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1 A reference to St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (II, 2).
2 Material in brackets represents marginal notes from the original manuscript of the letter.
3 Dante, Inferno, IV, 16-18.
4 A play on words: rotolare (“to enroll”) refers to being placed on the pope’s list of dependents (rotulo).
5 A reference to Petrarch’s Triumphs (“Triumph of Eternity,” 1.13).
6 An allusion to a popular novella of the fifteenth century, Geta and Birria.
7 An allusion either to Machiavelli’s difficulties with the Medici after the collapse of the Florentine republic in 1512 or to the sack of Prato in 1512, which was administered at the time by Batista Guicciardini.
8 Gabburra was probably a well-known butcher.
9 Paradiso, V, 41-42.
10 Initially The Prince was dedicated to Giuliano de’ Medici, but after his death in 1516 the work was addressed to his successor, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino.
11 Machiavelli here refers to his former superior, Piero Soderini, and his brother, Cardinal Francesco Soderini, both of whom had received permission from the Medici Pope, Leo X, to reside in Rome. Machiavelli’s visit might have aroused Medici suspicion that he was in league with a Soderini-led republican plot.
12 One of the ardent Medici supporters and, therefore, a potential enemy of Machiavelli.
13 Pietro Ardinghelli, a papal secretary at Leo X’s court.
14 Many commentators believe this Brother Alberto to be the unworthy priest of Boccaccio’s Decameron (IV, 2). But since the other two priests referred to in the passage are identifiable historical figures (Brother Girolamo being Girolamo Savonarola and Pozzo being one of his adversaries), it is also possible that the Brother Alberto here referred to is Alberto da Orvieto, the priest sent to Florence by Pope Alexander VI in 1495. This man had advised the Borgia Pope, Savonarola’s most dangerous enemy, to summon Savonarola to Rome under some pretext in order to imprison him when he arrived. Both Boccaccio’s literary character and the historical figure would have reflected a perfect example of hypocrisy in a churchman.
15 This expression refers to the practice Charles followed in marking the houses that were to be used to quarter his troops during the invasion of Italy in 1494-1495. Machiavelli implies by this that Italian resistance to Charles’ invasion was nonexistent.
16 Aeneid, II, 563-564.
17 The Italian original, si guarda al fine, has often been mistranslated as “the ends justify the means,” something Machiavelli never wrote. For another important statement concerning ends and means, see Machiavelli’s remarks about Romulus in Discourses, I, ix.
18 Livy, IX, i.
19 Here Machiavelli refers to the battle of Fornovo (1495) and the taking of Alexandria (1499), Capua (1501), Genoa (1507), Vailà (1509), Bologna (1511), and Mestri (1513).
20 On April 11, 1512, the French were victorious under the leadership of Gaston de Foix.
21 From Petrarch’s famous canzone, “Italia mia” (11. 93-96).
22 Machiavelli here refers both to the constitutional changes in Florence after the suppression of a rebellion at Arezzo and to the return of the Medici and the fall of Soderini’s republic after the sack of Prato.
23 De Amicitia, xxv-xxvi.
24 This occurred between 1430 and 1433.
25 Here Machiavelli refers to the return of Cosimo de’ Medici from exile in 1434, and to his subsequent establishment of a system of government controlled by him, his family, and their partisans.
26 Compare this statement with Machiavelli’s remarks on ends and means in The Prince (XVIII).
27 The Ephors were five magistrates elected annually to oversee the affairs of state in Sparta.
28 Here Machiavelli alludes to the fact that the Roman emperors after Julius Caesar used his name as an honorific title, a practice that was continued until the twentieth century in the German title “kaiser” and the Russian title “czar.”
29 Purgatorio, VII, 121-123.
30 Livy, III, xx.
31 Luke 1:53. The citation actually refers to God in the Magnificat. Machiavelli has confused the passage with a description of King David.
32 The Histories, IV, iii.
33 Gonzalo Fernández de Cordoba
34 The material within quotation marks is a direct translation of the original; the remainder of the material within brackets is, as usual, a paraphrase of the balance of this chapter.
