History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy Read online

  Project Gutenberg Etext History of Florence and>, by Machiavelli

  #4 in our series by Machiavelli

  Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check

  the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!!

  Please take a look at the important information in this header.

  We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an

  electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this.

  **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**

  **Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**

  *These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*

  Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and

  further information is included below. We need your donations.

  HISTORY OF FLORENCE

  AND OF THE AFFAIRS OF ITALY

  FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE

  DEATH OF LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT

  by Niccolo Machiavelli

  January, 2001 [Etext #2464]

  Project Gutenberg Etext History of Florence and>, by Machiavelli

  ******This file should be named hflit10.txt or hflit10.zip******

  Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, hflit11.txt

  VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, hflit10a.txt

  Etext prepared by John Bickers, [email protected]

  and Dagny, [email protected]

  Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,

  all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a

  copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any

  of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition.

  We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance

  of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.

  Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till

  midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.

  The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at

  Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A

  preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment

  and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an

  up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes

  in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has

  a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a

  look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a

  new copy has at least one byte more or less.

  Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)

  We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The

  time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours

  to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright

  searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This

  projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value

  per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2

  million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text

  files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+

  If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the

  total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year.

  The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext

  Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]

  This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,

  which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users.

  At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third

  of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we

  manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly

  from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an

  assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few

  more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we

  don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person.

  We need your donations more than ever!

  All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are

  tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie-

  Mellon University).

  For these and other matters, please mail to:

  Project Gutenberg

  P. O. Box 2782

  Champaign, IL 61825

  When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director:

  Michael S. Hart

  [email protected] forwards to [email protected] and archive.org

  if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if

  it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . .

  We would prefer to send you this information by email.

  ******

  To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser

  to view http://promo.net/pg. This site lists Etexts by

  author and by title, and includes information about how

  to get involved with Project Gutenberg. You could also

  download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here. This

  is one of our major sites, please email [email protected],

  for a more complete list of our various sites.

  To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any

  Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror

  sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed

  at http://promo.net/pg).

  Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better.

  Example FTP session:

  ftp sunsite.unc.edu

  login: anonymous

  password: your@login

  cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg

  cd etext90 through etext99

  dir [to see files]

  get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]

  GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99]

  GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books]

  ***

  **Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**

  (Three Pages)

  ***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***

  Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.

  They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with

  your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from

  someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our

  fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement

  disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how

  you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.

  *BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT

  By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm

  etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept

  this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive

  a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by

  sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person

  you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical

  medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your r
equest.

  ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS

  This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-

  tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor

  Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at

  Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other

  things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright

  on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and

  distribute it in the United States without permission and

  without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth

  below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext

  under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.

  To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable

  efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain

  works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any

  medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other

  things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or

  corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other

  intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged

  disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer

  codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.

  LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES

  But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,

  [1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this

  etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all

  liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including

  legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR

  UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,

  INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE

  OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE

  POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

  If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of

  receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)

  you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that

  time to the person you received it from. If you received it

  on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and

  such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement

  copy. If you received it electronically, such person may

  choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to

  receive it electronically.

  THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER

  WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS

  TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT

  LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A

  PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

  Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or

  the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the

  above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you

  may have other legal rights.

  INDEMNITY

  You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,

  officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost

  and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or

  indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:

  [1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,

  or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.

  DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"

  You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by

  disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this

  "Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,

  or:

  [1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this

  requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the

  etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however,

  if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable

  binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,

  including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-

  cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as

  *EITHER*:

  [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and

  does *not* contain characters other than those

  intended by the author of the work, although tilde

  (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may

  be used to convey punctuation intended by the

  author, and additional characters may be used to

  indicate hypertext links; OR

  [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at

  no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent

  form by the program that displays the etext (as is

  the case, for instance, with most word processors);

  OR

  [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at

  no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the

  etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC

  or other equivalent proprietary form).

  [2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this

  "Small Print!" statement.

  [3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the

  net profits you derive calculated using the method you

  already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you

  don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are

  payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon

  University" within the 60 days following each

  date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)

  your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.

  WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?

  The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,

  scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty

  free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution

  you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg

  Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".

  We are planning on making some changes in our donation structure

  in 2000, so you might want to email me, [email protected] beforehand.

