Being Machiavelli

Machiavelli’s private life in his letters

Niccoloò Machiavelli has left us more than just a couple of, politically important, books. His name developed into nouns as well as adjectives that share a common ground: they are rarely used in a flattery way.^[1] Machiavellism, Machiavellian, and Machiavellic are some of these terms that derive from his name, and when used, people generally refer to unscrupulous methods used to reach a goal. (Somehow this also has evolved into the adjective Merkelvellian, a blend of Machiavellian and the name of the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but this adjective has a much more affectionate annotation to most people, but it reflects the realpolitik that hallmarked German politics in the first decades of this millennium.)

        The image of Machiavelli as a man who wanted to reach his goals in any way possible is a somewhat simplified remnant of his most famous work Il Principe. In this work Machiavelli outlines the necessities for a ruler to balance his interests and the interests of institutions to which the people are accustomed to to remain in power and achieve the best possible future for himself and his people. Fraud, deceit, and violence are part of the toolbox offered to the ruler by Machiavelli, hence he is often associated with the clause “the end justifies the means”, and the derived nouns and adjectives originate from this perception of his work. Machiavelli however was much more than the writer of Il Principe. He described himself as “Historian, comic writer, and tragic writer”, and we can add Political Philosopher to this list.^[2] 

        Machiavelli’s presumed ruthlessness should raise questions on his personality. In Il Principe he writes that his intention is to “write something useful, based on the factual truth of the matter”.^[3] This could be interpreted as an excuse, he claims he is merely writing about what he has observed in society and not about how he thinks people should act or behave. Regardless of the intrinsic value of this excuse it at least shows Machiavelli might have been aware of the harshness of his tractate. From his other works a different Machiavelli arises.  The comic writer, the tragic writer, and the historian have all produced works that have survived the ages.

        The codex known as apografo Ricci contains a large set of the more personal letters that were exchanged between Machiavelli and some contemporaries.^[4] Since these letters were not directly related to Machiavelli’s career as secretary of the Florentine ruling body, they are generally referred to as Machiavelli’s Familiar Letters.  The American scholar and specialist on Florence and Machiavelli, John Najemy, has extensively been studying the friendship between Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Vettori (Florence, 1474-1539), which resulted in his publication Between friends: discourses of power and desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori letters of 1513-1515.^[5] 

        Obviously, relationships and friendships come in numerous flavours. The letters written by Machiavelli give a unique insight in Machiavelli as a person and, more general, in the kind of relationships that were known in Florence in the Late Medieval period and how (emotional) feelings played a role in these relationships. By analyzing the letters and comparing the contents of the letters sent to different persons we might be able to discover the different types of friendships Machiavelli had, and what information he dared to share with them, or rather how personal this information was.  Presumably, the more personal the friendship, the more personal the information shared. This way we might get an answer to the question: was Machiavelli really a ruthless person? But as as previously written, we will also learn more on relationships in early sixteenth century Florence.

        The codex apografo Ricci, was composed by Machiavelli’s grandson (the son of his daughter Bartolomea), Giuliano de Ricci some 50 years after Machiavelli’s death.^[6] In the codex he collected, ordered, corrected, and annotated many of Machiavelli’s writings – not just the lettere familiale. The codex does include most of the known letters written by Machiavelli or sent to Machiavelli. The letters from and to his friend Francesco Vettori were given to Giuliano by his family, but it is likely his family left out letters they considered inappropriate or otherwise unfit for sharing. It is assumed that Giuliano de Ricci censored some materials because of moral reasons as well.^[7] 

        Ricci used scribes to copy the letters and other documents from the originals to the codex. Many of the original letters have been lost since then, but in some cases the letters still exist. The apografo Ricci has been retranscribed, corrected and studied by various scholars in the past. The letters researched for this essay come from the book The Letters of Machiavelli, a selection, and have been edited and translated by the American professor of Italian literature, and expert on Machiavelli, Allan H. Gilbert.^[8] He in turn has used much of the work of the Italian scholar Edoardo Alvisi, who in 1883 created a catalog of the letters from the apografo Ricci and some other sources. Gilbert tried as much as possible to find and translate original letters rather than the letters as copied in the codex and Alvisi’s edition. Amongst others he added a letter that the historian Alex Gilbert had retrieved in a collection in the United States in 1942.^[9] Many other and more modern scholars, including Najemy, use transcriptions from Italian scholar Franco Gaeta's edition of Machiavelli's Lettere, published in the same year as the first edition of Gilbert’s translation.

