Niccolo machiavelli on extreme situations and the virtu of politics

Curriculum Italian Studies NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI ON EXTREME SITUATIONS AND THE VIRTÙ OF POLITICS Final Dissertation in ITALIAN POLITICAL THOUGHT Supervisor: Prof.. Del Lucchese, The poli

Curriculum Italian Studies

NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI ON EXTREME SITUATIONS AND THE VIRTÙ OF POLITICS

Final Dissertation in ITALIAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

Supervisor: Prof Antonio Del Vecchio

Co – supervisor: Prof Angelo Maria Mangini

Presented by: Pham Thi Quynh Chi

Session III Academic year 2020/2021

CHAPTER 1: MACHIAVELLI, A LIFE AT THE EXTREME 6

CONCLUSION 84

Machiavelli’s philosophy We are going to pass through Machiavelli’s works: The

Prince, The Discourses, The Florentine Histories, Art of War, Mandragola, Belfagor,

and Machiavelli’s letters

The core of Machiavelli’s political reflections is, in fact, based on his personal experiences, particularly during his childhood with family, his distinctive education, his short public career, and his plain time after the Medici’s political return

He went through historic moments of the unbalance of Italy, the corruptive period of his native Florence, and consequently, many unrelated extreme events in his personal life It leads him to the observation of the world as a tap of mutable unrelated motions that increasingly fall Chapter 1 will provide elements and facts about Machiavelli so that readers could collect a bunch of ornaments for Machiavelli’s profile and background

The Prince initially impressed readers with the Machiavellian concept of

virtù – fortuna Specific historical events and figures in Italy and in Roman Empire were recalled for explaining the political couple virtù – fortuna It leads to the curiosity of how to approach Machiavelli’s political understandings better in the advanced term of state and regime Machiavellian virtù was put into the task of constructing and maintaining orders to resist the state from the corruptive fatal conflict that was drawn

by fortuna A series of Machiavelli’s works approved this doctrine such as The Discourses, Art of War, or The Florentine Histories Machiavelli’s political understandings turn to puzzle and ambiguous because there are many philosophical overlaps written in his works that questioned his standing point of thinking Scholars,

in effect, found that his ultimate in composing his works was to salvage Florence’s present political situation and, as his self-interest, to hope for a return in a public career

In the second chapter, we will investigate the ideas which Machiavelli has understood

reading and interpreting individually certain parts and chapters in his works The selections of certain parts and chapters could be a personal taste by the reworking technique of Machiavelli in historical events Chapter 3 of this thesis will work on certain parts such as chapter 4 and chapter 37 book I, chapter 8 book III of The Discourses, the entire book IV of The Florentine Histories, and the two literary works Belfagor and Mandragola concentrated on marriage and demonic aspect The most conflictual Machiavellian concepts such as tumults, political trivial losses, Machiavellian rhetoric reinterpretation of history, the evil side of human nature will be discussed They will enlighten Machiavelli’s reflection that politics is a field of ambiguity and improvise events that cannot be hidden, avoided, or eliminated So, extreme actions, or in Machiavellian words, virtuous actions are often required because

of this

CHAPTER 1: MACHIAVELLI, A LIFE AT THE EXTREME

1 Machiavelli’s life with full of extreme situations

A Florentine, born on 3rd May 1469 devoted his life to public service in his early life After his 7th birthday, his father sent him to Master Matteo for scholastic education and the learning of Latin At the age of 12, Machiavelli went to the Master Paolo Giovio da Ronciglione Then Virgilio Andirani, secretary of the first Chancellor

is not only his mentor but also his teacher.1

Here, Machiavelli was educated to the method of imitating the most excellent figure of classic style.2 After that, Machiavelli was sent to the University of Florence for further education, and he ranked the top excellent student of classical education These three pathways of education in Machiavelli’s early life, from the learning of Latin through the method of imitating classical excellences to the classical education, set a firm basement in Machiavelli of the Antiquity’s patterns Thus, the three fragile inputs

of life are his three thresholds to observe political life during his official career It could

be said that language, imitation, and classical excellence learning are the motives why Machiavelli sees the world, humans, and nature in politics in an extreme and exceptive manner This explained the reason why Machiavelli received the government’s term of office suddenly in the summer of 1498, at the age of 29

The Florence’s head was continuously formed and corrupted After the death

of Lorenzo de Medici in 1942 3, Pietro de’ Medici was exiled in 1942 because he could not lead the government He, the son of Lorenzo, was hereticated the throne but behaved tyrannically and handed over the army forces to the King of France, for the restoration

1 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, Edinburg, Edinburg University press, 2005,

p.15: “Paolo Giovio suggests that Adriani had been not only Machiavelli’s mentor but also his teacher Adriani thus represents the link between Machiavelli and the humanist world and culture”

2 Q Skinner, Machiavelli, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1999, p 12

3 A.A Rosa, Machiavelli e l’Italia, Torino, Einaudi, 2019, p.35: “sto parlando del periodo che va dalla morte di

Lorenzo il Magnifico (8 aprile 1492), o forse, piu’ esattamente, dalla discesa di Carlo VIII, re di Francia, in Italia (settembre 1494 – luglio 1495) alla duplice incoronazione di Carlo V (re d’Italia e imperatore) da parte del pontefice Clemente VII (febbraio 1530)”

of the Republic in return.4 Italy’s problems were too small compared to the maps of Europe with Spain, Germany, and France The death of Lorenzo in 1492 broke the Italian balance for forty years With the boost by being twice in a delegation to the king Charles VIII, Girolamo Savonarola ruled over Florence from 1494 to 1498, the year in which Machiavelli was appointed as the secretary of the Chancellor 5

The relationship between Machiavelli and Savonarola is tightened by the development of time The regime of Savonarola ended up a few days before Machiavelli’s office assumption as the Chancellor Savonarola however worked for his idealism since the youth of Machiavelli Girolamo Savonarola influenced the masses of Florence citizens which included Machiavelli “The young Machiavelli himself often listened to these sermons, which undeniably had a strong influence on him, especially

in terms of the political role of religion, and of a clear understanding of the influence that a prophetic stance could have on the people” 6 He contributed to the Florentine government’s spirits for decades because of his charisma His intention was to approach the citizens’ union delivering the idealism but was fail under the unwavering Soderini group of the best one.7 Machiavelli goes against Savonarola’s governo largo 8 with the

4 C Vivanti, Niccolò Machiavelli, I tempi della politica, Roma, Donzelli, 2008, p.8: “Erano passata appena quattro

anni dacche Pietro, il figlio di Lorenza il Magnifico, dopo sessant’anni di potere dei Medici, era stato cacciato nel

1494 per il suo comportamento ‘tirannico’ e per avere consegnato al re di Francia alcune fortezze, così che il governo repubblicano era stato restaurato.”

5 John M Najemy, A History of Florence 1200-1575, Blackwell Publication, 2008, pp.379: “During the 1494 crisis

due to the passage of Charles VIII through Florence, and the threat of an open conflict with the powerful French army, Savonarola played a primary role of meditation, taking part twice in a delegation to the king”

6 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.17

7 C Vivanti, Niccolò Machiavelli, I tempi della politica, cit., p.10: “la sua tendenza a conseguire l’unione fra i

cittadini si manifesta fin dai primi anni della sua attività politica, ad esempio nel tentativo, allora fallito, di avvicinare al gonfaloniere Pier Soderini il maggiore esponente del gruppo degli ottimati, Alamanno Salviati.”

8 Ibidem, p.9: “l’atteggiamento di Machiavelli verso il frate domenicano è stato generalmente visto come decisamente ostile, anzi nel secolo XIX, i due personaggi furono contrapposti a rappresentare emblematicamente l’uno il perdurare del Medioevo, l’altro la nuova età del Rinascimento, o come pure venne detto, l’età della fede

e l’età della scienza Per questo giudizio ci si basò soprattutto sulla lettera che, pochi mesi prima della caduta di Savonarola, Machiavelli scrisse a Ricciardo Becchi, ambasciatore fiorentino a Roma, che gli aveva chiesto notizie

‘de le cose di qua circa al frate’”

Aristotelian theory which gained partisans’ power and several intellectuals at the time9

In the end, Savonarola was condemned the death on 23 May 1498 by Pope Alessandro

VI and the Consiglio maggiore oversaw his position.10

Instead of being inspired by Savonarola’s regime of the Platonic King in a non-conflictual political kingdom, Machiavelli went against it but was inspired by the prophetic manner that Savonarola grounded his political influence The way he depicted and selected the set of characteristics of the ideal prince, or the winner, is full of divine and mythical illustrations.11

At the time in Florence, there was a war with Pisa Internal conflicts were frequent in Italy, and this conflictual period of Florence and Pisa was not viewed as any noticeable event in Italian history It was however affected the tasks of a Florentine Chancellor which was carried by the young Machiavelli two days after the corruption

of Savonarola’s regime What is the role of a Chancellor and what did Machiavelli literally do during his term of office as a Chancellor?

From the complicated situation of Florence at the time, Cancelleria fiorentina

works as an administrator in the modern-day Despite an ordinary title in our modern world, this position however was important in the contemporary time because a

Cancelleria must be able to be awake of the tumult, gli umori, among the people and to

know which relations exist between political organs and territories.12 Having possessed

9 C Vivanti, Niccolò Machiavelli, I tempi della politica, cit., p.10: “Non sappiamo se Machiavelli avesse già

maturato l’idea, poi sviluppata nei Discorsi, che le lotte interne di una città possono essere vantaggiose per la vita politica se alla fine si ricompongono, creando nuovi riordinamenti e nuove leggi”

10 Ibidem, p.8: “condannato a morte, il 23 maggio 1498, in ossequio alla scomunica fulminata da papa Alessandro

VI, fu impiccato a arso in piazza della Signoria […] il Consiglio maggiore, che ne era l’organo principale, rimasse

in carica.”

