Filippo de' Nerli
Florence
Niccolò Machiavelli
Venice
medium – low
Standard (Letter text)
Letter
Nerli provides an assessment of the situation of the “brigata”, i.e. their circle of friends in Florence, and congratulates the absent M. on his inclusion in the “squittino”, i.e. his admission to the elections for public office.
Nerli reports to M., who was carrying out a diplomatic mission in Venice, the latest news from Florence and Tuscany. Not all the elements of the letter are understandable to modern commentators (see the commentary to this letter in the volumes of Machiavelli’s Lettere, vol. 3, 1414). Especially important are the positive developments concerning M.’s career, i.e. his admission to the ballot list and the growing probability of his election for public office. For the sake of joking and taunting, Nerli uses an ironic and vaguely acid tone of teasing and reproach as to M.’s absence in their circle of friends as well as referring to the alleged complaints of the Florentine merchants that M. is wasting his time “at their expense entertaining literary people there [sc. during his official mission in Venice].” He also comments on his friend’s alleged winning the lottery. Furthermore, the letter contains suggestive, maybe coded comments on the sexual behavior of M.’s sons as well as several allusions to the Mandragola.
M.’s Political Career
While his friend is officially carrying out a mission for the Arte della Lana (the Guild of Wool Weavers) and the Conservatori della Repubblica (the “Defenders of the Republic”) in Venice (for other hypotheses on the nature and scope of this mission see Notes on M.’s Mission in Venice), Nerli comments on several promising pieces of news as to his friend’s career. The most important is M.’s admission to the group of citizens eligible for public office, which had been granted by the Florentine authorities (“siate entrato nello squittino”), a decisive step in his political rehabilitation. According to Nerli, M. had actually achieved this goal through “favors coming from Barbary”, likely alluding to Barbara Salutati’s, alias “la Bàrbera” (on the word play with Bàrbera’s first name also cf. the letters from Nerli, 22-02-1525, and from Guicciardini, 07-08-1525 as well as the Notes on M. and Barbara Salutati). This letter could imply that la Bàrbera, the actress and singer M. had fallen in love with, might have won him the favor of powerful men and, hence, have promoted the rehabilitation of the ex-secretary.
M.’s Leisure Activities during his Diplomatic Mission in Venice
A rather disparaging explanation concerning the real reasons for the prolongation of Machiavelli’s stay in Venice is reported by Nerli who, half-jokingly, blames M. to be lazing around and wasting time with writers and indulging in literary otium at the expense of Florentine merchants. According to Nerli, the Arte della Lana was growing increasingly impatient with their envoy (“attendete a spedirvi, perché qua è gran romore, tra questi mercanti, che voi attendiate a spese loro a trattenere costà litterati; e loro hanno bisogno di altro che di cantafavole”). Most interestingly, this section is followed by an excursus on having “riscontro alla lotta dua o tremila ducati”, i.e. Nerli congratulates M. on winning the lottery, and he even mentions the astronomic amount of 2000 or 3000 ducats as prize money. However, it remains unclear if this event had actually taken place or whether Nerli is only joking. The “lottery” might also allude to something else (e.g. the election for public office by lots, or even an important official and hidden mission for the pope, see the Notes to letter of 22-02-1525 , and cf. Lettieri, “Machiavelli in gioco,” 707). Furthermore, the semantics of the ‘game of chance’ and ‘drawing lots’ might evoke important philosophical problems of chance vs. fate with their political implications as to questions of predestination, privilege, and arbitrariness. Hence, this topic of the letter might even allude to Machiavellian concepts such as fortuna and necessità. Nevertheless, according to the comment of the Edizione Nazionale, M.’s winning the lottery does not seem unlikely, especially if one takes into account that he actually made friends with Giovanni Manenti, who from 1522 to 1537 was awarded a concession for the Venetian lottery (cf. Machiavelli, Lettere III, 1415; D. Pattini, “Manenti Giovanni”). The same Manenti might even have financed his own activities as a sort of impresario and promoter of literature by his income from the lottery. Hence, he was also the patron of a staging of the Mandragola during the Carnival in Venice in February 1526, which M. might have prepared during this ominous mission in Venice (see the letter from 28 February 1526 and the respective comment in the Edizione Nazionale). By this mysterious entanglement of M.’s diplomatic and artistic ambitions as well as more popular activities, such as gambling, this letter stages the complexity of otium and leisure in Renaissance Italy, which, just as Nerli’s epistolary style, slides across both the public and private spheres as well as different social groups. From the perspective of otium characterized as “intentional intentionalessness” (cf. H.-G. Soeffner, “Muße – Absichtsvolle Absichtslosigkeit”), categories such as ‘mission’ or ‘purpose’ or ‘interest’ gain a more ambivalent and somewhat oblique perspective even in the political realm.
