Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was born in Florence as a lawyer’s son. He was educated according to the humanist ideals of the Renaissance with the focus on Latin and the classics, but beyond that, few details are available about his childhood and youth. It is known that he spent his youth in a city with continuous political instability and tumults: notable events include the Pazzi conspiracy and its aftermath, the end of Medici rule, and the reign of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola. The fall of the friar was a formative experience for Machiavelli, and it is used as an example inThe Prince (Chapter VI).
Soon after Savonarola was toppled and burned, Machiavelli entered public office in the Florentine republic. Under the titles of Secretary of the Second Chancery and Secretary to the Ten of Liberty and Peace, he was assigned different kinds of tasks. Among the most important of these were diplomatic missions. During these, he had the opportunity to learn from many of the most skilled leaders of his time in Italy and neighboring regions, and some of his writings from this period are duplicated inThe Prince as well.
In 1512 the Medici returned to Florence, which meant the end for the republic. First Machiavelli lost his job; the next year he was accused of conspiring against the new government and was tortured. Although he was freed soon, Machiavelli found himself unemployed with no political future. He decided to go into voluntary exile in the countryside, and in the following years he occupied himself with thinking, reading and writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment