Niccolò Machiavelli: conceptual map on the life and works of the Renaissance politician at the Medici court, author of The Prince and The Mandrake.
Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence on May 3, 1469 to a bourgeois family (download the Concept Map here ). His father Bernardo was a lawyer, and his mother, Bartolomea de’ Neli, was an amateur poet.
Machiavelli had a humanistic education based on the Latin classics (he was, however, ignorant of Greek).
The main points of his biography:
- 1498: he was elected Secretary of the Republic of the second chancellery, the office that dealt with military and diplomatic activity. From this date onwards he will carry out various missions in Italy and abroad. In this phase he composed numerous political writings on behalf of the government, others unofficial.
- 1501: he marries Marietta Corsini, with whom he will have six children
- 1512: The Florentine Republic falls and the Medici return to Florence. He is forced to retire from political life
- 1513: he is arrested for fifteen days and tortured on charges of having participated in an anti-Medici conspiracy. He is found innocent but must live in exile near San Casciano in Val di Pesa
- 1518: publishes The Mandrake
- 1520: he publishes the Florentine Histories
- 1521: Publishes The Art of War
- He died on 21 June 1527 after the fall of the Medici family and he was once again excluded from political activity.
Niccolò Machiavelli, works
Below are the main works of the Florentine politician and intellectual:
- The Prince
Treatise in 26 chapters dedicated to Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici. The historical figure who inspired it is Cesare Borgia .
It presents itself as a political manifesto to resolve the Italian crisis: it shows a realistic vision, contrary to an idealistic interpretation. To ‘fortune’, that is the changeability of chance and history, man can only oppose ‘virtue’, that is his ingenuity.
The morality of the prince consists in doing the good of the State . - Discourses on the first decade of Titus Livius
Series of reflections and notes that would like to constitute a modern political theory starting from a basic text, that is, Ab urbe condita by Titus Livius (59 BC – 17 AD).
– BOOK I dedicated to the internal politics of the State, its administration, laws, and the importance of religion as a uniting bond and political instrument in the hands of the rulers
– BOOK II dedicated to the theme of foreign policy, war, militias
– BOOK III dedicated to the actions of particular men who have made the history of Rome and how States are transformed - Mandrake
The comedy takes its title from a medicinal herb, the mandrake, which according to an ancient tradition had the virtue of fighting sterility in women. The plot:
Nicia, a doctor of law but a simple and mean person, falls into the trap set by Callimachus who is in love with his wife, Lucrezia, beautiful but wise and honest. Callimachus avails himself of the advice of Ligurio, a cold calculator and strategist of the prank. Since Nicia wants to have a child, Ligurio convinces him to make his wife drink a portion of mandrake, warning him however – here lies the cunning – that the first person who lies with Lucrezia will absorb the poison and die within eight days. It is therefore necessary to find someone who will agree, without her knowledge, to die in her husband’s place. This someone is obviously Callimachus who will thus be able to enjoy Lucrezia for one night with her husband’s consent. It is more difficult to convince Lucrezia who, in the end, convinced by her mother and her confessor, after a night of love with Callimaco, will decide to have a lasting relationship with him. - Belfagor Archdevil
Belfagor is a devil sent to earth to judge the condition of married men who generally consider family life worse than hell itself. In the end Belfagor, after having noted that on earth human relationships are determined only by selfishness and economic reasons, prefers to return to the kingdom of the damned rather than run the risk of submitting again to the yoke of marriage and the mockery of a peasant, Gianmattia del Brica, with whom he had found temporary salvation from creditors. - Florentine Histories
This is a historiographical work published posthumously in 1532, divided into eight books, Machiavelli’s story opens with the fall of the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions, an event that marks the end of a historical period and the beginning of a new one that will lead to the main theme of the story: the birth of Florence and its history. From the medieval roots, we arrive at the conflicts of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, up to the affirmation of the Medici family, with the exaltation of Lorenzo the Magnificent. - On the Art of War
Between 1519 and 1520 Machiavelli wrote On the Art of War, the only historical-political work published by the author while he was still alive, unlike The Prince and Discourses on the First Deca of Titus Livius, published posthumously. The work is composed of a preface and seven books and is written in the form of a dialogue.
Machiavelli’s Legacy
Machiavelli defines himself as a ‘man of the states’, regardless of the fortunes of politics and the alternation of power.
His Prince is one of the most important books in modern culture.
His figure has inspired numerous terms in the Italian language:
- Machiavellian : inspired by principles that exalt cunning and the lack of any scruples in political and social relationships
- Machiavellian : refers in a neutral way to what is proper to the author and his works
- Machiavellianism : refers to the ethical-political practice inspired by the theories set out in The Prince
