as he does those who believe that the State is the Law. For he describes the knot of collective life in which pure morality can be cruel and pure politics requires something like a morality. We would put up with a cynic who denies virtue or an innocent who sacrifices action. We do not like this difficult thinker without idols."
Posted by: Ross Knecht | Sep 9, 2008 1:53:16 PM
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