11 A.A Rosa, Machiavelli e l’Italia, cit., p.74: “[Machiavelli] Aggiunge subito dopo che di Mose non si deve

‘ragionare’ ispirato e tutelato dalla superiore volontà divina… il condottiero vincitore, il fondatore di stati, che risponda a tali caratteristiche, ha piu’ del divino che dell’umano, ovvero, piu’ esattamente, è in grado di sforzare l’umano oltre i limiti che normalmente gli sono consentiti”

12 C Vivanti, Niccolò Machiavelli, I tempi della politica, p.24: “Ci rendiamo conto, altresì, come

quell’amministrazione vada modificandosi agli inizi dell’età moderna Al tempo stesso capiamo come il

these two key capacities, a Cancelleria will stabilize the Florentine public discipline,

military service of the Republic by, not to be repeated, valuating the people’s tendencies

and mobilizing them, gli umori.13 For a better explanation, using the current definitions,

the most important functions of a Cancelleria is the right of self-administration, the

consent of controlling fiscal organizations, regulations, market services, the authority

of transportation, and the prerogative for a better sovereign and conduct of justice.14

The Cancelleria was divided into two sectors, the first one holds foreign affairs and the

second holds the internal affairs and the conduct of wars.15 Machiavelli carries out the task of a first Chancellor from 1498 and of a second Chancellor, the diplomatic career, from 1500

Although Machiavelli wrote a bundle of letters to his friends, he never described in detail what he was doing during his public career, and it was obvious since letters needed time to deliver and receive in ancient times However, his tasks were never well-defined and assigned by the head and by the chaotic situation of Florence His frequent task of a first Chancellor was recorded as “trattare i problemi correnti della Repubblica fiorentina attraverso le lettere di governo, le corrispondenze diplomatiche e

i vari scritti politici d’occasione, nei quali svolgeva sovente considerazioni di carattere generale, formulando espressioni e argomentazioni che più tardi ritroveremo nelle grandi opere politiche.”16 In this time, Machiavelli literally worked as he was asked to

do, and he completed it successfully Apart from Machiavelli’s skillful ability of

Segretario fiorentino riesca a conoscere direttamente gli umori degli abitanti e a capire le relazioni che s’intrecciano nei vari luoghi.”

13 C Vivanti, Niccolò Machiavelli, I tempi della politica, p.25: “Di tale esperienza si avvarrà per stabilire

l’Ordinanza fiorentina, l’organizzazione del servizio militare della Repubblica, valutando le differenti possibilità

di arruolare gli abitanti, proprio perché’ le sue mansioni l’hanno portato a visitare e a ispezionare le varie località.”

14 Ibidem, p.25: “In effetti, se in termini generali le più importanti comunità assoggettare conservavano il diritto

di auto amministrarsi, la dominante riusciva a controllarne l’organizzazione fiscale, le regole annonarie, le servitù del mercato, le preiscrizioni sui traffici e sulle strade, e soprattutto quella che era le prerogativa per eccellenza della sovranità, l’amministrazione della giustizia.”

15 Ibidem, p.13: “in linea generale si può dire che mentre la prima Cancelleria si occupava degli affari esteri, la secondo era principalmente incaricata degli affari interni e della condotta della guerra.”

16 Ibidem, p.15

intellectual political judgment that allows him to complete these tasks, I believe that these task’s characters, in another side, lead him to be an outstanding philosophical political thinker rather than to be a leader of a state Perhaps, it contributes strongly to the fact that his political reflections are tense and extreme since, after fifteen years of approaching such political knowledge, from 1498 to 1512, he ended up his public career without having a chance to apply them into reality Machiavelli bitterly admitted it:

“quindici anni che io sono stato allo studio dell’arte dello Stato”.17

By scanning his tasks in his career and what was recorded as Machiavelli’s working activities, it is evident for the reason why Machiavelli concentrated on political philosophy and viewed politics in the irrational form as well as a matter of emergency and contingency, rather than on acting as a Renassaince politician.18 “Politics is, for Machiavelli, at the confluence of these two conceptions of historiography and theory Politics is also, in this sense, a challenge against the claim that authors, theories, thoughts should be studied within their disciplinary boundaries”19

Machiavelli takes up diplomacy at the very early age of his career The first

mandato of Machiavelli’s diplomatic career inscribes a politics of fragments and tears

which for him requires extreme means to be solved In this period of life, Machiavelli recalled the most strictly learning application upon his political attitude From 1500 until the collapse of the Republic, Machiavelli was the second Chancellor of the Florentine Republic As the second Chancellor, Machiavelli was responsible for the Florentine Republic correspondence with local officials and territorial governors across the Florentine territorial state in Tuscany.20 He was not alone There were other

florentini funzionari, who employed as the Second Chancellors, named Filippo

Casavecchia, Francesco Del Nero, and Luigi Giucciardini.21

17 N Machiavelli, Tutte le opere, Letter to Francesco Vettori in 10th December 1513, cit., p.297

18 Carlo Galli, Emergency and exception: Machiavelli and Schmitt, in "Filosofia politica" 2/2021, pp 199-218

19 F Del Lucchese, The Political Philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit, p.3

20 Bock, G., Skinner, Q., & Viroli, M Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,

1991

21 C Vivanti, Niccolò Machiavelli, I tempi della politica, cit p.18: “Da Blois, Roberto Acciaiuoli, che lo ha

sostituito come ambasciatore della corte di Francia, si dice individioso degli amici che lo avrebero ascoltato a

Working as the second Chancellor, the assigned tasks were ambiguous and generated.22 His first governmental mission was in 1500 with Francesco della Casa for six months The king of France, Louis XII was not interested in the Florentine excuses for the mistakes in the past and solely wanted to measure how strong the support of an

“incapable state” like Florence could be in the future.23

From then, Machiavelli had very firm standing point of Italy’s dependence 24

He felt the shame of an “incapable state” and the vulnerability of the external support The fact that this was an unsuccessful political negotiation was a motive that narrows Machiavelli’s reflections Machiavelli did not choose to study on the way of having a successful deal with an external force, such as France, nor he chose to question the way France views Florence as an “incapable state”

The diplomatic memory designed Machiavelli’s later career life We cannot

foresee if Machiavelli would write Il Principe the same if he could remain in public

career However, we assure that his diplomacy period sticked to Machiavelli mind and

he had the space to express it in words, paragraphs, and chapters in Il Principe mostly.25

When Machiavelli comments on rulers, he refers mostly to their characteristics of confronting political circumstances 26 He particularly states in chapter XIX at length

Firenze: “ E mi pare vedere el Casa [Filippo Casavecchia] e Francesco [Del Nero] e Luigi [Guicciardini] – scrive

il 7 ottobre 1510 – venirvi a trarvi di casa apresso lo arrivar vostro, e menarvi a un solino [in un luogo aperto] o

in Santa Maria del Fiore per voltarvi et intendere tutte le cose di qua.”’

22 Q Skinner, Machiavelli, a very short introduction, cit., p.8: “Machiavelli instructions were ‘to establish that it

was not due to any shortcoming on our part that this undertaking yielded no results’ and at the same time ‘to convey the impression’ if possible that the French commander had acted ‘corruptly and cowardice’”

23 G.M Anselmi, Leggere Machiavelli, Patron Editore, Bologna, 2014, pp.12-13

24 Q Skinner, Machiavelli, a very short introduction, cit., p 9: “Machiavelli took the first of these lessons

profoundly to heart His mature political writing is full of warnings about the folly of procrastinating, the danger

of appearing irresolute, the need for bold and rapid action in war and politics alike But he clearly found it impossible to accept the further implication that there might be no future for the Italian city state.”

25 Ibidem, p 17: “Machiavelli eventually placed this judgement at the very heart of his analysis of political leadership in the Prince.”

26 Ibidem: “They basic weakness they all shared was a fatal inflexibility in the face of changing circumstances Cesare Borgia was at all times overweening in his self-confidence; Maximilian was always cautious and over- hesitant; Julius II was always impetuous and over-excited What they are refused to reorganize was that they

“Among the best ordered and governed kingdoms of our times is France, and in it are found many good institutions on which depend the liberty and security of the king; of these the first is the parliament and its authority, because he who founded the kingdom, knowing the ambition of the nobility and their boldness, considered that a bit to their mouths would be necessary to hold them in; and, on the other side, knowing the hatred of the people, founded in fear, against the nobles, he wished to protect them, yet he was not anxious for this to be the particular care of the king; favoring the people, and from the people for favoring the nobles, he set up an arbiter, who should be one who could beat down the great and favor the lesser without reproach to the king.” 27

Not only be suppressed by France’s attitude towards his own country, but Machiavelli was also ashamed by the failure of keeping engagement of Florentine present government After the unsuccessful negotiation with France, Machiavelli was assigned to come back to Florence as soon as the new ambassador had arrived for the second negotiation However, from July to October, the government of Florence had not sent any ambassador yet and this was a shame on Machiavelli and on the Italian state.28 The French government insulted Florence saying to la Signoria “stimano solamente o chi è armato o chi è parato a dare […] che in voi siano mancate queste dua qualità”.29 Listening to this statement, Machiavelli concluded his own reflection that

“tutto è superfluo”

Machiavelli formed his political attitudes from this moment and expressed them through his books with a bitter tone of commenting on the "madness of procrastination", "the danger of appearing irresolute"30 as well as suggesting his advice

of resolving these alarming governmental issues, by “un’azione efficace e rapida” in war and in politics Since he worked as an ambassador and perceived the Italian situations in this period, he delivered his advice from the external points of view of

would have been far more successful if they had sought to accommodate their personalities to the exigencies of the times, instead of trying to reshape their times in the mould of their personalities.”

27 N Machiavelli, The Prince, XIX, cit, p 56

28 Q Skinner, Machiavelli, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1999, p.15

29 N Machiavelli, Opere di Niccolò Machiavelli, Firenze, Gaetano Cambiagi, 1782: Ritratto delle cose di Francia,

p.131

30 Q Skinner, Machiavelli, cit., p 36, “follia del procrastinare”, “pericolo of apparire irresoluti”

Italian states His insight was that Italy must be independent and autonomous from the Gigantes France, Germany, and Spain

Coming back to Florence at the end of 1500, Machiavelli faced himself with the family loss His sister and his father died This led him to a period of emptiness before continuing his second challenge with the series of audacious campaigns after Cesare Borgia became duke of Romagna in favor of his father, Pope Alessandro VI This mission marked a milestone in Machiavelli’s learning of diplomacy

Moreover, the death of his father, the one who influenced him most, was a knockdown for the 29-year-old Niccolò Machiavelli from the viewpoint of misfortune and from the viewpoint of moral and intellectual support Machiavelli’s father, Bernardo Machiavelli was a juridical pundit He dealt with legal antiquary researching obscure aspects of Roman law His father was interested strongly in the humanistic discipline Machiavelli often joked about his’s father classical research compositions, but he could not that his father’s books and memories became his thinking basement in the future31 At the time, Machiavelli teased his father by sending him a poem joking that Bernardo cared more about his books than about eating.32 His father died two years after Machiavelli started working as the second Chancellor This event was perceived

as a giant misfortune for Machiavelli since his first mission in France was already blamed by the King of France Although Machiavelli claims that he never ceased to be fond of his wife, Marietta Corsini, he does not seem to have an intimate relationship with his family

During the next year, 1501 and 1502, as the representative of “the incapable state”- Florence and on the behalf of the Signoria, Machiavelli was adjudged unqualified in diplomacy failing to complete his assigned mission The records of

31 C Ginzburg, Nondimanco, cit., p.20: “Esiste pero’ un documento, utilizzato dagli studiosi in maniera

insufficente, che getta una luce preziosa sulla informazione intellettuale di Machiavelli: il libro di ricordi tenuto dal padre di lui, Bernardo, negli anni 1474 – 1487 Bernardo Machiavelli si era addottorato in legge Come molti altri fiorentini di livello sociale analogo al suo egli registro nel Libro di ricordi una serie di eventi quotidiani di vario genere: l’acquisto di una vacca e di alcuni libri, il prestito di una piccola somma di denaro, l’inizio della carriera scolastica del figlio Niccolò.”

32 G Sasso, Niccolò Machiavelli, Il pensiero politico, cit., p.330

Machiavelli’s life are full of failure, loss, and uncomfortable events, from the family losses at an early age to the shame of uncompleted government tasks Compared to the stage of studying at school and growing up under family’s prestige, Machiavelli was facing in this very first period of career series of unacceptable bitterness Fortune did not favor Machiavelli, at least in the mission in France The only reward for Machiavelli was the learning and diplomatic experiences gained for this mission

In October 1502, again as the second Chancellor, Machiavelli was selected to

be in the mission under the course of Cesare Borgia for four months.33 This mission highlighted his diplomatic career Machiavelli had the chance to observe “materiali grezzi” and “primi abbozzi”, the political strategies of the heads of the Italian territories Machiavelli was excessively impressed by Borgia and continuously mentioned him in

his book The Prince as an excellent example of a prudent ruler, apart from other books such as the Legazione al Duca Valentino in Romagna.34 Pietro Soderini, who is Machiavelli’s close friend, was elected and last for ten years in the favor of the aristocratic families in 1502 Thus, Machiavelli became the key supporter of Soderini’s regime

In October 1503, he started his next mission in Rome His task in this mission was to report on an unusual crisis that had developed at the papal court.35 From the period of the mission, Machiavelli also took off his suspicious doubts on Borgia by observing better Borgia’s strategies and political plots through the negotiation with Giuliano della Rovere Despite his audacity and virtue, Borgia made a great mistake by choosing the pope as his rival after the death of his father Alessandro VI And despite

33 Q Skinner, Machiavelli a very short introduction, cit., p 10: “The man selected for this delicate task was

Machiavelli, who had already encountered Borgia at Urbino Machiavelli received his commission on 5 th October

1502 and presented himself before the duke at Imola two days later.”

34 Ibidem, p 11: “It is often suggested that Machiavelli’s Legations merely contain the ‘raw materials’ or ‘rough drafts’ of his later political views, and that he subsequently reworked and even idealized his observations in the years of his enforced retirement”

35 Ibidem, p 12: “the Pope, Alexander VI, had died in August and his successor, Pius III, had in turn died within

a month of taking office The Florentine signoria was anxious to receive daily bulletins about what was likely to happen next, especially after Borgia switched sides and agreed to promote the candidacy of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere.”

having highly celebrated the duke Borgia in his first encounter with the duke, Machiavelli concludes that Cesare Borgia relied merely on his ‘unheard-of-good luck’

36 Machiavelli changed his political judgments as quickly as he views the world full of contingencies

The Prince becomes a hub for him to express his political sharp point of view

during the diplomatic period Machiavelli complained in chapter 7 of The Prince “non

doveva ma consentire al papato di quelli cardinali che lui avessi offesi”.37 Perhaps Machiavelli lived in the most wavering historical moment of Italy, the political situations as pieces and gaps confirmed his understandings that the broken politics need

to treat by extremity At the same expenditure, Machiavelli learned and gathered political knowledge of the subject, sovereign contract, and norm Machiavelli linked political events, which is the concept of “the world” and the ruler’s personalities, which

is his profession of humanitas From this stage of the public career, Machiavelli starts linking them by designing la fortuna and la virtù Cesare Borgia and his extreme

leadership become the resources of depicting La Fortuna and il Virtu Machiavelli’s solution for vulnerable political situations generalized plenty of contradictions and swings but we cannot deny that the sets of Fortune’s characteristics and qualities of virtue fixed the world of collapses and mutations.38

The second influence of Machiavelli on Italian politics, which was the project

of supporting Julius II’s election 39, allowed Machiavelli to access a position of evaluating the events and historical figures based on the measure of Fortune and Virtue being formed in the earlier time Machiavelli was in Rome in 1503, in Siena and Pisa

36 Q Skinner, Machiavelli a very short introduction, cit., p 12: “By the start of the following year he was speaking

with increasing disapproval of the fact that the duke was still content to rely on his ‘unheard-of-good luck’ (L520).”

37 Ibidem p 11: “These observations, originally sent in secret to the Ten of War, have since become celebrated, for they recur almost word for word in chapter 7 of The Prince”

38 Ibidem, p 13: “And he [Machiavelli] recurs to his basic accusation that the duke relied too heavily on his luck Instead of facing the obvious contingency that he might at some point be checked by a ‘malicious stroke of Fortune’, he collapses as soon as this happened”

39 Ibidem, p 20

in 1505 From August to October 1506, Machiavelli’s mission was to keep the Signoria informed from Julius II’s court Julius II’s present plan was to recover Perugia and Bologna and other territories previously held by the Church.40 He anxiously found himself betraying Florence supporting the pope’s campaigns Italy was powerful at his time because of the Christian religion, and it is the Christian religion’s power that made Italy vulnerable and conflictive

In 1507, Machiavelli was assigned to diplomacy and was responsible for a new Florentine militia as the chancellor of the Nine of the Militia and he considered himself to have an excellent expertise of foreign and states.41 At the end of 1507, after the unsuccessful mission of his friend, Francesco Vettori, Machiavelli was sent to evaluate the power of the head of Asburgo, king Massimiliano because the Florentine government was afraid that he would evade Italy In his court in 1507 – 1508, Machiavelli revealed the emperor Massimiliano II as full of failures and lacks describing the emperor as a cagy man who ignored human agencies necessary to carry his schemes into effect, and never insisted on the fulfillment of his own wishes.42 The emperor was described and exemplified in many chapters of The Prince Also in this period, Francesco Guicciardini and Machiavelli got to know each other in 1509 After Machiavelli’s fall of career, Guicciardini continues his mission in Spain in 1514 and was in charge in some public roles of the Florentine government Despite the difference

in statuses, they kept in touch and wrote to each other

In 1509, Pisa was taken by the Florentine army rewarding for Machiavelli’s political attempts and marking a grand success for Florence Gran Mario Anselmi writes

in his book Leggere Machiavelli: “È forse il punto più alto della carriera politica di

Machiavelli, ma anche quello che gli procura maggiori invidie e sospetti da parte

40 Q Skinner, Machiavelli a very short introduction, cit., p 14: “Machiavelli had been present at several audiences

at the time of Julius II’s election, but it was in the course of two later missions that he gained his fullest insight into the pope’s character and leadership The first of these was in 1506, when Machiavelli returned between August and October to the papal court His instructions at that point were to keep the signoria informed about the progress of Julius II’s typical aggressive plan to recover Perugia, Bologna and other territories held by the Church

41 N Machiavelli, Tutte le opere, cit., p 250-8: Letter to Vettori of Aprile 29, 1513

42 G.M Anselmi, Leggere Machiavelli, cit., pp.45-46

dell’oligarchia cittadina”43 It was also Machiavelli’s pride since the war with Pisa was the mark of the start of his public career Machiavelli enjoyed his Fortune and sharpened his concept of virtues during six years of success and influence It could be said that the successful pathway of the carrier in this time allows Machiavelli to look down on

foreign characters and Machiavelli recorded it in his book The Prince Despite ignoring

many other aspects of those characteristics, Machiavelli possessed undoubtfully his individual standpoint of a Renaissance man: patriotism and the praise of Antiquity

In 1510, Machiavelli was sent as the ambassador to France for the second time under Julius II’s intention of casting out “i barbari” from Italy In this year, his critical

thinking upon Pope Julius II was formed and expressed clearly in his book The Prince

In 1511, Julius II finally formed the Holy League against France, and with the assistance

of the Swiss drove the French out of Italy Florence lay at the mercy of the Pope and had to submit to his terms that the Medici should be restored Having looked at Machiavelli’s political career, we found that his position was offered as a clue between the autonomous powers

