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The Concept of Nationalism in Machiavelli's Prince1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Felix Gilbert*
Affiliation:
Bryn Mawr College
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Extract

Of all the writings of Machiavelli, none has been so much commented upon as The Prince, and of the various sections of The Prince, none has been discussed so much as the last chapter. The chapter is an “exhortation to liberate Italy from the Barbarians.” Machiavelli believes that the opportunity has come “to introduce a new system” in Italy. A new Prince should place himself at the head of the Italians, who are “ready and willing to follow any standard, if only there be someone to raise it.”

What doors would be closed against him? What people would refuse him obedience? What envy could oppose him? What Italian would withhold allegiance? This barbarous domination stinks in the nostrils of every one.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1954

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Footnotes

1

This paper was read at a session on “Nationalism and Internationalism in the Renaissance” at the meeting of the American Historical Association at Chicago in December, 1953.

References

2 I use the translation in the Modern Library edition.

3 Ranke, L., Zur Kritik Neuerer Geschichtschreiber (Leipzig, 1824), 202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 See, for instance, Pasquale Villari's famous biography, The Life and Times of Niccolò Machiavelli, tr. Linda Villari, 2 vols. (2d ed.; London, 1891).

5 Machiavelli, , Der Fuerst, ed. Meinecke, F., “Klassiker der Politik,” VIII (Berlin, 1923), 3337.Google Scholar

6 “Sulla Composizione de ‘Il Principe’ di Niccolò Machiavelli,” Archivum Romanicum, XI (1927), 330-87.

7 See Gilbert, F., “The Humanist Concept of the Prince and The Prince of Machiavelli,” The Journal of Modern History, XI (1939), 449-83CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Chiappelli, Fredi, Studi sul linguaggio del Machiavelli, (Florence, 1952), 18 Google Scholar; see also the discussion of recent Machiavelli literature by Preiser, Wolfgang, “Das Machiavelli-Bild der Gegenwart,” Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft, CVIII (1952)Google Scholar, particularly p. 19.

8 See, for instance, Gilmore, Myron P., The World of Humanism 1453-1517 (New York, 1952), 135.Google Scholar

9 “Gli Studi di Storia del Rinascimento,” Cinquant' Anni di Cita Intellettuale Italiana (Naples, 1950), s.p.

10 For this tradition see Olschki, Leonardo, Geschichte der Neusprachlichen Wissenschaftlichen Literatur (Leipzig, 1922), II, 307 Google Scholar; Walser, Ernest, Studien zur Geistesgeschichte der Renaissance (Basel, 1932), xl Google Scholar; and Valeri, Nino, La Libertà e la Pace (Turin, 1942), 118.Google Scholar

11 See Baron, Hans, “A Struggle for Liberty in the Renaissance,” American Historical Review, LVIII (1953), 278 Google Scholar and, in general for the ideology of liberty in Florence, N. Rubinstein, “Florence and the Despots,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, II (1952).

12 For instance, see Bernardo Giustiniani, “De origine urbis gestisque Venetorum historiae,” in Graevius, Joannes G., Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae, Vol. V, pt. 1, p. 4 Google Scholar, also p. 23; or Alexandri Benedicti Veronensis, “De rebus a Carlo VIII gestis” in Eccardi, Corpus Historicum (Leipzig, 1723), 1577. The classical model is Cicero's statement in De Provinciis consularibus Oratio: “Alpibus Italiam munierat antea natura non sine aliquo divino numine.”

13 See Herbst, E., Der Zug Karl's VIII nach Italien im Urteile der italienischen Zeitgenossen (Basel, 1911), particularly pp. 27, 40.Google Scholar

14 After Pieri, Piero, Intorno alia Politica Estera di Venezia al Principio del Cinquecento (Naples, 1934), 48.Google Scholar

15 After Olschki, , op. cit., II, 276.Google Scholar

16 For instance, Cerretani, Storia Fiorentina, Firenze Bibl. Nazionale, ms. II. III. 74, f. 512; Parenti, Istorie Florentine, Firenze Bibl. Nazionale, ms. II.II. 130, f. 191 verso.

17 See Cambi's chronicle in Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani, XXI (1785), 136-44.

18 Storia de’ suoi Tempi, Firenze Bibl. Nazionale, ms. II. IV., 42, f. 97.

19 Pepe, Gabriele, La Politica dei Borgia (Naples, 1946), 12 Google Scholar; see also the discussion of this question in Chabod, “Gli Studi di Storia del Rinascimento,” Cinquant’ Anni.

20 Codice Aragonese, ed. Trinchera (Naples, 1870), Vol. II, pt. 1, pp. 379 f., and pt. 2, pp. 97, 103. There are many other similar statements. See also R. Cessi, “La ‘Lega Italica’ e la sua funzione storica,” Atti del R. Institute: Veneto, Vol. CII, pt. 2 (1942–1943), pp. 100-168.

21 Quotations from reports of Florentine ambassadors—G. B. Ridolfi and P. A. Soderini —in Venice in 1494, Firenze Archivio di Stato, Archivio Mediceo avanti il Principato, Fil. XIX, cc. 616, 619, 620, 623, etc.

22 Herbst, , op. cit., 30 Google Scholar, quotes Lodovico Moro as saying to Foscari: “Confesso ho fatto gran male all'ltalia, ma l'ho fatto per conservarmi in loco in cui mi trovo. L'ho fatto mal volentieri.”

23 Quotations from reports of the Florentine ambassadors—Gualterotti, Pepi, F. Soderini—in Milan in the years 1496-99, to be found in Firenze, Archivio di Stato, Lettere dei X di Balia Responsive, vols. 45 and 57; Lettere all Signoria (Signori, Carteggio, Responsive), vols. 10-12.

24 A characteristic passage in Cerretani, ms. cit., f. 282-83.

25 Firenze Archivio di Stato, Archivio Mediceo avanti il Principato, Fil. XIX, c. 623; published in abbreviated form by Canestrini-Desjardins, , Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane (Paris, 1859), I, 508.Google Scholar

26 Some of them are written by Machiavelli.

27 Firenze Archivio di Stato, Consulte e Pratiche, particularly vols. 61 (Jan. 1496), 63 (June 1497), 64 (Feb. 1498), and 70 (June and July 1512).

28 Firenze Archivio di Stato, Carte Strozziane, 2d. ser., vol. 86.

29 I am working on an article elaborating this point.

30 Garin, E., “Desideri di Riforma,” Quaderni di Belfagor (Florence, 1948), I, 111.Google Scholar