Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T08:56:57.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Faulty Foundings and Failed Reformers in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

JOHN P. MCCORMICK
JOHN P. MCCORMICK*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
*
John P. McCormick is Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, 5828 So. University Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 ([email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

T his article argues against prevailing scholarly trends that the Florentine Histories continues to delineate the ways through which Niccolò Machiavelli, in The Prince and the Discourses, advised potential founders or reformers to exploit, for their own benefit and that of their patria, the inevitable social conflicts between elites and the people that arise in all polities. Machiavelli demonstrates that, in particular, Giano della Bella and Michele di Lando could and should have attempted to imitate exemplary ancient founders and reformers whom he praises in previous works, especially Moses, Romulus, and Brutus. Machiavelli implicitly criticizes Giano and Michele for failing to spiritedly invigorate new laws with necessary and salutary violence; for neglecting to effectively manage the “envy” of rival peers; for not resisting the allure of “middle ways” between difficult political choices; and for failing to militarily organize or mobilize the entirety of Florence's common people.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 111 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 204 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Paper presented during 2015–6 at the University of Toronto, the Renaissance Studies Association, Boston, and Northwestern University. I thank the participants on those occasions for invaluable comments and criticisms, especially Ryan Balot, Ronnie Beiner, Mary Dietz, Emre Gercek, Mark Jurdjevic, Boris Litvin, and Mauricio Suchowlansky. I am also indebted to the indispensable feedback of Yuna Blajer, Steven Klein, Amanda Maher, and Natasha Piano, as well as to the judicious editorial stewardship of Steven Forde, and the perspicacious commentary of four anonymous reviewers for APSR.