However, the return of the Medici princes to power on 1 September 1512 suspended his project and view Machiavelli as a dangerous offense He was removed from his position and was imprisoned, tortured, and exiled because the Medicians suspected him to have taken part in a plot against the return of the Medici At the beginning of 1513, he was released and was ordered to absent himself from the city and went to live on his farm south of the city as the end of his public career In the time, Italian lands were overrun by foreign invasions In March 1513, Cardinal Giovanni de Medici was elected the papacy It led to the unprecedented situation that Florence and Rome were governed by one family – De Medici and to Machiavelli, brought the opportunity to redeem Italy from foreign invasions

43 G.M Anselmi, Leggere Machiavelli, cit., p.14, “It is perhaps the highest point in Machiavelli's political career,

but also the one that gives him the greatest envy and suspicion on the part of the city oligarchy”

Cesare Borgia’s aim was to become lord of Tuscany, and it was correspondent

to Machiavelli’s political thoughts and strategy.44 Machiavelli counsels De Medici to take over the Borgia’s plan by unifying the Tuscany’s territory (a state composed of Florence, Pisa, Siena, Pisa, Lucca, Urbino and probably Romagna) and not by imitating the France’s unification The Medici was favored by many advantageous aspects After the restoration in Florence by the Spanish army, they inherited all the lands of Borgia and Julius II From the time, he possessed no public role nor political office and started

a journey of a philosopher of politics by writing The Prince

Perhaps the last stage of Machiavelli’s career was full of critics and rumors among the change of ruling classes, Machiavelli paints the qualities of virtu in the sfumato way, the most well-known painting technique of Italian Renaissance artists The concept of virtu’ was aesthetically desirable and promising The words and messages were composed in frankly but not roughly From another point of view, the event of Machiavelli being exiled and tortured after the Medici overtook Florence, regardless of his goodwill and deeds towards the family This event leads Machiavelli’s thought and insights on Fortune as his misfortune during the last moments of his career and as the most struggling end of his role in public service No matter how far Machiavelli took political concepts, terms and figures, Machiavelli chose not to be a

political scientist but to be a philosopher of politics and states’ domains The Prince

was definitely written in a manner to be a tool for rulers, especially new rulers, to govern their new state and the fortune takes place of a half of his ruling success, even though fortune ranks the second and virtue ranks the first In the second section of chapter II of

this thesis, we will observe fortuna at a closer distance from the stance of Machiavelli

over time

The last stage of Machiavelli’s term of office was full of misunderstanding,

fragility, and contingenza as the way Carlo Galli admitted in his essay Schmitt e

Machiavelli 45 Machiavelli literally writes about this stage of his life as “Sempre,

44 J.M Najemy, The Review of Politics, cit., p 550

45 C Galli, Schmitt e Machiavelli, cit., 2008, pp 83 – 106

mentre che io ho di ricordo, o è si fece guerra, o è se ne ragionò; hora sene ragiona, di qui a un poco si farà, et quando la sarà finita, se ne ragionerà di nuovo, tanto che mai sarà tempo a pensare a nulla”46 The more Machiavelli assures on his political judgment, the more extreme accident, and situations he confronted on Carlo Galli in his essay

Emergenza ed eccezione: shows that unlike modern political thinkers Machiavelli did

not want to reduce politics to essences and concepts: to a subject that grasps the object.47

By reading further of his book The Prince, scholars can observe clearly the

methodology of classical and temporary imitating through the way Machiavelli nominated a series of heroes and kings in Antiquity such as Marcus, Syrups, Romulus, Moses … and his temporary ruler of states such as Cesare Borgia, Pope Julius II or Francesca Sforza

2 The permanent mutation of things Machiavelli grew up at the historical turning point of Florence The year 1494 was the remarkable year of bankruptcy of the ruling class in Florence with the historical event that the Medici family was exiled from the city A chain of conflict and foreign invaders create in Italian history a depth of social and political decay However, Machiavelli rarely describes the contemporary Italian situations or at least the contemporary events which had caused the political present world The “situations”

which Machiavelli wrote in his books, The Prince and The Discourses, are likely to the

historical contexts, rather than “situations” of which were happening to the present time According to Alberto Asor Rosa, Machiavelli should have given more words on the

characteristics of Italy, especially in The Prince, for readers to understand why Machiavelli use la fortuna e le armi altrui to form his idea of il principato nuovo as

follows:

“Alla intensità e persino brevità rapsodica del capitilo VI, succede la lenta, circostanziata, riflessiva analisi e descrizione delle infinite vicende e dei molteplici particolari, con i quali si

46 N Machiavelli, Tutte le opere, cit., p.1227

47 C Galli, Emergency and exception: Machiavelli and Schmitt, cit., p.50 “Machiavelli non può e non sa scarnificare l’esser-nel-mondo dell’uomo politico, e ridurlo a essenze e a concetti: a soggetto che afferra l’oggetto”

presenta agli occhi dell’osservatore la situazione italiana contemporanea Ha un senso preciso, anche, che il capitol VII sia, dopo il XIX, il piu’ lungo dell’opera […] Questo vuol dire che Machiavelli, per argomentare il suo discorso sul caso in questione, - e cioe’: coloro che di privati diventarono […] principi con la fortuna e con le armi altrui, e per farlo nella concreta, vivente situazione situazione italiana contemporanea, - ha bisogno di piu’ spazio, e dungque di una piu’

circostanziata e analitica descrizione di quanto era venuto accadendo sotto i suoi occhi, ovvero sotto gli occhi della maggior parte dei suoi coetanei, amici, lettori, e soprattutto potenziali interlocutori.” 48

This discovery about Machiavelli, in effect, is very coherent to the fact that he rarely, and mostly not, cited his predecessors’ reflections on which he set up his standpoints It draws a new characteristic of Machiavelli’s political style: a prophetic ruler in the mutable world and the Dominican Savonarola plays an important role in Machiavelli’s style

Since the political condition in Florence was full of chaos and changes for a long period, the occupation of secretary of the chancery placed on dealing with both the internal and foreign affairs and was considered as the most important offices of the

government Del Lucchese wrote in his book The Political Philosophy of Niccolò

Machiavelli: “The men in the Signoria and the other governmental bodies changed

continuously, thus making the secretaries of the chancery the only persons to have a real awareness of the internal and foreign policies”49

Machiavelli sees the political world as a series of unpredictable movements.50The two powerful notions of Machiavelli’s neologism are, firstly, human is a part of nature, and their actions are a part of other forces, despite being guided and helped by religion Secondly, corruption is unavoidable, so knowledge (intellectuality) and experience (political reflections) serve for resisting these unavoidable corruption

Since human and their actions are not the only elements in nature, it manifests regularly and constantly upon nature creating unstoppable movements and the

48 A.A Rosa, Machiavelli e l’Italia, cit., p.81

49 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.14

50 Ibidem, p.28: “What counts for Machiavelli is not matter itself as a static element, but rather its inclusion within the movement of history”

unpredictable patterns of these movements The only permanence is mutations.51

Therefore, it is more important to understand nature, or in his words, the world, than to

learn stiff historical actions applying them in every alike situation Furthermore, because men possess their own force, which is, to be repeated, knowledge and experience, they can adjust their actions upon the changing world over time This

adjustment of men upon every mutation in the political world defines la virtù In this

point, Alberto Asor Rosa, while writing on the foundational chance of mutation, separates men’s own force and virtue into two autonomous factors and he adds on Fortuna’s pathway the accompanying of the force of others.52 This highlights Machiavelli’s political selective interests, which are war and conflict, and Machiavelli’s reflections on his interests During his time, the mercenary was a tendency and was and failure of many battles Machiavelli took for himself a lesson of not militarily leaning

on any other arms but one’s own arms However, conflicts are always promising for Machiavelli since the world are a chain of mutations from his glance, and men’s actions

is partly modest in the ocean of other unforeseen mutations

The only unarmed ‘glorious hero’ that surprises Machiavelli is Jesus, and he would rather put this topic aside and consider it as a ‘meaningful tool’ in the political world.53 Apart from it, for Machiavelli, religion works for public praxis and morality,

la semplicità dei costumi e la moralità pubblica by imposing on the public the endless

sense of trust 54 Thus, he claims that the sense of trust imposed by Christianity is

51 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.30: “It is extremely important to stress

that Machiavelli is not saying that one element – mutation or permanence, difference, or repetition – is superior

to the other He is on the contrary drafting the chart of possibilities offered to men in interpreting and acting upon

a nature that is constantly changing and fluctuating It is the permanence of mutation, and the similarity of changes over time, that suggest the possibility of human action and that constitutes the ground of politics”

52 A.A Rosa, Machiavelli e l’Italia, cit., p.73: “è del tutto evidente che l’accopiamento dei due capitoli risponde

in pieno alla ‘logica dilemmatica’ di cui abbiamo parlato: a fondare il principato nuovo’ o son la virtu’ e le armi proprie; o sono la Fortuna e le armi degli altri.”

53 N Machiavelli, The Prince, VII, cit., p 28

54 C Vivanti, Niccolò Machiavelli, I tempi della politica, cit., p.116: “Per assicurare la semplicita’ dei costumi e

la moralita’ pubblica, la forza determinante è la religione, intesa come sentimento non limitato alla fede cristiana”

weakening the ability of men, le virtu civili 55 , and the Roman religion must be the one

which praises rightly le virtu civili 56 This insight keeps being repeated and admired as

a nail for modern politics and this thesis is not an exception By re-ordering the position and the perspectives towards humans and religion, Machiavelli marks that religion, as well as humans, are two of the other forces in the world that contribute to the infinitive

mutations La virtù, in fact, is the approval for this new re-order Machiavelli, then,

designs a set of virtu’s qualities based on his predecessors: Cicerone and Seneca Despite barely mentioning these names, scholars can still track Machiavelli to his reflections which are exposed later in this thesis

Humanism and the political environment in Florence were paid enough attention in the 13th century Lorenzo de’ Medici, the leader of the most powerful family

of Florence named The Medici, was a humanist poet before being elected the head of the peninsula Coluccio Salutati, Leonardo Bruni and Poggio Bracciolini occupied in the humanist and classical education in Florentine civic and cultural life They celebrated the freedom of Florence by arguing on Latin and Greek political thought.57

Machiavelli was not an exception.58

55 N Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, Book II, Chapter II, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 2001,

p.318: “La nostra religione ha glorificato più gli uomini umili e comtemplativi che gli attivi Ha dipoi posto il sommo bene nella umilta, abiezione, e nel dispregio delle cose umane; quel’altra lo poneva nella grandezza dello animo, nella fortezza del corpo e in tutte le altre cose atte a fare gli uomini fortissimi E se la religione nostra richiede che tu abbi in te fortezza, vuole che tu sia atto a partire piu che a fare una cosa forte Questo modo di vivere, adunque, pare che abbi renduto il ondo bebole e datolo in preda agli uomini scelerati; i quali sicuramente

lo possono maneggiare, veggendo come l’universita degli uomini, perandarne in paradiso, pensa piu’ a sopportare

le sue battiture che a vendicarle.”

