While we’ve been studying the Italian Renaissance in history, we’ve been reading Machiavelli’s The Prince for government.
OUR CLASSICAL STUDY METHOD
We’ve also been reading literature and studying art of the era.
I love learning this way because each separate component supports the other, magnifying the depth of meaning of the whole.
16TH CENTURY ITALY SUFFERED FROM CONFLICTS WITHIN AND WITHOUT
Historically we read about the conflicts between the Italian city-states as well as the individuals who participated in the unfolding drama of control.
From popes to merchants to artists we saw how they vied against one another or supported each other in various combinations.
Conflicts from abroad heightened the tensions.
Enter The Prince.
I DISAGREE WITH MOST COMMENTARIES ON THE PRINCE
Reading this book in context of history, I don’t agree with the commentaries that I read about The Prince, accosting Machiavelli for his evil, ruthless spirit.
If I had read the book in isolation, I might have thought that.
However, I’ve been studying world history sequentially for the last five years in context of all the humanities.
Instead, I thought Machiavelli was extremely well-versed in history.
1961 TRANSLATION RECOMMENDATION
My highly recommended text is a 2003 reissue translated by George Bill with a forward by Anthony Grafton, originally printed in 1961.
The following quotes, in italics, are from this edition.
MACHIAVELLI’S TRUE DISTINCTION
The Prince is a point by point analysis of history, matter of factly listing what worked and didn’t work for those who conquered and those who tried to conquer, while giving lots of examples from history.
Machiavelli’s distinction does not come from the fact that he wrote a militaristic catalogue, because many others have done the same.
Many humanists before him, from Petrarch onwards, had addressed the topic of the ideal prince. Like Machiavelli, they had discussed the way in which such a prince should be educated, the moral and intellectual qualities he needed most, and how he should deal with his subjects. Their works were crammed, like Machiavelli’s, with classical examples of good and bad conduct, which they drew from ancient biographers and historians. -Introduction to The Prince, Grafton, xxii
While these earlier analysists discussed general ethical principles…Machiavelli, by contrast, boldly claimed that he would treat politics as it really is. -Introduction to The Prince, Grafton, xxii
MACHIAVELLI AND THE PRINCE TO WHOM HE WROTE, LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT SUFFERED FROM CONSTANT WARFARE
Machiavelli dedicated his treatise to Lorenzo the Magnificent, head of the di Medici family and Florence in the 16th century, a time of warfare from within and without.
Thus, Italy struggled to unify, due to divisive Italian states, powerful popes, and invading countries that wove a network of political intrigue.
Constantly looking over their shoulders, no one knew if spies or assassins lurked.
Wow!
DEFINE VIRTUE
Another difference in this genre of catalogue is the discussion of virtue.
While earlier writers focused on a gentle overall sense of goodness, Machiavelli also spoke of virtue, constantly. But he used the term ‘virtue’ in many senses, including that of basic ability needed…to keep control of one’s subjects and one’s kingdoms. Accordingly, Machiavelli often told the reader that qualities traditionally considered as ‘virtuous’, in the Christian or feudal senses, were not virtuous at all in a prince. Liberality, for example, was one of the best-established of princely virtues. Yet if pursued seriously, it must lead to lavishness, to ostentation, to the wasting of the prince’s substance and the oppression of his subjects, and in the end, to the prince’s being despised and hated by them. –Introduction to The Prince, Grafton, xxiii
PROTECTING A COUNTRY FOR ITS CITIZENS TO LIVE IN PEACE
Looking forward, the Founders understood this.
Because of hearkening to the call during the Great Awakening, virtue was instilled in them.
Yet, when they formed our country with the Constitution, they wrote of the need for the federal government to protect our borders from enemies, which is why there is a vetting system…common to most countries of the world for this very same reason.
Not to protect borders is tyranny.
Who wants to lose their home, livelihood, security, freedom?
From reading the book, that appeared to be the type of virtue Machiavelli described, because the city state of Florence needed to protect its borders.
A prince who truly understood ‘virtue’ – in the sense of the qualities needed to perpetuate his state and his own power – would prefer the ‘vice’ of meanness to the ‘virtue’ of liberality. –Introduction to The Prince, Grafton, xxiii
Since Machiavelli lived in a day when every country was ruled by a monarch, there was no republic like we have in America, hence the word choices and philosophical outlook.
Yet, the concept of border protection is integral to the security of any country, or it will be taken over by another.
BOLDNESS
In general, Machiavelli insisted, the bold would succeed better than the hesitant. -Introduction to The Prince, Grafton, xxv
And that is how wars are won or lost…over who controls the borders.
MERCY TO THE PEOPLE
Yet Machiavelli himself…admitted that a ruler could not slaughter his fellow citizens indiscriminately even if doing so proved effective. –Introduction to The Prince, Grafton, xxiii
Machiavelli…tried to teach his readers that they must not look for hard-and-fast rules, but learn to think their way subtly into each different political situation and its requirements. -Introduction to The Prince, Grafton, xxviii
Generations of readers in courts and universities learned from him to scrutinize the making of political decisions with a hard new realism and a clear sense that some forms of deceit are not to be avoided by any ruler who hopes to survive. -Introduction to The Prince, Grafton, xxviii
READING THE PRINCE FULLY SUPPORTS THESE CONCEPTS
In a day when fewer people read books and only take someone else’s word for it, it’s imperative to read these original sources in their truest original intent and publication.
As the kids and I read the book, especially while reading 16th century Italian history, nothing Machiavelli wrote matched the attacks levied against him.
Instead, reading the book fully supports everything I’ve quoted from the text.
My kids and I enjoyed The Prince…and we even had a wonderful time talking to Patrick Henry of Colonial Williamsburg about it!
MISGUIDED COMMENTARIES
Not surprised that the internet abounds with misguided interpretations of Machiavelli, even by so-called “experts”, this is the Post-modern Era, where everyone creates their own definition to suit them.
Sadly, even our “not so great classical history curriculum that I rewrite weekly”, took this path.
Even worse, this classical history curriculum even advises moms NOT to read beyond the self-contained notes within their curriculum…which defies the very definition of classical education.
A classical education enables a student to learn logic while reading real books about history and literature, to learn to think for oneself.
No wonder Machiavelli’s The Prince is on the rhetoric level reading list in classical education.