35 Livy, III, xxxv (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
36 Ibid.
37 Livy, III, xxxvi (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
38 Livy, III, xxxvii (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 Ferdinand III of Aragon, King of Naples.
42 Livy, III, liii (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
43 The Conspiracy of Catiline, LI.
44 Livy, IV, vi (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
45 Ibid.
46 Livy, VI, iv (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
47 Livy, VI, xx (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
48 Livy, XXIV, xxv (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
49 Here Machiavelli refers not to the republics of Italy, such as his native Florence, but to north European city-states in Germany and Switzerland.
&nbs
p; 50 The Hiero, an imaginary Socratic dialogue on tyranny with Hiero of Syracuse, a figure frequently cited by Machiavelli, serving as one of the interlocutors.
51 Machiavelli actually uses the Italian word gentile to mean “pagan” here and elsewhere.
52 Livy, VIII, iv (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
53 The technical aspects of this question, discussed at length by Machiavelli in The Art of War, are of little interest to the general reader. Selections from The Art of War included in this edition deal with the more general problem of the imitation of the ancients and the description of an ideal military leader.
54 Livy, VII, xxxviii (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
55 Juvenal, Satires, VI. 291-292 (cited by Machiavelli in Latin). Here, as elsewhere, Machiavelli generally cites from the classics in a less than scholarly fashion. In this instance he has added gluttony to Juvenal’s text, which only mentions luxury.
56 Livy, VIII, xiii (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
57 Ibid.
58 Livy, VIII, xxi (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
59 Juvenal, Satires, VIII, 124 (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
60 Vergil, Aeneid, I, 150 (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
61 Livy, V, xxxvii (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
62 A reference to Livy, V, xlix (although Machiavelli adds the remark about Fortune to his paraphrase of Livy’s original Latin).
63 Livy, XXIII, xiii (an Italian paraphrase of the Latin original).
64 The decemvirs were actually exiled, not put to death.
65 Satires, X, 112-113 (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
66 The historical accounts of Justin and Plutarch credit this conspiracy to Hellanicus and do not mention a Nelematus.
67 Herodotus credits this plot to Otanes, not Ortanes.
68 Machiavelli may here have confused Sitalces with Cypselus, tyrant of Corinth.
69 Livy, XXXV, xxxv (cited by Machiavelli in Latin).
70 Hipparchus, not Diocles, ruled Athens with Hippias. Machiavelli here repeats an error found in Justin, his source.
71 Annals, III, Iv (cited by Machiavelli in the original Latin).
72 The Prince, XVII.
73 Livy, VII, x (cited by Machiavelli in the original Latin).
74 Livy, VII, xxxiii (cited by Machiavelli in the original Latin).
75 Livy, III, xxvi (cited by Machiavelli in the original Latin).
76 Ibid., III, xxix (cited by Machiavelli in the original Latin).
77 Livy, V, xxviii (cited by Machiavelli in the original Latin).
78 Rappresentazione di San Giovanni e Paolo.
79 Livy, IX, iii (cited by Machiavelli in the original Latin).
80 The Verrucola is a mountain range near Pisa.
81 Good day, professor.
82 A good day to you, counselor.
83 to our business
84 The various causes of sterility can reside either in the semen, in the womb, in the testicles, in the penis, or in some extrinsic cause.
85 The urine of the woman is always heavier and off-white and less limpid than that of the man. This fact is due to the greater width of her urinary tract and the presence of materials in the liquid that leave the womb along with the urine.
86 Here Machiavelli refers to the gibe at Lucca’s reputation for barratry he had read about in Dante’s Inferno, XXI, 41. Bonturo Dati was apparently the most corrupt official in Lucca at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
87 Balìa refers to the extraordinary powers temporarily bestowed upon a commission set up to deal with a crisis. It was not intended to replace normal institutions but rather to supplement them in difficult times.
88 This building, although acquired in 1549 by Eleonora of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, is still known as the Pitti Palace, which houses one of the most important art collections in Italy.
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