56 Ibidem, p.83: “Questo e facile a intendere, conosciuto che si e in su che sia fondata la religione dove l’uomo e nato, perche ogni religione ha il fondamento della vita sua in su qualche principale ordine suo La vita della religione gentile era fondata sopra i responsi degli oracoli e sopra la setta delli arioli e delli aruspici.”

57 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.15: “Grounding their argument on

Latin and Greek political thought, men like Salutati, Bruni and Bracciolini celebrated Florence and its freedom as the heir of republican Rome”

58 C Vivanti, Niccolò Machiavelli, I tempi della politica, cit., p.8: “Non pare, invece, che Machiavelli abbia

appreso la lingua greca, sebbene Firenze fosse a quei tempi il massimo centro in Europa della nuova cultura

Machiavelli had no intention of writing a treatise of the philosophy However, philosophy plays a key role in his insights and reflections towards nature and humans.59 His advice to princes bears an amount of the predecessor

16th-century-pardon Dante Alighieri, trails from Dante’s book, De Monarchia According to Dante,

Emperor has the task of leading men towards earthly life and the Pope’s authority was spirituality, the eternal life Machiavelli takes the idea that the political leader should be

leading men and strikes it with his own facere

Moreover, his early education, as the national 16th-century education was based on the Greek and Latin tradition of Platonism, with idealism and utopianism, and

Aristotelianism with the Epicurean system Discipline humanistiche was repeated

continuously through stories of his life The influence of Cicero and Trecento’s

education of autenticamente umana was spread out in the Italian universities and public

affairs “All’epoca in cui Machiavelli entrò nella Cancelleria, esisteva un metodo di reclutamento ben consolidato per gli uffici più importanti.”60

“Philosophy in each’s self”, the idea of self-acknowledging, was his first pinch

to modernity Machiavelli presumably does not make any detailed and careful logical arguments which philosophers made but argued with himself and his own insights For instance, Thomas Aquinas worked on syllogisms and moved forward precisely from one question to other necessary philosophical questions Machiavelli, however, begins his modernity with the philosophical contracts of the visible world and the imagined world – the intelligible world At the time of the 16th century, Christians lived in their

ellenistica, dove ad esempio perfezionò la sua istruzione l’umanista che si può dire abbia introdotto il nuovo sapere

in Francia, Giullaume Bude’”

59 Carlo Galli, Emergency and exception: Machiavelli and Schmitt, in "Filosofia politica" 2/2021, pp 199-218,

La verità è che Machiavelli – filosofo non professionale, per quanto la sua radicalità intellettuale sia essenzialmente filosofica – pensa la politica al di fuori e prima del razionalismo e delle sue categorie (soggetto, contratto, sovranità, norma); al di fuori e prima delle guerre di religione e quindi della teologia politica assolutistica; al di fuori e prima della economia politica e della sua critica; il rapporto fra il suo modo di pensare

la politica e la filosofia delle scuole è debole […]; sfiora appena la tradizione del diritto romano e dell’aristotelismo

60 Q Skinner, Machiavelli, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1999, p 11

religious world, assumed their world as the world, and neglected many aspects of sciences and physics

One of these aspects is the so-called evil and vice of Machiavelli which was spoken recently by other philosophers He “depart from orders of others” 61 by illustrating Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophy and recently by stating Dante’s concept

of this world in De Monarchia In this world, not the religious world at the time, there

are imperfections and consequently, the Christians’ perceptions are of imperfect things,

a partly world Machiavelli moved from this notion, this world contrasted with the next world – heaven- where things are much better, to the interaction of his intelligible whole nature He criticized the concept of “better and higher” and gave a new definition of “a capacity of having more things and better things” Therefore, the world is supplemented and understood as more important than the intelligible world The word “world” nowadays bears Machiavelli’s insights and reflections The effectual truth was written

solely at the beginning of Chapter 15, The prince and it was never used in other works,

nor of Machiavelli or of other Italian scholars

Beside the domination of Aristotelianism and Platonism in the education of the 16th century, Machiavelli was influenced by classical Antiquity, especially the two the Italian philosophers Marcus Tullius Cicero and Lucius Annaeus Seneca None of the less, the curling waves of Italian Renaissance, too, contributed to our Machiavelli’s authenticity naming Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarc oh, Leone Battista Alberti In terms of Fortune and Virtue, Cicero explains that the virtues make a real man.62 In the

“stories of Livio”, the Romans mention that Fortune favors and follows virtue In the

book of Boezio, Consolazione della filosofia, Fortune was described as un volere cieco

61 N Machiavelli, The Prince, XV, cit., 48

62 Q Skinner, Machiavelli, cit., p 34, “Cicerone spiega che il criterio per definire un vero uomo, un vir, è il

possesso della virtus nella sua forma piu’ alta.”

63 or la minaccia lusinga 64 Boezio’s Fortuna inspires the Dantesca ideology towards

fortuna which is written in the cantos VII of Inferno and the term De remediis utriusque fortunae of Petrarca These pardons of Italian Language, Literature, and Philosophy

expose the similar distinction between fortuna and fate Fortuna and consequently the virtue, were put into the concept of renaissance flourishment of eccelenza and dignità,

the liberty of human Alberti wrote De Fortuna in 1444 praises the Fortune as a goddess and affirms that there are arts that allow to investigate themselves your favor 65 This state leads to the reflection that “the more lack of the courage is the more hatred occurs

on each of another” 66

Having a look upon Machiavelli’s successors, Thomas Hobbes talks about prudence, which is based on what you see, and on the other hand, science, which is based on possibilities Idealism and realism capture the essence of modern philosophy While Locke’s theory is based on facts and Descartes’ insights are based on rational materials, they both start in two prongs from Machiavelli’s inventions of “effectual truth” Machiavelli and other modern philosophers implemented the imperfections of human understanding – the difficulty of understandings Machiavelli draws a lesson proposing that humans underestimate their own possibilities and look at themselves under authorities and dictates of nature and the motive is that humans consider nature

as exaggerated permanence and internality of humans’ situations

63 S Boezio, La consolazione della filosofia, Biblioteca Univ Rizzoli, 1976, II, p.117, “Tu credi che la fortuna

sia mutata nei tuoi confronti, ma sbagli [10] Questo è sempre il suo comportamento, questa è la sua natura Al contrario, essa ha conservato con te la stessa costanza, proprio con il suo mutare: era sempre la stessa, quando ti lusingava, quando ti illudeva con le attrattive di una menzognera felicità Tu hai scoperto il volto ambiguo di quella cieca divinità.”

64 Ibidem, p.118, “Non sarà bastato guardare quello che è davanti ai nostri occhi: come andranno a finire le cose,

è la prudenza che lo misura, e la stessa mutevolezza della fortuna in un senso o nell’altro fa sì che le sue minacce non debbano essere temute né desiderate le sue lusinghe.”

65 Q Skinner, Machiavelli, cit., p 36, “Ci sono arti che permettono di procurarsi il tuo favore”

66 Ibidem, “quanti mancano di coraggio sono odiosi più d’ogni altro”

Machiavelli worked on The prince from 1513, revised it in 1516, and The

Discourses from 1513 to 1519.67 Although there are arguments on the precise time when Machiavelli composed two works, they are overlapped, and we can recognize it

Gennaro Sasso has explored the similarities between The Prince and Book I of the

Discourses that reveal a continuity of thought, implying both were composed around

the same time Sasso also believes Chapter 7 of The prince was composed between 1514

and 1517.68 It is the approval that Machiavelli’s flows of political philosophy were

implied on the parallel words of The Prince and The Discourses Del Lucchese named

The Discourses a puzzling book.69 From the viewpoint of political strategies and tactics,

Anselmi considers that The Prince and The Discourses were written to be applied in

north-central Italy and related to one another.70 Sasso considered The Prince as an

ineffectual utopia rather than a handbook of political tactics and practical examples.71

Was Machiavelli collecting many pieces of his political reflections and scatter playing with them? In my opinion, Machiavelli composes a work like the way he views the present political world is supposed to be, corrupted, conflictual, and full of human

plots The coherence of works, in effect, is not the works’ flow but their titles: The

Prince, The Discourses, The Florentine history or The Art of war, as the way the

Machiavellian prince extremely assumes power before transforming a state into republican form Perhaps, the unification of all his books, including tyrannical

67 G.M Anselmi, Leggere Machiavelli, cit., p.15, “La stesura del Principe occupa tutto il 1513 e parte del 1514

Nello stesso 1513 nasce, forse come approfondimento suscitato dalle riflessioni intorno al principato, il primo nucleo dei Discorsi sopra la prima Dace di Tito Livio, poi continuati con tutta probabilità sino al 1517”

68 G Sasso, Niccolò Machiavelli, Il pensiero politico, cit., pp.349-65

69 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.43: “The Discourses appear as a

collection of texts on several different matters, often confusedly placed side by side Sometimes a group of chapters presents a certain coherence, but then the flow of the argumentation is suddenly interrupted and the matters abruptly changed Or else, after a conclusion on a certain topic has been reached, this same conclusion is reversed after a few pages and apparently disavowed.”

70 G.M Anselmi, Leggere Machiavelli, cit., p.16

71 F Del Lucchese, Fabio Frosini, and Vittorio Morfino, The Radical Machiavelli : Politics, Philosophy, and

Language, BRILL, 2015, p 4: “Reduced to a speculative game nade of rules and exceptions, of abtract and

concrete, The Prince becomes for Sasso the opposite of what it has been taken for centuries: a charming although ineffectual utopia rather than the ultimate handbook of political realism verging on cynicism”

guidelines, historic books, comic plays, and fairy tales, is him, Machiavelli’s gray matter of unstoppable mutations

From Machiavelli’s idea, the disorder, the variation is the emergence of the plot of real life, which is defective from the human point of view, studded as it is with

"accidents" and "difficulties", but which is at the same time full, superabundant - giving

of cases and accidents Extreme situations command venti della fortuna e della

variazione delle cose 72; hence the need for the prince to saper entrare nel male,

necessitate 73 which appears as the shiny quality of virtù for every new prince Extreme situations do not block the subject but push it to resolution and action as Le necessitadi

possono essere molte, ma quella è più forte, che ti costringe o vincere o morire 74

The idea that Machiavelli assumes politics as a series of mutations is also evident in his words and metaphors Machiavelli compares the state to the lively tree or

he frankly expresses his opinion in chapter 1 of Book I, The Discourses He also referred

to medicine as the technical way of observing and treating the political bodies Apart from the metaphor of lively body state, mutations possess a sense of time that could not

be held back but could solely manifest or prepare for it Machiavelli imposes on it the figure of the ‘river’75, one more metaphor taken from nature

There are always two highlighted key elements, or sometimes three elements, that contribute and trigger his development of political thoughts: Aristotelianism and

72 N Machiavelli, Tutte le opere, Il Principe, XVIII, cit.,p 11

73 Ibidem, p 88

74 N Machiavelli, Art of war, cit., IV, p 354, “The needs may be many, but that is stronger, which forces you to

either win or die”

75 N Machiavelli, The Prince, XXV, cit., p.69: “I liken to one of these violent rivers which, when they become

enraged, flood the plains, ruin the trees and the buildings, lift earth from this part, drop in another; each person flees before them, every yield to their impetuous without being able to hinder them in any regard And although they are like this, it is not as if men, when times are quiet, could not provide for them with dikes and dams so that when they rise later, either they go by a canal, or their impetus is neither so wanton nor so damaging It happens similarly with Fortuna, which demonstrate her power where virtu’ has not been put in order to resist her and therefore turns her impetus where she knows that dams and dikes have not been made to contain her.”

Platonism 76; Greek historian Polybiusm77 and the Latin poet Lucretius 78; experience and knowledge 79 This requires Machiavelli to mound into and through the very slender gaps between them and to firm his stance with the idea of the permanent mutations of

things The notions of princely virtu’ spread out through The Prince in at least 60

mentioning times in the manner of a quite wide variety of contexts and somehow the term of virtu’ becomes quite standard in the critical literature “without any consistency

at all” as J.H Whitfield said.80 La Virtù, therefore, was born in these drains of

Machiavellian relationships: virtù – fortuna, rules – exceptions, order – conflict. 81

How did Machiavelli mound around the ancient philosophical ideas? “He accepts some of Polybius’s ideas, and yet he deeply modifies them and ultimately rejects some of the most important consequences of his philosophy of history, especially

on questions of predictability and chance.”82 On the other hand, he absorbs the Greek Epicureanism which uses Democritus’s thought of blind necessity and succession of events.83 Thus, he selects Lucretius’s notions of chance which views chance as

‘occasion’ Machiavelli elaborates on it and produces his perspective of fortuna It must

be noted that the Democritus’s idea of necessity violated the pre – Aristotelian

76 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.26: “Yet he is clearly familiar with the

main political and philosophical systems of the Geek and Latin traditions, including of course the two main classical traditions: Platonism and Aristotelianism

77 Ibidem, p.33: “Within his description of the circle of regimes, which is supposedly based on that of Polybius, Machiavelli in fact asserts that ‘these variations of governments arise by chance among men’”

78 Ibidem, p.33: “Scholars have discovered, in recent years, that the young Machiavelli copied out Lucretius’s

poem On the Nature of Things.”

79 N Machiavelli, The Discourses, cit., p 20, Dedicatory Letter: “long experience with modern things and a

continued reading of ancient ones.”

80 J.H Whitfield, The American Historical Review, Volume 53, Issue 1, October 1947, Machiavelli, p.104–105

81 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.40: “Virtu’ as well needs to be

reinterpreted in this light It is not the actual exercise or the punctual application of force against another contrary force, in a sort of ultimate clash between the two principles guiding the human world.”

82 Ibidem, p.32

83 Ibidem, p.33: “Democritus claims that a blind and mechanic necessity operates within the universe and determines the succession of events forcing them within a casual chain totally predetermined.”

philosophical concept and was debated by many philosophers 84 It is noted because its critical extreme and contingency seems to Machiavelli very promising and attractive

In short, Machiavelli's thought is articulated: in the phase of conquering

power, on one hand, it is necessary to focus on the objective of vincere e mantenere lo

stato: e’ mezzi sempre fieno iudicati onorevoli e da ciascuno saranno laudati 85 ; while

on the other hand, with acquired power, one must follow, taking them from the great

historical examples, actions are convenient and glorious to maintain a state which is

already established and firm 86 In his speech, he invites us to act that is fundamentally oriented towards utilitarian resentment: it is not just about freeing oneself from the

greed, domination, and injustice of the superiori Thus, fortuna is still obscure but could

be controlled by virtù in the most urgent common situations as written in The Prince

Machiavelli is the first author who poses the problem of politics in a new form,

a form which is still the one that concerns us today, no matter how much of his thought

or how many of his problems are still directly or indirectly relevant for us (and many of them are) Moreover, through his work, he shows a revolutionary approach to the interpretation and comprehension of the relationship between the knowledge of history and theory itself 87

84 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.34: “However, this interpretation of

chance and necessity was considered reductive, crude and even dangerous by many philosophers, and even by followers of Democritus himself.”

85 N Machiavelli, Tutte le opere, Il Principe, XVIII, 18, p 119

86 N Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, cit., p 761: “Ancora che lo usare la fraude in ogni

azione sia detestabile, nondimanco nel maneggiare la querra e cosa laudabile e gloriosa; e parimente e laudato colui che con fraude supera il nimico, come quell oche lo supera con le forze.”

87 F Del Lucchese, The Political Philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.50

CHAPTER 2: CONCEPTS AND PROBLEMS

1 Introduction

In the first chapter, we have examined Machiavelli’s childhood like, education and his traumatic public career and we have concluded that Machiavelli experienced a series of unexpected events which were caused mostly by the political condition of Italy and his reflections upon his public career We have started addressing the core standing point

on which Machiavelli learned to write his books and to live in his political life In this second chapter, we will address some tenets of his theory and we will examine the concepts that Machiavelli has used to interpret the political reality of his time,

particularly on the three concepts from virtù – fortuna to rules – exceptions and the

whole frame of order and conflict Machiavelli tried to rationalize and clue these concepts Instead of neglecting doubts, Machiavelli accepts the extreme logic that the

immutable world is surrounded by the cyclic motions of human nature and confidently

offers his reinterpretation of classical history for a better understanding of a present time and, particularly, Florence’s present political situation In this chapter, we will track

his reflections from qualities of Machiavellian virtù, and its complex relation to the category of fortuna, to the critical extreme degree of collapse where exceptions and

rules meet, and how Machiavelli’s description of the cycles that characterize the life of

a political community lead to crisis leads to crisis and requires the essential concept of conflicts and the energy of orders For approaching these philosophical investigations,

we are going to pick up works, sentences, and their underline meanings in his works:

The Prince, Discourses on Livy, The Florentine Histories, Art of War, Mandragola, Belfagor, and his scattered letters

2 Virtù and Fortuna

2.1 Virtù

In front of plenty of unpredictable changes, unrelated situations, extraordinary losses and success during his time, Machiavelli confronted the incomprehensible world

by his theory of virtù The influence of humans upon nature need to be studied rather

than let the incomprehensible drove human’s destiny: “It is unknown to me how many men have had, and still have, the opinion the affairs of the world are in such wise governed by fortune and by God that men with their wisdom cannot direct them and that no one can even help them, and because of this they would have us believe that it

is not necessary to labor much in affairs but to let chance govern them.”88

Human and the self-image of humans at the time was dominated by religious power with the beliefs in certain trails and duties such as generosity, faithfulness, sincerity, grave, religiosity and with the criticization in other characteristics such as cruel, cunning, frivolous, rapacious.89 Men, especially rulers, were asked for possessing and practicing these qualities in every circumstance and situation, and in Machiavelli’s opinion, “Our religion has glorified humble and contemplative men, more than active ones”90 Actions became nuclear of Machiavellian virtù Actions were defined as the

opposes term of ‘spirit’ and possess various forms that direct the energy that men could use to confronted motions in the world.91

From this point, Machiavelli put amour to his concept of virtù based on his successor Cicero, the most renowned philosopher in the present time The De Officiis, the most applicable treatise of Cicero, was reworked on honestum (realistic demand) in the first book; utile (necessity) in the second book They were the basement of four qualities of Machiavellian virtù Clemency is the first quality Clemency was described

to achieve men’s goals, and the other virtues are practical qualities that life and reality directly demand on men.92 Its definition was taken by Cicero’s approach of honestum,

88 N Machiavelli, The Prince, XXV, cit., p.68

89 Ibidem, p.48: “one is reputed generous, one lascivious; one cruel, one compassionate; one faithless, another faithful; one effeminate and cowardly, another bold and brave, one affable, another haughty; one lascivious, another chaste; one sincere, another unbelieving, and the like.”