  *END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

  Etext prepared by John Bickers, [email protected]

  and Dagny, [email protected]

  HISTORY OF FLORENCE

  AND OF THE AFFAIRS OF ITALY

  FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE

  DEATH OF LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT

  by NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

  With an Introduction by

  HUGO ALBERT RENNERT, Ph.D.

  Professor of Romanic Languages and Literature,

  University of Pennsylvania.

  PREPARER'S NOTE

  This text was typed up from a Universal Classics Library edition,

  published in 1901 by W. Walter Dunne, New York and London. The

  translator was not named. The book contains a "photogravure" of

  Niccolo Machiavelli from an engraving.

  INTRODUCTION

  Niccolo Machiavelli, the first great Italian historian, and one of the

  most eminent political writers of any age or country, was born at

  Florence, May 3, 1469. He was of an old though not wealthy Tuscan

  family, his father, who was a jurist, dying when Niccolo was sixteen

  years old. We know nothing of Machiavelli'
s youth and little about his

  studies. He does not seem to have received the usual humanistic

  education of his time, as he knew no Greek.[*] The first notice of

  Machiavelli is in 1498 when we find him holding the office of

  Secretary in the second Chancery of the Signoria, which office he

  retained till the downfall of the Florentine Republic in 1512. His

  unusual ability was soon recognized, and in 1500 he was sent on a

  mission to Louis XII. of France, and afterward on an embassy to C�sar

  Borgia, the lord of Romagna, at Urbino. Machiavelli's report and

  description of this and subsequent embassies to this prince, shows his

  undisguised admiration for the courage and cunning of C�sar, who was a

  master in the application of the principles afterwards exposed in such

  a skillful and uncompromising manner by Machiavelli in his /Prince/.

  The limits of this introduction will not permit us to follow with any

  detail the many important duties with which he was charged by his

  native state, all of which he fulfilled with the utmost fidelity and

  with consummate skill. When, after the battle of Ravenna in 1512 the

  holy league determined upon the downfall of Pier Soderini,

  Gonfaloniere of the Florentine Republic, and the restoration of the

  Medici, the efforts of Machiavelli, who was an ardent republican, were

  in vain; the troops he had helped to organize fled before the

  Spaniards and the Medici were returned to power. Machiavelli attempted

  to conciliate his new masters, but he was deprived of his office, and

  being accused in the following year of participation in the conspiracy

  of Boccoli and Capponi, he was imprisoned and tortured, though

  afterward set at liberty by Pope Leo X. He now retired to a small

  estate near San Casciano, seven miles from Florence. Here he devoted

  himself to political and historical studies, and though apparently

  retired from public life, his letters show the deep and passionate

  interest he took in the political vicissitudes through which Italy was

  then passing, and in all of which the singleness of purpose with which

  he continued to advance his native Florence, is clearly manifested. It

  was during his retirement upon his little estate at San Casciano that

  Machiavelli wrote /The Prince/, the most famous of all his writings,

  and here also he had begun a much more extensive work, his /Discourses

  on the Decades of Livy/, which continued to occupy him for several

  years. These /Discourses/, which do not form a continuous commentary

  on Livy, give Machiavelli an opportunity to express his own views on

  the government of the state, a task for which his long and varied

  political experience, and an assiduous study of the ancients rendered

  him eminently qualified. The /Discourses/ and /The Prince/, written at

  the same time, supplement each other and are really one work. Indeed,

  the treatise, /The Art of War/, though not written till 1520 should be

  mentioned here because of its intimate connection with these two

  treatises, it being, in fact, a further development of some of the

  thoughts expressed in the /Discorsi/. /The Prince/, a short work,

  divided into twenty-six books, is the best known of all Machiavelli's

  writings. Herein he expresses in his own masterly way his views on the

  founding of a new state, taking for his type and model C�sar Borgia,

  although the latter had failed in his schemes for the consolidation of

  his power in the Romagna. The principles here laid down were the

  natural outgrowth of the confused political conditions of his time.

  And as in the /Principe/, as its name indicates, Machiavelli is

  concerned chiefly with the government of a Prince, so the /Discorsi/

  treat principally of the Republic, and here Machiavelli's model

  republic was the Roman commonwealth, the most successful and most

  enduring example of popular government. Free Rome is the embodiment of