05-11-1526

Author

Niccolò Machiavelli

Place Of Sender

Firenze

Recipient

Francesco Guicciardini

Place Of Destination

Modena

Relevance to the Project

medium – low

Type of Record

Standard (Letter text)

Type of Document

Letter

Main Subject

After his return to Florence M. informs Guicciardini about his trip to Modena and provides an account of a meeting with his friends Filippo de’ Nerli and Guido Rangoni.

M. reports what happened to him in Modena, where, on behalf of Guicciardini, papal governor of the city, he had met Filippo de’ Nerli and, later, the Count Guido Rangoni, a captain in the service of the pope, with whom Guicciardini himself had had some tensions. The meeting in Modena with Filippo de’ Nerli and Rangoni was part of a specific task which Guicciardini had informally assigned to his friend (for the diplomatic context also see the note on M.’s mission to the camp of the papal army). M. was clearly required to expose Guicciardini’s complaints to Rangoni. However, the tone of the letter is rather jocular and, as the editors of the Edizione nazionale put it, “canzonatorio” (see vol. III, 1570), i.e. teasing. Beyond its diplomatic contents and purposes, the letter is centered on two short scenes of ‘comedy’ (as M. himself defines them), in which M. employs the art of dialogue characteristic of an author of comedies.

 

Letter Writing as Otiose Practice

This letter provides another excellent example of ‘Machiavellian’ epistolary writing by staging a sort of human comedy in which M. is at the same time actor and director. Sometimes, these kinds of letters (such as the letter of 08-12-1509, and especially the letters from Carpi such as the one of 17-5-1521) were written during moments of break from his professional tasks (cf. also the letters written from Carpi dating from 17 to 19 May 1521). Evolving from situations of otium, they provide new insights into the author’s social and political contexts which allowed him to develop a deliberate literary strategy of retreat which might prepare new forms of political intervention. Again, in a situation characterized by the comic strategy of contrast and paradox, M. represents himself as one of those wise men who are always mistaken in their political prediction. In crazy times, only the fool (in this case represented by the “Senesi”), not the wise makes the right choices and turns out to be right in his political predictions.

 

 

E cominciandomi da Modana, come io giunsi, Filippo mi si fe’ incontro e mi disse: “È egli però possibile che io non abbi fatto mai cosa che bene stia?” Io gli risposi così ridendo: “Signor governatore, non ve ne maravigliate, ché non è difetto vostro, ma di questo anno, che non ci è persona che abbia fatto ben veruno, né cosa per il verso. Lo imperadore non si può essere portato peggio, non avendo mandato in tanto tempo aiuto alcuno a questi suoi, e lo poteva fare facilmente; gli Spagnuoli hanno potuto qualche volta farci di gran natte, e non lo hanno saputo fare; noi abbiamo potuto vincere, e non abbiamo saputo; il papa ha creduto più ad una impennata di inchiostro che a mille fanti che gli bastavano a guardarlo; solo i Sanesi si sono portati bene, e non è maraviglia se in un tempo pazzo i pazzi pruovon bene; di modo, signor governatore mio, che sarebbe piú cattivo segno l’aver fatto qualche buona pruova, che avendola fatta cattiva. “Or poiché cosí è — disse Filippo — io me ne voglio tôrre di affanno, e ne resto molto contento”. E cosí si finí il primo atto della commedia.

Venne poco dipoi il conte Guido, e come mi vidde, disse: “È piú adirato il luogotenente?”. Risposi di no, perché non aveva piú presso chi era cagione che si adirasse; e per non dire tutti li particulari, si ragionò un poco di questa vostra benedetta stizza, e egli disse che andrebbe prima in esilio in Egitto, che condursi in esercito dove voi fussi. Qui io dissi quello che si conveniva, e particularmente si disputò de’ mali e de’ beni che aveva fatta la presenza vostra, tale che facilmente ognuno cedette che l’aveva fatto piú bene che male.

[…]”

 

Source: Edizione nazionale delle Opere di Niccolò Machiavelli

So I shall begin with my arrival at Modena when Filippo met me saying, “Is it possible, then, that I have never done anything right?” I laughingly replied, “Signor Governor, do not be surprised at that; it is not your fault but that of the year, because no one has done things well or anything gone but the wrong way. Since the emperor did not in all this time send troops any reinforcements, even though he could have easily done so, he could not have behaved worse; the Spanish could have sometimes played some dirty tricks on us but did not know how; we could have won but did not know how to; the pope had more confidence in a single quill full of ink than in a thousand foot soldiers, who would have been adequate for his  protection; only the Sienese have behaved well, and we should not be surprised that the crazies give a good account of themselves during crazy times. Hence, my Signor Governor, to have given a good account of ourselves would have been a worse sign than having given a poor one. “Well, if that is how it is,” replied Filippo, “I am going to stop worrying about it and be quite happy.” And so the first act of the comedy came to an end. Count Guido arrived shortly and when he saw me, he said, “Is the division commander still angry?” I replied then he was not, since the cause of his anger was no longer nearby. So as not to go into all the details, we talked for a while about this blessed ill humor of yours; he said he would rather be exiled in Egypt than serve in an army where you were. At this point I said what was called for, and, in particular, we argued about the good and bad things that your presence had accomplished, so that everyone readily agreed that it had accomplished more good than harm.

 

Source: Atkinson/Sices: Machiavelli and his friends. Their Personal Correspondence.

G. Ferroni, “Le cose vane nelle Lettere di Machiavelli,” La Rassegna della Letteratura Italiana LXXVI (1972): 215-64 (esp. 257-58); R. Ridolfi, Vita di Niccolò Machiavelli (Florence: Sansoni, 1978), 365 and 584-85; S. Larosa, “Autobiografia e tradizione letteraria nella ‘giornata’ di Niccolò Machiavelli,” Interpres XXII (2003): 233-35.

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M.’s Mission to the Camp of the Papal Army in 1526

In May, the League of Cognac had re-united the main Italian States against Spain and the Empire. The official reason for M.’s presence at the Camp during the summer, and later on in early November, was to organize a new militia. However, this objective actually turned out to be difficult to achieve, as we learn when reading a letter by Guicciardini to Roberto Acciaoli of 18-7-1526: “El Machiavelli si truova qua: era venuto per riordinare questa militia, ma, veduto quanto è corropta, non confida haverne honore. Starassi a ridere delli errori delli huomini, poi che non gli può correggere” (quote from F. Guicciardini, Carteggi, ed. by P.G. Ricci, Rome, Ist. Storico Italiano per l’Età Moderna e Contemporanea, 1959, vol. 9, 15-16). Nevertheless, M. immediately changed the original scope of his mission in order to act as an unofficial agent of the papal governor Guicciardini, until he was nominated as official envoy of the Otto di Pratica (the Eight of Guidance, an important city-magistracy of Florence) on November 30, at the end of his short stay in Florence and after he wrote this letter.

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Cite as: Judith Frömmer, Andrea Guidi

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