machiavelli

The Concept of the

Renaissance



Federico Chabod

The Traditional Concept

 The problem of Continuity

 Fustel de Coulanges and his theory on the

Barbarian invaders (tabula rasa)

 The theory of continuity against the theory of

things “as they have occurred” (effects and

dangers of each theory in itself) p. 151

 The traditional concepts: Middle Ages and

Renaissance

 The praesens tempus and media aetas according

to Italians of the XIV and XV (Boccaccio, C.

Salutati, L. Valla, L. Bruni)

 As the city of Rome perished at the hands of the perverse and

tyrannical emperors, so did Latin studies and literature

undergo similar ruin and diminution . . . And Italy was

invaded by the Goths and Longobards, barbarous, uncouth

people, who practically extinguished all knowledge of

literature.

Leonardo Bruni





All statues and paintings were smashed and torn . . . And thus

were destroyed not only statues and paintings, but the books

and commentaries and handbooks and rules on which men

relied for their training in this great and excellent and gentle

art

Lorenzo Ghiberti

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椀漀渀

䌀                                                         

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 Vasari : criticism of the Christians but not of the

faith. His is an aesthetic criticism

 Voltaire: antipathy for Catholicism : it is the “guilt”

of religion, responsible for medieval obscurantism

(furor against the papacy’s power during the Middle

Ages - spirit of the Reformation)

 Voltaire echoes Ghiberti’s and Vasari’s opinions

about the fall of the Roman empire, the advent of

Christianity and the barbarism of the northern

invaders

 These opinions are amplified by modern historians:

Michelet, Burckhardt, Spaventa, Dilthey and Gentile

 Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien represents the

period as a sudden emergence of genius in the

middle of a cultural and artistic desert. Isolation of

the Renaissance (no sense of historical continuity)

Imitation of Classical Models

 Opinion expressed by the artists of the time. The

Renaissance has its origin when the

“glorious minds that sprang from the soil of Tuscany . . .

(turn to the ancient ruins of Rome and start)

distinguishing very clearly the good from the bad and

forsaking the old styles, they began once more to imitate,

to the limit of their energies and abilities, the styles

affected by the ancients . . .” Giorgio Vasari



Belief that the ancients had exercised a direct

influence on the rebirth of Art and Literature

was general (a direct consequence of numerous

archeological excavations)

New Critical Approaches

 The theory of continuity applied to the Middle

Ages and Renaissance

 Middle Ages: rich in variety, stimulated by many

problems, interests and aspirations; a restless age,

full of exuberant life

 Is the Renaissance a new phenomenon, with

features of its own, or is it a broadening (not very

original) of already present motifs and ideals?

 First step: distinguish between every-day-life and

the LIFE OF THE MIND, the theoretical

formulation of a CONSCIOUSNESS (man’s

thoughts and ideas)

Renaissance

 The term is used to describe a MOBILIZATION OF

IDEAS which is primarily

 ARTISTIC

 LITERARY

 CULTURAL

 The Renaissance as an “INTELLECTUAL” reality,

not as a “PHYSICAL” one

 An intellectual construction in which human

designs and actions conform to an ideal system,

to a spiritual creed, to a program of life

 Only when transformed in a complete, theoretical

affirmation, a practical truth becomes a

theoretical precept, a law explicitly credited with

a universal validity

 Vix scio quae fuerim, vix Roma recordor; vix sinit

occasus vel neminisse mei. Par tibi, Roma, nihil cum sos

prope tota ruina.

Hildebrand de Lavardin (Le Mans, 1106)

 Nichil actum fore potavi, si que legendo didiceram, non

aggrederer exercendo.

Cola di Rienzo (1350)

 Nos . . . Volentes et desiderantes . . . Voluntates,

benignitates, et liberalitates antiquorum romanorum

principium . . . imitari.

Decree of the sovereignity of the Roman People I August

1347

 Imitatio - legere becomes exercere. Instead of an elegy,

there is a determination to revive the ancient splendors

and glories of Rome

 Men must imitate the ancients “in matters calling for

strength and vigor . . . (they must adopt) the true and

perfect ways of antiquity, not the false and corrupt.