90 N Machiavelli, The Discourses, II, 2, cit., p.200

91 Ibidem: “It has placed its greatest good in humility, abnegation, and in contempt for human things, while the places it in greatness of spirit, in strength of body, and in all other things fit to make men very strong And if our religion asks that in you there be strength, it wishes that you be fit to suffer more than to do a strong thing.”

92 Cicerone, De Officiis 1.5.17 "quibus actio vitae continetur.”

the duty of a man in public service The energy of wisdom is required as men’s capacity

of separating the obscure and useless knowledge from the effectual truth The second quality was justice which emphasizes that justice is the paramount virtue of preventing men from injuring others and of using common possessions for common goods.93

Adding to the meaning of “pertinent ad hominum utilitate”94, Cicero made an exception

that there are some occasions, honestum, particularly in political life when rulers must

apply cruelty and excuse from human trust and good faith The evil side of human nature was taken by Machiavelli from this notion This also leads to prudence, the appearance

of utile (necessity)95, the third quality of virtù, and its cruel application are advised to

recall as the last resort the famous metaphor of lion and fox which Machiavelli utilizes

in his book, The Prince, was taken in Book II, De Officiis Cicero passes by the idea of

beneficence and liberality explaining prudence because they render us and others to the common good and measure our contributions to a state Common good, the conflictual core of the Machiavellian concept of collapse and the degree of collapsing, is based on

this quality of la virtù Courage, or temperance, is mentioned as the last quality of the

cardinal virtues by using the same analysis Courage conciliates men’s egoism and interest as well as motivates men to enrich their own wealth and power.96 Courage pushes a man to the highest strength of actions, which gain wealth and political power.97

self-Temperance, or decorum in Latin, emphasizes utilizing and orienting the physical

energy of a man, besides mental activities which place in the quality of justice. 98

These four qualities are conceptualized as a tool for Machiavellian political theory and for acknowledging politics in the present times The relationship between

virtù and fortuna was placed in the concept of human nature, common good with various

extensions as the sense of occasion and necessity

93 Ibidem 1.43.1 "pertinent ad hominum utilitatem”

94 Ibidem 1.43.1

95 Ibidem 1.13.41

96 Ibidem, 1.5.17 “cum in augendis opibus utilitatibusque et sibi et suis comparandis."

97 Ibidem, 1.20.6 "res geras magnas illas quidem et maximes utiles."

98 Ibidem, 1.5.17 “actio quaedam, non solum mentis agitatio."

Galli emphasizes the energy of virtù and the necessity to turn the natural egoism of men into virtù, avarizia in virtù, to create good institutions.99 Galli notices

that Machiavelli categorized la virtù, the energy of human nature into the moral and the political one, la virtù morale e la virtù politica Neither of these two is defined clearly and firmly La virtù morale is the product of religion and la virtù politica is the product

of necessity100 In other words, la virtù morale is concerned with spiritual value and la

virtù politica concerned with possible inefficient practice La virtù morale illustrates

charisma, the unarmed prophet that Machiavelli refused for further discussion Plus, if

la virtù morale is the product of religion, it is, indeed, supposed to be a tool of obtaining

with the evil side of human nature through chapter 37, Book I, The Discourses In the

liberal form of the evil side of human nature, Machiavelli designed it as the demonic

aspect in Belfagor and Mandragola

99 C Galli, Contingenza e necessità nella politica moderna, cit., p.26: “Istituzione calda, conflitto, liberta’ potere

guerra gloria, potenza (il tutto nell’orizzonte della contigenza, della fortuna) è questa, infine, la sequenza, della ridirezione dell’avarizia in virtù, dell’energia oggettuale in energia virtuosa”

100 Ibidem, p.31: “Piuttosto Machiavelli tiene distinte la virtù morale dalla virtù politica, gli imperativi di quella dagli imperativi di questa; i primi dettati dalla religione, i secondi dalla neccessità.”

101 C Ginzburg, Nondimanco, cit., p.148: “la parola ‘nondimanco’, che ritorna ripetutamente nel Principe, segnala,

come abbiamo deltto, un elemento che è al centro dell’opera di Machiavelli: la tensione tra norme ed eccezioni, ispirata alla casistica medievale Nel passo citato sopra, “nondimanco” sottolinea la tensione tra virtù come energia

e virtù come qualità morale

2.2 Fortuna

From the concept of virtù, men still cannot get rid of a certain uncontrollable strength Machiavelli imposed on nature a power, named la fortuna Machiavelli sometimes rhetorically called fortuna as individual luck sometimes described it as a goddess Fortuna, however, is not simply an external power out of the world Fortuna

certainly includes unpredictable events that happen to us and the unforeseen

consequences of men’s actions Therefore, the sense of fortuna is independent but related to virù’s energy According to Machiavelli’s statement, fortuna and human’s free deeds essentially divide the field in half Fortuna however has a sort of advantage and priority that leads virtù since men often get acquainted with the environment and

respond slowly to changes.102 Machiavelli states that “A man who is accustomed to proceeding in one way never changes, as is said; and he agrees out of necessity when times are changed that is disformed in his way that ruins.” 103

To make the concept of fortuna more consolidated, Machiavelli pointed out

the problems and limitations of men’s actions in this disordered and constantly changing

world Problems create occasion for fortuna, or in another word, contingency and

limitations create the necessity for fortuna, or in another word, variation of times Fortuna, therefore, is less concrete than the virtuous energy of human nature but is more

substantial than the mutations in the world so that energy of human nature must be directed to this sense of insubstantial concrete, rather than to mutations in the world, or rather not to mutations of the world Humans has changes to act freely the way to

102 N Machiavelli, Tutte le opere, Il Principe, XXV cit., p.200: “Et assomiglio quella a uno di questi fiumi

rovinosi, che, quando s’adirano, allagano e’ piani, ruinano li arberi e li edifizii, lievono da questa parte terreno, pongono da quell’altra: ciascuno fugge loro dinanzi, ognuno cede allo impeto loro, sanza potervi in alcuna parte obstare E, benché sieno così fatti, non resta però che li uomini, quando sono tempi quieti, non vi potessino fare provvedimenti, e con ripari et argini, in modo che, crescendo poi, o andrebbono per uno canale, o l’impeto loro non sarebbe né si licenzioso né si dannoso Similmente interviene della fortuna: la quale dimonstra la sua potenzia dove non è ordinata virtù a resisterle, e quivi volta li sua impeti, dove la sa che non sono fatti li argini e li ripari a tenerla.”

103 N Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, cit., p.410

conform with the world of mutations and humans need to act boldly in necessity if they reach their limitations.104 That is the way humans can get along with fortuna’s power

Too, humans were born with their own dissatisfaction and if they continue

to chase their hunger, they go nowhere and soon be ruined.105 Therefore, fortuna has

the advantages of directing the human’s pathway and by taking it as a grant and acting

accordingly to the times and to the motions, men can exceed on their virtù and prevent

their egotism and self-interest

2.3 Relationship of virtù and fortuna

There are four intricately connected points of virtù – fortuna Firstly, the qualities of virtù control and offset the power of fortuna, both good luck, and ill-luck Machiavelli believes a ruler could never get rid of the existence of fortuna in politics

A successful prince is lucky because he knows how to beat fortuna and forces her to obey his intentions fortuna, in other words, appears to be in a state of incalculable

extreme situations, and the consequences of redirecting her decide whether she is good

or ill These extreme situations could lead a state to a flourished period under a ruler

with excessive virtù The previous princes in Italy who lost the cities blamed fortuna

and observed her as a stroke of tremendous ill luck “Where one’s defenses are based

upon one’s own virtù, the capacity of ill fortuna to take away one’s power is limited

Although they blame what they regard as their ill-luck, they ought not to do so.” The

second connection of virtù and fortuna is that a ruler can get lucky, as a providence

104 N Machiavelli, Tutte le opere, Il Principe, XV cit., p.180: Io iudico bene questo, che sia meglio essere

impetuoso che respettivo; perché la fortuna è donna, et è necessario, volendola tenere sotto, batterla et urtarla E

si vede che la si lascia più vincere da questi, che da quelli che freddamente procedano E però sempre, come donna, è amica de’ giovani, perché sono meno respettivi, più feroci e con più audacia la comandano

105 N Machiavelli, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, III, 37, cit., p.410: “La natura ha creati gli uomini

in modo che possono desiderare ogni cosa, e non possono conseguire ogni cosa: talché, essendo sempre maggiore

il desiderio che la potenza dello acquistare, ne risulta la mala contentezza di quello che si possiede e la poca soddisfazione d’esso Da questo nasce il variare della fortuna loro: perché, disiderando gli uomini, parte di avere più, parte temendo di non perdere lo acquistato, si viene alle inimicizie ed alla guerra; dalla quale nasce la rovina

di quella provincia e l’esaltazione di quell’altra.”

instead of an inexorability as cited in chapter 6: “You may have the good fortuna to

encounter the right occasion”, the quality of seizing the opportunity The right

circumstances in which to act The third quality of virtù is mantenere lo stato with a fundamental concept of stato of a prince, as known as his standing, condition, status, and power The other notion of lo stato, the state comes after obviously into the prince’s charge as the jurisdictions and territories The last quality of virtù is to reach the glory

Virtù and fortuna are individual and contextualized so virtù of one could be

the fortuna of other and vice versa In another word, in this unstoppable world, one

could possess the energy of human nature which is supposed to be an insubstantial

concrete of another According to Alberto Asor Rosa, virtù and fortuna in the sense of permanent mutations go along with the existence of le armi proprie (one’s own

arms)106 For the sense of fortuna, he claims that Machiavelli defines that any actions

or choices without fortuna turn nothing but an occasion.107 If a man is not aware of a sense of the concrete, he will lose his own powers in the ocean of motions in the

mutations of others’ virtuous energy With the accompany of ‘one’s own arms’, virtù

was recalled with the past the myth, and the history On the other hand, with the

accompany of ‘one’s own arms’, fortuna was the embodiment of contemporary Italy

and ‘the elegance of foundational practices.108

106 A.A Rosa, Machiavelli e l’Italia, cit., p.73, “È del tutto evidente che l’accoppiamento dei due capitoli risponde

in pieno alla ‘logica dilemmatica’ di cui abbiamo parlato: a fondare il ‘principato nuovo’ o sono da una virtù e le armi proprie; o sono la fortuna e le armi degli altri Non ci sono alter possibilità al di fuori di queste due.”

