Discorsi machiavelli wikipedia biography

In , he was sent to Naples to study law , but he soon turned to literature instead. He devoted himself to the study of classical literature , to satisfy his interest in the ancient world. In he received the minor orders from the Bishop of Lecce Braccio Martelli, who appointed him a canon of Lecce Cathedral. He afterwards travelled about Italy in quest of occupation; he resided some time at Rome , Padua and Venice , where he became secretary to Alessandro Contarini, a Venetian patrician, and became acquainted with Sperone Speroni , Vittoria Colonna , and Pietro Aretino.

He took refuge in his native Lecce where in he founded the Accademia dei Trasformati. In his native country Ammirato was temporarily employed by several noblemen, and was sent by the Archbishop of Naples on a mission to Pope Pius V. It was a flourishing period in the history of papal Rome. He entered the patronage network of the reforming churchman Girolamo Seripando , to whom he dedicated the philosophical dialogue Il Dedalione o ver del poeta.

He then went initially to Naples but was not supported by the Spanish who refused to appoint him official historian of the viceroyalty. In he fixed his residence at Florence, where the Grand Duke Cosimo I offered him a position as state historiographer at the respectable salary of scudi a year, and Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici gave him the use of his own country house at La Petraia.

In he was made canon of the Cathedral of Florence. At his death, he made his secretary , Cristoforo del Bianco, his heir on condition that del Bianco should adopt the name of Ammirato. Accordingly, he is known as Scipione Ammirato the younger. Several of Ammirato's works were edited after his death by del Bianco. Ammirato invoked Tacitus to refute Machiavelli's secular republicanism and composed his Discorsi as a counter to Machiavelli 's Discourses on Livy.

Rather than adjust religion to fit themselves, he writes, men, and especially princes, must adjust laws to fit religion, «since in the nature of men in the fields and the caverns, before cities were built, there was a belief in God sooner than there were civil gatherings, on behalf of which laws were made; because it would not otherwise be necessary to say that religion should accommodate to civil life, than who might say that seasons of the year should change to fit individuals rather than the other way round.

Ammirato defines the reason of state as:. The reason of state should always have the good of the public as its aim and have to be compatible with religion. Ammirato accepted the derogation from the dictates of natural and positive law only when the preservation of the state was at stake, but rejected as a sign of tyranny any infringement of laws on the grounds of desire for glory or private interest.

Ammirato made it clear, however, that though reason of state might authorize a ruler to set aside positive law, it did not permit him to act in violation of divine law. The work is notable for its "Tacitean" style, concise to the point of obscurity. Ammirato intermixes modern examples with ancient ones, to make it clear, as he says in one of his Discorsi , that the truth of things is not changed by the difference of times.

Ammirato's Discorsi sopra Cornelio Tacito went through four Italian editions before and two more at the beginning of the next century. They were translated into Latin for the benefit of German readers in and and appeared in French translations twice in and in , , and Thomas Hobbes was surely acquainted with his work, [ 21 ] and Thomas Gordon 's commentaries on Tacitus owed much to the work of Malvezzi , Ammirato and Alamos de Barrientos.

The Istorie Fiorentine , were published in two parts. In Scipione Ammirato the younger published a second and improved edition of the first part, with additions, in 2 vols. The Istorie may not be a great imaginative work, but it is securely based on original archive sources, many of which had been previously inaccessible. Ammirato left several manuscript works, among others a continuation of the Monte Cassino Chronicle , and his own autobiography, which is kept in the library of Santa Maria la Nuova of Florence.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Notes [ edit ]. Great Minds Machiavelli biography. Institute for the Study of Western Civilization. Retrieved 8 January The letters of Machiavelli, a selection of his letters in English and Italian. New York, Capricorn Books. ISBN Retrieved 24 May Translated by Villari, Linda.

The Courtesan's Arts. References [ edit ]. Page Talk. Read Change Change source View history. Tools Tools. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Machiavelli: The Chief Works and Others treatises, history, dramas, biography, and prose , three volumes, A Florentine statesman and political theorist, Machiavelli remains one of the most controversial figures of political history.

While addressing a wide range of political and historical topics, as well as embracing strictly literary forms, he has come to be identified almost exclusively with his highly controversial manual of state Il principe The Prince. This straightforward, pragmatic treatise on political conduct and the application of power has, over the centuries, been variously hailed, denounced, and distorted.

Seldom has a single work generated such divergent and fierce commentary from such a wide assortment of writers. Commenting on Machiavelli's colorful critical heritage, T. Eliot has remarked that no great man has been so completely misunderstood. Machiavelli was born in Florence to an established though not particularly affluent middle-class family whose members had traditionally filled responsible positions in local government.

While little of the author's early life has been documented, it is known that as a boy he learned Latin and that he quickly became an assiduous reader of the ancient classics. Among these, he highly prized his copy of Livy's history of the Roman Republic.

Discorsi machiavelli wikipedia biography

Machiavelli's first recorded involvement in the volatile Florentine political scene occurred in , when he helped the political faction that deposed Girolamo Savonarola, then the dominant religious and political figure in Florence. In the same year Machiavelli was appointed to the second chancery of the republic. As chancellor and secretary to the Ten of Liberty and Peace, a sensitive government agency dealing chiefly with warfare and foreign affairs, Machiavelli participated both in domestic politics and in diplomatic missions to foreign governments.

These posts afforded him innumerable opportunities over the next fourteen years to closely examine the inner workings of government and to meet prominent individuals, among them Cesare Borgia, who furnished the young diplomat with the major profile in leadership for The Prince. Machiavelli quickly gained political prominence and influence; by he was a well-respected assistant to the republican gonfalonier, or head of state, Piero Soderini.

In , Spanish forces invaded Italy and the Florentine political climate changed abruptly. The Medici for centuries the rulers of Florence, but exiled since seized the opportunity to depose Soderini and replace the republican government with their own autocratic regime. Machiavelli was purged from office, jailed and tortured for his well-known republican sentiments, and finally banished to his country residence in Percussina.

Machiavelli spent the enforced retirement writing the small body of political writings that insured his literary immortality. Completed between and , Discorsi Livius and The Prince were not published until after Machiavelli's death, in and respectively. Around he turned from discursive prose to drama in La mandragola Mandragola ; it, like the author's other writings, is firmly predicated on an astute, unsentimental awareness of human nature as flawed and given to self-centeredness.

The play was popular with audiences throughout much of Italy for several years.