[Born at Florence, 1469. Died there, 1527. Aged 58.]
For fourteen years, Machiavelli, born of a noble family, acted as
Secretary of the Florentine Republic, and was charged with several
important missions. Upon the return of the Medici to Florence in 1512,
he was implicated in a conspiracy formed against them, was imprisoned
and put to the torture. Subsequently released by Pope Leo X., he was
reinstated in his office. It was after his liberation that he wrote his
Discourses upon Livy, his books on the Art of War, and his celebrated
essay, called “The Prince.” Machiavelli, to our imagination, embodies in
his individual person the Idea of Italian political subtlety. His chief
work, already mentioned, “The Prince,” expounds the art of Reigning: _i.
e._ of acquiring and preserving Power;--of which art perfidy and murder
are, in this exposition, two accepted instruments. The prevalent
assumption has been that Machiavelli recommends the practice of the art,
such as he expounds it. Later vindicators have said that he describes,
without approving, the Art of Reigning as exercised by the Italian
princes of his day, and that his book is to be regarded as containing a
satire, and not a doctrine. The bust before the visitor may furnish
materials for the study of this curious question.
[From the bust in the Florence Gallery. A most interesting work of the
time, bearing the date 1495. An undoubted likeness of this celebrated
man. Full of character, with every indication of having been done from
the life, although the author is now unknown. Machiavelli’s tomb is in
St^{a}. Croce at Florence. Two centuries after his death, Lord Cowper,
in 1787, placed over it a bas-relief portrait which was paid for by
public subscription set on foot by Lord Cowper, and was executed by
Innocenzo Spinazzi.]