        

The two men must have known one another at least since 1507, but possibly they have met even during childhood, sharing the same teacher.^[10] In the year 1508 they were forced to work together as diplomatic representatives of the republic of Florence, with Vettori being the highest in rank. Vettori belonged to the ottimati, the nobility of Florence, and Machiavelli was not.  They must both have quite enjoyed their cooperation, and it has been noted that it is unclear who wrote the reports, and who’s ideas were in the missives sent back to the authorities in Florence (the Ten). Between 1508 and 1512 Vettori and Machiavelli had more opportunities to work together, and each time Vettori obviously had the better position, but must have appreciated Machiavelli’s input, wisdom, and knowledge.

        After the Medici, regained control of the Florence government, Vettori, thanks to his noble descend, managed to regain a position as Florence’s ambassador to Pope Julius in Rome, while Machiavelli was confined to his dominion for one year.^[11] Besides his confinement, Niccolò Machiavelli also for a short time was imprisoned and Vettori had an important role in his release, both by negotiating for his release as being financially liable for his behavior. Thus, the relationship between the two men became seriously complicated, and at this point for sure the relationship is suspect of patronage.

        The first letter in the selection of Allan Gilbert, from a total of twenty-eight, from Machiavelli to Vettori, dates March 13th, 1513. Macchiavelli has then just been released from prison. The last letter dates April 18th, 1527, just two months before Machiavelli died in Florence. Over this long period Niccolò and Francesco exchange formalities, information, and most of all, politics. There are multiple letters from Vettori to Machiavelli, the first one dated August 3rd, 1510, where Francesco addresses Niccolò as “Compare mio charo”. This suggests that Vettori was the godfather to at least one of Machiavelli’s children.^[12] It is this kind of hints we are looking for, however we are not looking for these familiarities in Vettori’s letters, but in the writings of Machiavelli.

        Here we run into a shortcoming of the translation of Gilbert. According to the footnote in Najemy’s Between Friends, the term compare was used by Machiavelli in letters no. 148 and no. 150. In Allan Gilbert’s translation we find in both letters “my friend”. The letters XVIII and XIX from the edition of Opere edited by Mario Bonfantini however show that indeed the original letters read “compare mio” and “compare”.^[13] 

The letter sent by Machiavelli to Francesco Vettori on December tenth, 1513, is perhaps one of his best-known private letters. It is mostly famous because it contains references to the writings that would later be known as Il Principe (in original letter: De principatibus).

There is little information in the letters that can be considered personal, except perhaps for the occasional inquiry about job opportunities and Machiavelli’s concerns about his personal finance. These last two subjects of course are closely related. Usually Machiavelli addresses Vettori as “Magnificent”, “Ambassador” or “Magnificent Ambassador”, and often accompanied by “benefactor”. He signs with “Your Niccolo Machiavelli”, “Niccolo Machiavelli, formerly Secretary” and sometimes with “Your friend”, but the latter seems to happen only when the letter is really long.

        It appears that often Machiavelli feels obliged to start the letter with some chattering or an anecdote before he elaborates on politics. Often the word Fortune, sometimes in lowercase, is a part of one of the sentences. Or Machiavelli starts with a quote from Dante.  And of course there often is flattery such as: “In the midst of my greatest good fortunes I never had anything that pleased me as much as your discussions, because from them I wlaways learned something.”^[14]

In the midst of my greatest good fortunes I never had anything that pleased me as much as your discussions, because from them I ahvays learned something.

On the third of August 1510 Vettori sends Machiavelli a letter addressed to “Compare mio charo” (my dear chap).^[15] The reply and specially the way in which Machiavelli addresses the return letter is unknown.

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Bibliography

Connell, William J., ‘New Light on Machiavelli’s Letter to Vettori, 10 December 1513’, in: Europa e Italia : studi in onore di Giorgio Chittolini = Europe and Italy : Studies in Honour of Giorgio Chittolini (Firenze 2011) 93–127 <http://digital.casalini.it/9788864532349>.

Gilbert, Allan H., en Nicolò Machiavelli, The letters of Machiavelli: a selection (University of Chicago Press ed; Chicago 1988).

Gilbert, Felix, ‘An Unpublished Machiavelli Letter’, The American Historical Review (1942) 288–292.

‘Lettere (Machiavelli) - Wikisource’ <https://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Lettere_(Machiavelli)> [geraadpleegd 5 december 2021].

Machiavelli, Niccolò, en Mario Bonfantini, Opere. La letteratura italiana ; vol. 29 (Milano [etc 1954).

---, en Paul van Heck, Il Principe (Leiden 2019).

Najemy, John, ‘Chapter Two: Contexts Personal and Political’, in: Between friends: discourses of power and desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori letters of 1513-1515 (Princeton N.J. 1993) 58–94.

Oosthout, Henri, Kritische geschiedenis van de westerse wijsbegeerte 2 (Zoetermeer 2017).

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