22-02-1525
Nerli congratulates M. on the tremendous success of his Clizia staged on the Florentine countryside in the gardens of “Il Fornaciaio” (Jacopo di Filippo Falconetti).
Filippo de’ Nerli to Niccolò Machiavelli
Discover the different practices and forms of Machiavellian otium across a selection of letters taken from Niccolò Machiavelli’s correspondence between 1512 and 1527.
Nerli congratulates M. on the tremendous success of his Clizia staged on the Florentine countryside in the gardens of “Il Fornaciaio” (Jacopo di Filippo Falconetti).
This letter is a response to M.’s previous letters, in which he had asked for Francesco Guicciardini’s advice on how to negotiate with the friars of Carpi and requested, in a playful way, the dispatch of further couriers from the Governor in order to increase the ex-secretary’s reputation at Carpi.
M. writes in a playful and jocular manner in relation to his rather ‘otiose’ mission to the Minorite Friars at Carpi, where he had been sent by the Otto di Pratica of Florence in order to negotiate for installation of a new governor and administrative reforms for the Order. In this letter to Francesco Guicciardini he reflects on religion, writing, and his own role as a citizen and diplomat of Florence and as a writer.
The letter briefly informs F. Vettori of M.’s release from prison and then stages the first of M.’s numerous and persistent requests for help to return to public service under the rule of the Medici. M. thus expresses his wish to resume his political activity as soon as possible. This subject will inform most of the correspondence between M. and F. Vettori.