News from the “brigata”
Of particular interest is Nerli’s description of the desolateness of the clique of friends (“brigata”, “Barbogeria”, again an allusion to the first name of M.’s lover, “la Bàrbera”). Allegedly, their sense of exasperation had in part been caused by M.’s absence and the lack of his humorous sociability (cf. M.’s description of the melancholy among the “brigata” in his letter to Vettori from 16-04-1513 and to Lodovico Alamanni, 17-12-1517 ).
Che voi siate entrato nello squittino, e che vi siano stati fatti cenni e chiuso l’occhio dalli accoppiatori, ne sono molto contento; e io nel tempo che sono stato qui ne ho aúto infiniti riscontri. Ho bene avuto caro di intendere donde tanto favore sia proceduto, e poiché dipende di Barberia e da qualche altra vostra gentilezza, come voi medesimo attestate per la vostra, voi mi chiarite più l’un dì che l’altro.
[…]
Questa vostra assenzia qua in Barbogeria ha chiarito il popolo che voi siate di ogni mal cagione; e si vede che in tutto redasti li costumi e modi di Tomaso del Bene, perché ora che non ci siete, né gioco, né taverne, né qualche altra cosetta non ci si intende: e così si conosce donde procedeva ogni male. Donato ha preso i panni della cricca, Baccino non si rivede, Giovanni farebbe, e io non mi starei; ma il più delle volte manca o il sito, o le scritture, o il terzo, e sempre manca chi raccozzi la brigata, perché mancate voi.
Io sono ancora qua, e me ne andrò fatto la fiera di 2 o 3 giorni. Aspettovi a Modana, e quivi a grande agio, e senza avere a scrivere, vi ragguaglierò di molte cose che forse vi piaceranno. In questo mezzo, attendete a spedirvi, perché qua è gran romore, tra questi mercanti, che voi attendiate a spese loro a trattenere costà litterati; e loro hanno bisogno di altro che di cantafavole, e sapete che non piacciono a ognuno le dicerie, che ne avete pure cólta la bocca: o béccati quello aglio!
Non mi saprei tenere di non mi rallegrare pure assai con voi di ogni vostro bene, che sapete che mi pare participarne, per la antica amicizia nostra. Voi avete pure un tratto cimentata la sorte, e vi ha fatto sgranchiare, e gittare il pidocchio nel fuoco. Per quello che per le lettere di Vinezia si intende, voi avete riscontro alla lotta dua o tremila ducati, di che gli amici vostri se ne sono tutti rallegrati, e par loro che a quello non hanno gli uomini provvisto per li meriti delle virtú vostre, abbia provvisto la sorte; e benché questa sia piccola cosa a’ meriti vostri, pure in tremila ducati che venghino per questa via, massime senza grado di persona, si fa di gran faccende. Buon pro vi faccia! Avete ben fatto torto alli amici e parenti vostri e a qualcuno che vi vuol bene, a non darne qua avviso, ché l’abbiamo avuto a sapere per lettere di forestieri e per vie transversali, in modo che il Conte de’ Mozzi ci sta su tutto confuso, e non sa se sia da prestare fede a questa cosa o no. Pure alla fine vi si accorda, vedendo le lettere scritte di costà da mercanti molto fide digni, e anco si fonda assai in sulli incanti che voi imparasti in Romagna; e se non fussi questa ferma credenza che lui ha di questa vostra scienzia, si dureria fatica a fare che lo credessi. Io, per me, ne sono certissimo, perché non penso che gli uomini che ne hanno scritto, che non sono da chiacchiere, scrivessino una tal falsità. Però di nuovo me ne rallegro, e il buon pro vi faccia […]
Source: Edizione nazionale delle Opere di Niccolò Machiavelli
I am very happy to know that you have been put on the ballot list and that gestures have been made to you, and the accoppiatori have closed an eye. During the time I have been here, I have had innumerable confirmations of it. I was really very glad to hear whence such great favor has originated; since it comes from Barbary and from some other kindnesses of yours, as you yourself testify in your letter, you enlighten me more from day to day. […]
This absence of yours from among the dotards here has clearly shown the people that you are the root of all evil. It is evident that you inherited your customs and manners completely from Tommaso del Bene; because now that you are not here, nothing is heard either of gambling or of taverns or of any other little thing. And thus we can tell whence all ill originated. Donato has taken on the clothes of Cricca; Baccino is no longer to be seen; if Giovanni did it, I would not hold back; but most of the time either the place or the writings or a third person is lacking, and someone to bring the band together is always lacking because you are not here.
I am still here, and I shall go away two or three days after the fair. I shall wait for you in Modena; and there, at great leisure and without having to write, I shall inform you of many things that will perhaps please you. In the meantime, try to take care of things quickly, because here there is a lot of gossip among these merchants that you are passing your time at their expense entertaining literary people there. They need something more than fairy tales. You know that not everyone likes rumors, as you yourself have learned by experience: or else be ready to swallow that lump.
