Machiavelli’s early life and works, first draft

Machiavelli’s early life and works

Machiavelli early life started in the year 1469 which has important historical annals of Florence. This because it was also the year Lorenzo de’ Medici’s rose to power. His household consisted of his parents Bernardo and Bartolomea, along with two older sisters and a younger brother. At the age of 

seven he began studies in the principles of Latin grammar and rhetoric, he also went over the study of arithmetic which happened a couple of years after. Although the family was too poor to own many books, it did possess a copy of the first three decades of Livy’s survey of cient Roman history. During the years of 1487 and 1495 Machiavelli spent most of his time in Rome working for a prominent Florence banker.

The politics in Florence changed drastically in the years  preceding Machiavelli’s return from Rome. Lorenzo de’ Medici past away in 1492 and his place was taken by the rightful heir his eldest, Piero, an inept youth barely twenty years of age. Piero was soon confronted with a major crisis by King Charles VIII of France which resulted to the banishment of the medici clan from the city forever. Afterwards, control of the Florentine republic fell into the hands of an austere Dominican friar from Ferrara, Girolamo Savonarola .

 Machiavelli witnessed Savonarola’s rise and fall at first hand and viewed the episode as an object lesson as to the danger of being “an unarmed prophet.” (this information was from the SalemPress Biographical Encyclopedia) video on Machiavelli’s early life https://youtu.be/SIsqQjqHMNE

At the start of Machiavelli life’s work he benefited from the death of Savonarola and after a few months he was called on to serve in the newly reconstituted municipal government in several important posts. Its chief executive, Piero Soderini, appointed him both head of the Second Chancery and secretary to the Council of Ten for War. Machiavelli early retirement from public life at age 43 made him study roman literature and to write/compose many original works. His major political treatises are Il principe (wr. 1513, pb. 1532; The Prince , 1640) and Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (wr. c. 1513, pb. 1531; Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius , 1636). Since Machiavelli focuses on issues pertaining to the governance of principalities in The Prince and of republics in the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius, these works constitute, in effect, a unified exposition of the author’s political theories and should therefore be studied in conjunction with each other. The title of the Discourses is, however, misleading to the extent that this work is not really a commentary on Livy’s history of ancient Rome. Machiavelli subscribed to a cyclical view of history based on the theories propounded by the Greek historian Polybius, and he used the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius to draw parallels between the events depicted by Livy and the political situation of his own time.https://youtu.be/AOXl0Ll_t9s

Machiavelli’s Major Works

1503

·       Descrizione del modo tenuto dal Duca Valentino nello ammazzare Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, il Signor Pagolo e il Duca di Gravina Orsini

1504

·       Decennale primo (First Decennial, 1965)

1507

·       Discorso dell ordinare lo stato di Firenze alle armi (Discourse on Florentine Military Preparation, 1965)

1508

·       Rapporto delle cose della Magna

1509

·       Decennale secondo (Second Decennial, 1965)

1512-1513

·       Ritratto di cose di Francia

1513

·       Il principe (pb. 1532; The Prince, 1640)

1513

·       Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (pb. 1531; Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius, 1636)

1513-1514

·       Serenata (Serenade, 1965)

1517

·       L’asino d’oro (rev. 1549; The Golden Ass, 1965)

c. 1517

·       Andria (based on Terence’s play; English translation, 1969)

c. 1519

·       La Mandragola (The Mandrake, 1911)

1520

·       Discursus florentinarum rerum post mortem iunioris Laurentii Medices

1520

·       Discorso delle cose fiorentine dopo la morte di Lorenzo (Discourse on the State of Florence After the Death of Lorenzo, 1965)

1520

·       La vita di Castruccio Castracani (The Life of Castruccio Castracani, 1675)

1521

·       Dell’arte della guerra (The Art of War, 1560)

1523-1524

·       Canti carnascialeschi (Carnival Songs, 1965)

1525

·       Istorie fiorentine (The Florentine History, 1595)

1525

·       La Clizia (based on Plautus’s play Casina; Clizia, 1961)

1525

·       Discorso: O, Dialogo intorno alla nostra lingua (Discourse: Or, Dialogue About Our Language, 1961)

.” (this information was from the SalemPress Biographical Encyclopedia )

Rudowski, Victor Anthony. “Niccolò Machiavelli.” Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2020. EBSCOhost,

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=88367566&site=eds-live&scope=site.

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