References

REFERENCES

Ascoli, Albert Russell. 2013. “‘Vox Populi’: Machiavelli, Opinione, and the Popolo, from the Principe to the Istorie Fiorentine .” California Italian Studies 4 (2): 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anselmi, Gian Mario. 1979. Ricerche sul Machiavelli storico. Firenze: Pacini.Google Scholar
Bagge, Sverre. 2007. “Actors and Structure in Machiavelli's Istorie Fiorentine.” Quaderni d'Italianistica XXVIII (2): 45–87.Google Scholar
Bausi, Francesco. 2005. Machiavelli. Rome: Salerno.Google Scholar
Black, Robert. 2013. Machiavelli. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Butters, Humfrey. 2010. “Machiavelli and the Medici.” In The Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli, ed. Najemy, J. M. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press) 64–79.Google Scholar
Cabrini, Ana Maria. 1997. “La Storia da non Imitare: Il Versante Negativo dell'Esemplarità nelle Istorie Fiorentine .” In Cabrini, , Cultura e scrittura di Machiavelli. Roma: Salerno, 197–220.Google Scholar
Coby, Patrick J. 1999. Machiavelli's Romans: Liberty and Greatness in the Discourses on Livy. Lanham, MD: Lexington.Google Scholar
di Maria, Salvatore. 1992. “Machiavelli's Ironic View of History: The Istorie Fiorentine .” Renaissance Quarterly 45 (2): 248–70.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Felix. 1977. “Machiavelli‘s Istorie Fiorentine: An Essay in Interpretation,” in Gilbert, , History: Choice and Commitment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 135–53.Google Scholar
Hulliung, Mark. 1984. Citizen Machiavelli. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jurdjevic, Mark. 2014. A Great and Wretched City: Promise and Failure in Machiavelli's Florentine Political Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kahn, Victoria. 1986. “ Virtù and the Example of Agathocles in Machiavelli's Prince .” Representations 13 (Winter): 63–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leibovici, Martine. 2002. “From Fight to Debate: Machiavelli and the Revolt of the Ciompi.” Philosophy and Social Criticism 28 (6): 647–60.Google Scholar
Lukes, Timothy. 2000. “Descending to Particulars: The Palazzo, the Piazza and Machiavelli's Republican New Modes and Orders.” Journal of Politics 71 (2): 520–32.Google Scholar
Lynch, Christopher. 2006. “Machiavelli on Reading the Bible Judiciously.” Hebraic Political Studies 1 (2): 162–85.Google Scholar
Lynch, Christopher. 2012. “War and Foreign Affairs in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories ,” Review of Politics 74: 1–26.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolò. 1962. Istorie Fiorentine [1523], ed. Franco, Gaeta. Rome: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolò. 1995. Il Principe (De Principatibus) [1513], ed. Inglese, G.. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolò. 1997a. Discorsi [1513–9], ed. Vivanti, C.. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolò. 1997b. “Discursus Florentinarum Rerum Post Mortem Iunioris Laurentii Medicis” [1520]. In Opere I, ed. Vivanti, C.. Turin: Einaudi, 733–45.Google Scholar
Mansfield, Harvey C. 1996a. “An Introduction to Machiavelli's Florentine Histories .” In Machiavelli's Virtue, ed. Mansfield, H. C.. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 127–37.Google Scholar
Mansfield, Harvey C. 1996b. “Party and Sect in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories .” In Machiavelli's Virtue, ed. Mansfield, H. C.. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 137–75.Google Scholar
Mansfield, Harvey C. 2015. “Review of Mark Jurdjevic, A Great and Wretched City: Promise and Failure in Machiavelli's Florentine Political Thought .” Renaissance Quarterly 68 (1) (Spring 2015): 274–6.Google Scholar
Marietti, Marina. 2002. “Une Figure Emblematique: Michele di Lando vu par Maquiavel.” Chroniques 69/70: 129–38.Google Scholar
Martelli, Mario. 1996. “Machiavelli e Firenze dalla Repubblica al Principate.” In Niccolò Machiavelli: Politico Storico Letterato, ed. Marchand, J.-J.. Rome: Salerno, 15–31.Google Scholar
Martelli, Mario. 2006. Machiavelli's Il Principe. Roma: Salerno.Google Scholar
McCormick, John P. n.d. “On The Myth of a Conservative Turn in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories .” In Liberty and Conflict: Machiavelli on Politics and Power, eds. Urbinati, N., Johnston, D., and Vergara, C.. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
McCormick, John P. 2011. Machiavellian Democracy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Najemy, John M. 1982. “Machiavelli and the Medici: The Lessons of Florentine History.” Renaissance Quarterly 35 (4): 551–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, William B. 2016. Machiavelli's Gospel: The Critique of Christianity in The Prince. Rochester: Rochester.Google Scholar
Phillips, Mark. 1984. “Barefoot Boy Makes Good: A Study of Machiavelli's Historiography.” Speculum 59 (3): 585–605.Google Scholar
Quint, David. 2003. “Narrative Design and Historical Irony in Machiavelli's Istorie Fiorentine .” Rinascimento 43: 31–48.Google Scholar
Rebhorn, Wayne A. 1988. Foxes and Lions: Machiavelli's Confidence Men. Ithaca: Cornell.Google Scholar
Rodolico, Niccolò. 1905. La Democrazia Fiorentina nel suo Tramonto (1378-1382). Bologna: Zanichelli.Google Scholar
Rodolico, Niccolò. 1922. “The Struggle for the Right of Association in Fourteenth-Century Florence.” History 7 (27): 178–90.Google Scholar
Sasso, Gennaro. 1993. Niccolò Machiavelli, Vols. I–II. Bologna: Mulino.Google Scholar
Silvano, Giovanni. 1990. “Florentine Republicanism in the Sixteenth Century.” In Machiavelli and Republicanism, eds. Bock, G., Skinner, Q., and Viroli, M.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 41–70.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1958. Thoughts on Machiavelli. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1987. “Niccolò Machiavelli.” In History of Political Philosophy, eds. Strauss, L. and Cropsey, J.. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 296–7.Google Scholar
Suchowlansky, Mauricio. 2011. “Rhetoric of Violence in Machiavelli's Florentine Histories : The Exemplar of Michele di Lando.” http://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr/index.php?id=549.Google Scholar
Suchowlansky, Mauricio. 2015. “Machiavelli's Republicanisms: Society, Discord and the Politics of Equilibrium in the Florentine Histories.” Ph.D. dissertation, Political Science Department, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Viroli, Maurizio. 1998. Machiavelli. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Winter, Yves. 2012. “Plebeian Politics: Machiavelli and the Ciompi Uprising.” Political Theory 40 (6): 736–66.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.