Niccolò Machiavelli (L’arte della guerra)

 Limitation of Medieval thought

a) the relationship between God and man;

b) the Christian and Augustinian sense of sin and

grace (religious conception of the world)

 The Classic authors remained ornaments in the

works of the Middle Ages, intended to give luster

to the moral and spiritual ways of the medieval

philosophers (Dante?)



 Il est remarquable . . . que pendant la période la plus

radieuse de la Renaissance les types iconographiques

“transmis” et donc altérés, - soient presque partout

abandonnés au profit des types ‘retrouvés’ dans leur

pureté première.

J. Seznec, La survivance des dieux antiques

 For the Medieval scholar, Rome was

imitable, but only as Christian Rome, capital

of Christianity



 The Renaissance viewed Rome as the ideal

moment in human history, in which the

highest aspirations of mankind were

realized. Imitation becomes a pattern of life

Realism and Individualism

 In the Middle Ages realism is episodic, emotional.

The detail is realistic, but the general conception is

not. The Prime Mover of life and human history is

located outside the world and the destinies of men

are determined by the will of God.

 The sensibility is ‘human’ and ‘mundane’, but the

spirit is nourished by an inner life located outside

carnal humanity

 Medieval and Renaissance historical descriptions?

What is the difference? (177)

 The “conceptual” (vs “impressionistic”)realism of

Guicciardini and Machiavelli

 The realistic description of physical traits is

undertaken only if it serves to complete the “moral”

description (178)

 Renaissance Realism

 Villani’s (medieval chronicler) Historiae

Fiorentine

a) passionate moral appeals (God, devil etc.).

b) no interpretation, no sense of human

“individuality”

 Machiavelli’s Historiae Fiorentine

a) no supernatural presence

b) man is the primary agent of history

c) the supernatural as fatality, casualty

d) natural “deterministic” realism (sins are political

not moral)

 Machiavelli’s political realism is not concerned

with “right” and “wrong,” “good” and “evil”

But since it is my purpose to write what may be useful to those who

need it, I have thought it more fitting to concern myself with the effective

reality of things than with speculation. For many have imagined republics

(Plato) and principates which have never been seen or known to exist in

reality.

Machiavelli Il principe







 Political realism: How things are, not how things

should be



 No supernatural Will to explain the immediate

causes of events

Art in the Renaissance

 Aim of the medieval artist is the glorification of

the Creator (Theophilus, Schedula diversarum

artium)

 Renaissance artist (L. B. Alberti, Della pittura)

a) is conscious of the intrinsic merit of an artwork

b) aims at creating the beautiful and immortal

c) glorification of humanity and its achievements

d) Nature is imitated (scientifically) per se, not as

a mirror of God’s power

 Liberation of the artist from every restriction that

is not dictated by artistic reason

 The world becomes a synthesis of lines, volumes

and colors

Novelty of the Renaissance

 Realism and individualism (from Alberti to

Machiavelli, Ariosto and Galileo) lead to the

affirmation of the complete autonomy of art,

politics, science and history



 Ars gratia artis



 The typically medieval conception of the

world in which no branch of human activity

could be considered independent from life as

a whole is abandoned

Man and God

 Main issues raised by the new system

a) how can Nature be reconciled with the excellence

of man

b) how to reconcile man and Nature with God

 Art and politics are no longer serving a supernatural

purpose but ethics still is!

 The idea of a purely rational ethic, independent from

religion, is unthinkable

 Ethics concern itself with the question: how things

ought to be (vs. how things are)

