13-04-1521

Author

Piero Soderini

Place Of Sender

Rome

Recipient

Niccolò Machiavelli

Place Of Destination

Florence

Relevance to the Project

medium – low

Type of Record

Standard (Letter text)

Type of Document

Letter

Main Subject

Soderini presents an offer of employment to M. and urges him to enter into the service of Prospero Colonna instead of becoming a client of the Medici.

Soderini offers an employment opportunity to M. and, hence, an alternative to the patronage of the Medici. He advises M. to enter into the service of the aged condottiere Prospero Colonna (who had promised the exorbitant stipend of 200 ducats in gold coin). Sodernini’s job proposal has to be seen in relation to M.’s strategies of networking and patronage after 1512 and his attempts to approach influential persons in close contact to the Medici (the Strozzi, Vettori, Guicciardini, Nerli, and others).

M. at the Crossfire of Clientelism and Patronage

This is the only surviving letter that Soderini, the former Gonfaliere of the Republic which M. had served as a secretary, wrote to his protegé after the turning point of 1512. Written shortly after a further critical caesura in M.’s life, his ‘rehabilitation’ and engagement as historiographer by the Medici, it illustrates the typical competing systems of clientelism and patronage that M. was involved in. Actually, Soderini’s “offer of alternative employment” (Landon, Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi, 99), is not without risk. The dangers involved become evident when Soderini advises M. – in the case he would accept it – to immediately travel to Colonna’s residence and to reach it before the news of his departure from Florence would be noticed by the Medici (“vi conforterei a essere prima là, che di costà si sapessi la partita”). The commission of writing a history of the city of Florence put M. in a prestigious position. His relationship with the Medici, especially with Cardinal Giulio, had strengthened and borne fruit. It was highly likely that M. had no intention to throw away all his efforts of the previous years, especially as the Soderini brothers had continued to lose their influence on the political landscape of Italy. Thus, despite Soderni’s ironic comparison concerning the low pay offered by the Medici (payed with “fiorini di suggello”, compared to “gold”), M. refused his proposal. Incidentally, in just a few years the honorarium for the Istorie Fiorentine would later be doubled (see the letter by Francesco del Nero to M. of 27-07-1525).

 

Medici Clientelism and Otium

In declining Soderini’s offer, M. also opted for another system of patronage. In cases such as M.’s, especially during the years between 1520 and 1521, Medici clientelism seemed to rely more on ‘otiose’ literary skills than on diplomatic and military expertise. As a historiographer of Florence, M. was to join a rich tradition of humanists and chancellors such as Leonardo Bruni and Bartolomeo Scala.

 

Nicolò carissimo, da poi non vi satisfece il partito di Ragugia, ricercandomi el signore Prospero d’uno uomo sufficiente da maneggiare le cose sue, conoscendo la fede vostra e sufficienzia, ve li proposi. Soddisfateli assai, perché ha notizia di voi; hammi commesso ve ne ricerchi. La provvisione sarà 200 ducati d’oro e le spese: pensatela, e satisfacendovi, vi conforterei, senza conferirlo, a essere prima là, che di costà si sapessi la partita; né altro migliore partito mi occorre al presente, il quale giudico molto meglio che stare costí a scrivere storie a fiorini di suggello.

 

Source: Edizione nazionale delle Opere di Niccolò Machiavelli

My very dear Niccolò,. Because the affair of Ragusa was not satisfactory to you, since Lord Prospero has asked me to recommend a man capable of managing his affairs and I know your trustworthiness and your ability, I proposed you to him. You are very satisfactory to him because he has information about you. He has authorized me to ask you about it. The stipend will be two hundred gold ducats and expenses. Think it over, and if it is satisfactory to you I would urge you, without discussing it, to get here before your departure is known about there. I know of no better prospect at present, and I judge it much better than to stay there and write histories for fiorini di suggello.

 

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

O. Tommasini, La vita e gli scritti di Niccolò Machiavelli nella loro relazione col machiavellismo (Turin: Loescher, 1883-1911), 2 vols, 3 t. (reprint Bologna: il Mulino, 1994-2003), vol. 2-1, 255-56; R. Ridolfi, Vita di Niccolò Machiavelli (Florence: Sansoni, 1978), 289-290, 549; C. Dionisotti, Machiavellerie (Turin: Einaudi, 1980), 32, 396-97; W. J. Landon, Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi and Niccolò Machiavelli. Patron, Client, and the Pistola fatta per la peste / An Epistle Written Concerning the Plague (Toronto/Buffalo/ London: 2013), 99f.

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M.’s relationship to Soderini

Regrding M.’s relationship to Soderini, see the comment on this letter in the respective volume of the Edizione Nazionale: “M. tuttavia, ansioso di farsi riabilitare dai Medici e di entrare al loro servizio, non sembra aver mantenuto i vecchi legami con i Soderini, e pare anzi aver voluto evitare ogni occasione di incontro, per non attirare su di sé i sospetti dello stato mediceo. Una delle ragioni che lo dissuasero dall’accettare l’invito di Francesco Vettori di andare a trovarlo a Roma dopo il novembre 1513 (quando terminò l’anno di relegatio cui era stato costretto dal nuovo regime) fu proprio il timore di essere «forzato», una volta giunto nell’Urbe, a far visita ai Soderini, e di pagarne le conseguenze al suo ritorno a Firenze”.(cf. Machiavelli, Lettere III, 1309.)

 

Prospero Colonna

Prospero Colonna was condottiere at the service of France, then Spain, and of the Emperor Charles V. He was the cousin of Fabrizio Colonna, whose fictional alter-ego is the most dominant interlocutor of M.’s dialogue Art of War.

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Cite as: Judith Frömmer, Andrea Guidi

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