107 Ibidem, p.74: “Esaminando le loro azioni e scelte, Machiavelli nota che essi non hanno avuto dalla ‘fortuna’ nient’altro che una grande ‘occasione’ e hanno saputo coglierla e utilizzarla fino in fondo: ‘sanza quella occasione

la virtù dello animo loro si sarebbe spenta, e sanza quella virtù la occasione sarebbe ventuta invano’.”

108 Ibidem, p.79: “Dunque, quando si parla di fondare il ‘principato nuovo’ con le armi proprie e con la virtù, il pensiero e l’esemplificazione che ne scaturisce, corrono al piu’ lontano passato o, piu’ esattamente alla dimensione del mito, o di una storia difficilmente verificabile Quando invece si getta lo sguardo sulla disastrosa Italian contemporanea gli unici esempi che vengano in mente al grande autore sono tutti lageti alla pratica di fondare

(tentarufe di fondare) il ‘principato nuovo’ con la fortuna e le armi altrui È una differenza, analitica e propositiva,

molto importante, di cui tener conto.”

Machiavelli also claims that virtù never acts alone without the appearance of

fortuna.109 Fortuna, instead, plays the role of offering virtù to prove its qualities He

writes “As one examines their actions and lives, one does not see what they had

anything else from fortuna than the opportunity, which gave them the matter enabling them to introduce any form they pleased Without that opportunity, their virtù of spirit would have been eliminated, and without that virtù the opportunity would have come

in vain”110 or “All those princes who proceeded as did the Romans and were of the same

virtù as they, would have the fortuna that the Romans had in this aspect”111 This opinion is at odds with the views of Roman historians since most of the Roman temples

are built to praise la fortuna. 112 Machiavelli says that fortuna governs half of our life, and the other half is up to our virtù However, things are not so balanced: fortuna is blind and unpredictable, so it is the element that, fortuna always comes first and challenges humans In this sense, it is fortuna rather than virtù that occupies the main

ground The Machiavellian theory is grounded on the concept of human nature and the theory of unavoidable corruption as discussed in the previous chapter Alberto Asor

Rosa made a reflection as il principato nuovo.113 Opportunity, opportunità, lies the connection between la virtù and la fortuna

Carlo Galli also proposes another connection between virtù and fortuna For Galli, la virtù politica is the product of necessity114 Fortuna is an insubstantial concrete,

un concreto non sostanziale, which always makes us lack institutions and powers, consiglio and forze, which is the crisis of the second cyclic thesis and is the question of

109 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., p.37: “Whenever fortuna appears to be

in the foreground, one must observe more closely, and virtù and the order of that glorious republic will always

appear”

110 N Machiavelli, The Prince, VI, cit., p 26

111 N Machiavelli, The Discourses, II, cit., p 200

112 Plutarch, De Fortuna Romanorum, Moralia, IV, cit., pp 318-19: “Romans themselves devote more temples

than any other god”

113 A.A Rosa, Machiavelli e l’Italia, cit., p 8: a foundational chance of mutation: the new principle

114 C Galli, Contingenza e necessità nella politica moderna, cit., p.31: “Piuttosto Machiavelli tiene distinte la

virtù morale dalla virtù politica, gli imperativi di quella dagli imperativi di questa; i primi dettati dalla religione,

i secondi dalla neccessità.”

conflict and order for the third cyclic thesis Therefore, virtù cannot be defined as a tool

of dominating fortuna but energy of human nature that is temporarily stronger than the external concrete of fortuna in the mutable world.115 As the conclusion of this part, virtù

supposes to be the energy of human nature upon political mutations and toward a sense

of the concrete, fortuna

3 Rules and exceptions

This leads scholars to doubt: How did Machiavelli read and interprete history

in terms of emergency and extreme situations? Or what is Machiavelli’s political panorama? To be mentioned, Machiavelli was an excellent innovative political thinker rather than a political scientist His reflections of political past events were applied for his intention on curing Florence’s present political life which was full of failures, problems, and corruption in his opinion

The Prince speaks up Machiavelli’s opinion of ‘the extreme degree of

collapse’ in Italy and of how powerful the original virtù of the country was, that led

Italy to the present corruption and of what virtuous Florentines could treat this political sickness.116 The Prince was composed to transmit his sense of ‘extreme degree of

collapse’ He expresses in this work that the situation of the peninsula was reaching the pitch of corruption, so he extremely raises his voice and knowledge in the highest echo

115 C Galli, Contingenza e necessità nella politica moderna, cit., p.21: “Se insomma la fortuna è in ultima analisi

ciò che fa mancare sempre ‘consiglio e forze’, ciò che non fa tornare i conti dell’ipotetica anaciclosi, ciò che rende

le realtà politiche fragili e precarie, allora la fortuna di Machiavelli è definibile un ‘concreto non sostanziale’, trascendente rispetto alle forze umane e al contempo unico orizzonte di queste, che vi sono del tutto immerse E

la virtù non è la chiave metodologica, che rende possibile trascendere e dominare la fortuna, ma un’energia anch’essa umana/naturale, che solo momentaneamente pùo essere pìu forte delle ‘cose del mondo”

116 F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, cit, p.70: “he recognizes in The Prince that

the situation has reached its extreme degree of corruption, and therefore only and extremely strong and resolute analysis can shake the minds of those who can still do something to resist the forces that are preparing to devour Italy, and scarifies his political weakness on the altar of the new European balance powers.”

to aware men, especially new rulers, of forming a new European political balance.117

Collapse, or corruption, in Del Lucchese’s language, is nuclear of the Machiavellian relationship of rules and exceptions The degree of collapse decides whether rules or exceptions would play a significant role in political life Therefore, political events and the present ruler were extremely concerned about how heavy corruption degree is at the present time Machiavelli believes that by reinterpreting historical events and tracking outstanding rulers’ reactions, rulers can read present political situations and assume

whether they are in the concept of rules, leggi or are in the concept of exceptions, forze

so that they could behave politically in a proper way

Machiavelli extremely selected pieces of political past actions of specific rulers that he was concerned to be blamed or praised Human nature and its mutations

were investigated as the task ragionare past events Machiavelli differs from other

historians or thinkers because he chose and criticized the historical events and figures

in a way that consolidates his own understanding of politics A series of exceptional

instructions upon political circumstances was delivered in The Prince but there is no

clarified thread between thought, action, success, and therefore there is no political

sciences’ approach from The Prince: the complexity of accidents overcomes the claim

that the all too constant anthropological regularities can lead the politician to become ignorant of history,118 la complessità degli accidenti and le costanti regolarità,

mentioned by Galli Machiavelli was contributing to his life was the dedication of the book as an exceptional hope for the return in public career and what Machiavelli is contributing to modern politics is his exceptional violation of the previous domination

of religion upon human nature and human acknowledgment upon the reality

How Machiavellian concept of virtù and fortuna constitute the ground for

his understanding of the relationship between rules and exceptions? He believes that

117 G Sasso, Niccolò Machiavelli, cit., pp.365-79 and F Del Lucchese, The political philosophy of Niccolò

Machiavelli, cit, p.70

118 C Galli, Schmitt e Machiavelli, cit., p 106: “Non vi è alcuna linearità fra pensiero, azione, successo, e quindi

non vi è alcuna scienza politica la complessità degli accidenti vince la pretesa che le fin troppo costanti regolarità antropologiche possano portare il politico a insignorirsi della storia”

politics can never get rid of fortuna and virtù is the energy that must match with the times and seize the opportunities that are caused by fortuna Therefore, rules are

designed along with exceptions and are indeed unstable over times Rather than constituting for an ideal set of rules, which was furtherly named as legislation and governmental orders, the energy of virtù must be directed on resolving exceptional cases

which were offered by fortuna This political philosophy was defined as the hegemony’s

rules Machiavelli analyses political situations based on each ruler’s leadership, which

is personal and stylistic So, although Machiavelli radically applied inductive methodology on his collections of individual leadership, it turns difficult to extend Machiavelli’s own study to the field of ethics, politics, or physics, which nowadays are known as sciences The second crisis of Machiavelli’s unconceded insights is that his methodology of ‘the leadership’s power of breaking rules in certain exceptional cases’

explained in mostly every chapter of The Prince: “to appear merciful, faithful humane,

religious, upright and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to

be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite.” 119 Instead of approaching political situations, perhaps he could resolute them on the direction of morality, Machiavelli was interpreting political events into conventional effects The powerful contribution of Machiavelli’s understandings through his books, in my opinion, is the education for presents citizens and rulers about the political actions, not social or religious reactions, that influence significantly and differently on the community from the point of view of history

Discussing exceptions and rules in Machiavellian theory, Gramsci and Louis Althusser have insisted that Machiavelli was influenced by his observations of Italy, especially, of Italy’s miserable politics where rules were built disciplinarily based on

the suspended commitment of the mass, and the virtù of an individual.120 Consequently, this extreme political position of Italy leads to Machiavelli’s thought of other limitations

of impossibility in rules, which is Machiavellian thinking of exceptions as solutions, or

119 N Machiavelli, The Prince, XVIII, cit., p.53

120 L.Althusser, Machiavelli e noi, cit., p 95: “la materia italiana aspetta solo una forma adatta a unificare la

nazione L’estrema sfortuna e miseria politica dell’Italia, l’attesa e il consenso generale dei suoi popoli, la virtù dei suoi individui: ecco le materia”