 The need to justify the world and existence, nature

and creature, will and fortune, brings man back to

the idea of a transcendent God of humanity

The Treatise as Genre

 A treatise is a prose work that analyzes a problem in all its

aspects. It is the demonstration of a thesis whose validity

results from the confutation of all other antitheses

 The themes can range from politics, to aesthetics, to science

 It derives directly from the Greek and Roman tradition,

from Plato’s Dialogues, where a group of thinkers that

debate their individual philosophical positions

 The treatise can have a dialogical form, that becomes a

lively debate, or can be discursive, presenting different

arguments and contrasting perspectives

 Popularity of the treatise a) the rediscovery of the classics

b) exemplary form of discussion and expression of ideas

c) the necessity to theorize and form a new model of man

d) the projection on the page of a human res publica whose

aim is the education of free thinking human beings

Niccolò Machiavelli

 1469 Born in Florence

 1498 Is elected secretary of the Florentine Republic

 1500 Is sent as envoy to the King of France, Louis XII

 1501 Marries Marietta Corsini; will have six children

 1502 Envoy to Cesare Borgia, at Urbino and Imola

 1503 Is sent to Rome for the Conclave (Pious III)

 1506 Works for the republic and organizes its army

 1507-11 Travels to Tyrol (Maximilian), then to Blois, to meet Louis

XII. Later he travels to Munich and France

 1512 The Holy League of Modena decides the return of the Medici

to Florence. He is banned from the city for a year

 1513 Imprisoned and tortured. Begins to write The Prince

 1515-16 Offers The Prince to Lorenzo de’ Medici

 1519 Composes The Art of War

 1525 Completes the eight volumes of the Florentine Chronicles

 1527 After the sack of Rome, Florence returns to the Republic. He

dies on June 21

The Prince and Its Ideology

 A negative evaluation of human nature

 The conviction of human nature’s immutability

 The necessity to keep these data in mind if one wants to enter a

political career (Realpolitik)

 The usefulness of examples taken from the past

 At the light of his lucid realism, politica activity becomes a science

whose core is the foundation and maintenance of the state

 Political actions shall not be evaluated on the basis of a moral code

but keeping in mind the principle of utility and congruence with

that given objective (previous point)

 Virtues are therefore: cruelty, dissimulation, murder etc.

 Net separation between moral and political judgement

differentiates The Prince from previous treatises (mirror of prince)

popular during the Middle Ages (catalogues of moral virtues)

 Contrasting aspects of Machiavelli’s thought:

a) the theorization of an absolute power (The prince)

b) his sympathy for the democratic government (The Discourses)

The Structure of The Prince

Chapters I - XI Typology of Principalities and

problems related to each of them

Chapters XII - XIV Mercenary and volunteer militias



Chapters XV - XIX Virtues and attitudes of a Prince



Chapters XX - XXIII Precepts of various kind



Chapter XXIV Responsibilities of Italian Princes



Chapter XXV Virtue and Fortune



Chapter XXVI Exhortation to liberate Italy

 XI Ecclesiastical Principalities

a) Reasons why Ecclesiastical Principalities are secure and

happy

b) Why are E.P. so powerful now when they once were not

c) Present history: Alexander VI - Julius II - Leo X

 XII Militia and Mercenary Soldiers

a) Chief foundations of a state

b) Different kinds of arms

c) Mercenaries (proof of reality)

d) What kind of sins have the Italian princes committed

e) Overview of the Quattrocento (church and princes)

 XIII Auxiliary and Native Troops

a) Definition

b) Why are they worse than mercenaries

c) The symbolic meaning of David’s biblical story

d) “But men with their lack of prudence initiate novelties and, finding

the first taste good, do not notice the poison within.”

 XIV The Duties of a Prince in Regard to the Militia

a) Main objective of a Prince

b) Armed vs unarmed

c) The art of war in peace time

d) Knowledge of hardship and territory

e) Imitation and study

 XV Of the Things for which Men, especially Princes, are

Praised or Blamed

a) Concept of reality

b) What ought to be done (consequences)

c) Know hows for a Prince

d) Good and bad virtues (reversed value)

 XVI Of Liberality and Niggardliness

a) Praise of the miserly Prince (good vice)

 XVII Of Cruelty and Clemency

a) Reasons for being cruel (consequences of leniency)

b) To be feared or loved

 c) Description of humanity

d) Hannibal’s example and the historians

e) “Men love of their own free will but fear at the will of the prince.”

 XVIII In What Way Must Princes Keep Faith

a) Experience contradicts good intentions

b) The beast and the man

c) Broken promises

d) Deceivers and deceived

e) Alexander VI’s example

f) “It is not, therefore, necessary for a prince to have all the above-

named qualities, but it is necessary to seem to have them.”

g) To be or to appear to be

h) Mercy, faith, integrity, humanity, religion

Machiavelli and Fortuna

 Fortuna as ambiguous concept in M.?

 Characteristics of Fortuna (images used)

 What is the role of religion in a state (religio

instrumentum regni)



 What is virtue for Machiavelli?

 Are man’s virtue, intelligence, energy

enough to create and shape history?

 Can man achieve anything by himself?

 Where is God in his philosophy of man