I could not help but rejoice greatly with you, however, for all the good you are getting, for you know that I feel as if I am enjoying it myself because of our long-standing friendship. You certainly have struggled with fate for quite a while, and it has made you stretch your limbs and get the monkey off your back. From what we hear by the letters from Venice, you have won two or three thousand ducats in the lottery, for which your friends are all very happy, and it seems to them that what men have not provided for the merits of your qualities, fate has provided. Although this is a small thing compared with your merits, nevertheless a lot can be done with three thousand that come that way, especially without any obligation to anyone. May it do you much good. You have really wronged your friends and your relatives and those who love you by not letting us know of it here, for we had to learn of it from strangers’ letters and by indirect routes, so that Count de’ Mozzi is all perplexed about it and does not know whether this thing should be believed in or not. But all in all he accepts it, seeing the letters written from there by very trustworthy merchants, and he also bases it greatly on the spells that you learned in Romagna; if it were not for this firm belief he has in this knowledge of yours, it would be hard to get him to believe it. I, on my part, am quite sure of it, because I do not think that the men who have written about it, who are not prone to gossip, would write such a falsehood. Once again, therefore, I am very glad, and may it do you much good.
Source: Atkinson/Sices: Machiavelli and his friends. Their Personal Correspondence.
R. Ridolfi, Vita di Niccolò Machiavelli (Florence: Sansoni, 1978), 338; D. Hoeges, Niccolò Machiavelli. Dichter – Poeta (Frankfurt a. M./Berlin/Bern: 2006), 14; D. Pattini, “Manenti, Giovanni,” Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 68 (2007); H.-G. Soeffner, “Muße – Absichtsvolle Absichtslosigkeit,” in Muße im kulturellen Wandel, ed. B. Hasebrink and P. Riedl (Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2014), 34–53; G. Lettieri, “Machiavelli in gioco. Un agente segreto papale a Venezia (1525),” Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni 84, no. 2 (2018): 688-729; N. Machiavelli, Lettere, “Edizione Nazionale delle Opere,” 2 vols. (Rome: Salerno editrice, 2022), vol. 1, 1407-8.
For M’s social background, see: R. Black, Machiavelli (London and New York: Routledge, 2013); L. Boschetto, “«Uno uomo di basso e infimo stato»: Ricerche sulla storia familiare di Niccolò Machiavelli,” Archivio Storico Italiano 3 (2018): 485-524; L. Boschetto, “Machiavelli’s Family and Social Background: The Enigma of Messer Bernardo’s Illegitimacy,” in The Art and Language of Power in Renaissance Florence: Essays for Alison Brown, ed. A. R. Bloch, C. James, and C. Russell (Toronto: Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2019), 45-64.
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M.’s Mission to Venice
The purpose of M.’s mission was to present an official protest to the Republic of Venice for the illegal act by which the Venetian authorities had seized goods belonging to the Florentine Consoli dell’Arte della Lana in the port of Lesina. Moreover, Nerli’s letter points to potential ‘otiose’ or the artistic motivations of M.’s trip to the lagune. According to the hypothesis of Gaetano Lettieri (“Machiavelli in gioco,” 689-702), however, the actual reason could have been another, i.e. M. might have been sent by the pope to meet the Doge in view of an anti-imperial agreement. Lettieri argues that the cover assignment was necessary, because the meetings between M. and the Doge had to take place without the knowledge of the papal nuncio in Venice, Tommaso Campeggi, in whom Clement VII did not fully trust, because he had expressed his preference for an alliance with Charles V rather than with Francis I. In this case, the actual reason for M.’s long stay in Venice might not only have been the preparation of another staging of his Mandragola, which had, most probably, taken place early in 1526 under the patronage of Giovanni Manenti (cf. letter from the latter from 28 February 1526; for further details see the commentary in N. Machiavelli, Lettere, vol. 2, 1460), but also it served a secret mission to carry out negotiations for the pope: i.e. an important official task apparently hidden behind the guise of otiose leisure, artistic exchange, and other private affairs (not easy to be identified and understood) that Nerli writes about. As it is often the case in M.’s correspondence, it is not easy to separate the facts from irony, sarcasm, and punning in this letter. In fact, it may even seem surprising to the reader that M. could actually be so lucky as to win a lottery, and one might question, as does Lettieri (p. 705), whether a courtesan such as Bàrbera could have secured her lover M. an official position in the institutions of Florence, even more so without the consent of the Medici.
The Election System of the Florentine Republic and M.’s Origins
M.’s admission to the “squittino” (antiquated for ‘scrutinio’ = poll) implies that his name was integrated into the lists of citizens eligible for public office in Florence. As demonstrated by Luca Boschetto (“Machiavelli’s Family”) a law dating back to 1495 excluded those citizens whose fathers and even grandfathers were of illegitimate birth from gaining membership to the Great council. This was actually the case of M.’s father Bernardo. Since political office in Florence was assigned only to those citizens who were granted access to the city councils, by law M. could only be elected to institutional positions of a strictly executive or administrative nature such as the one of Secretary of the Chancery.
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Cite as: Judith Frömmer, Andrea Guidi
https://machiavellianotium.org/06-09-1525
