Viella Historical Research 7

Machiavelli’s PrinceTraditions, Text and Translations

edited by Nicola Gardini and Martin McLaughlin

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Copyright © 2017 - Viella s.r.l.All rights reservedFirst edition: settembre 2017ISBN 978-88-6728-843-4

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Contents

NICOLA GARDINI, MARTIN MCLAUGHLINIntroduction 9

I. TraditionsROBERT BLACK

The Prince and the Political Thinker 19

RICCARDO FUBINI(Re-)Constructing Order: Prudence and Will in The Prince 39

MARIO DOMENICHELLI“Vita, militia: uel Togata, uel Armata”: Machiavelli’s téchne politiké 49

WILLIAM LANDONBridging the Supposed Chasm: Tyranny, Republicanism and Lucretius’ Influence on The Prince and the Discourses 63

CLAUDIA BONSIBehind The Prince: Machiavelli as the Transcriber of the “Consulte e pratiche” of the Florentine Republic 81

CORINNE MANCHIOIntertextuality between The Prince and the Legazioni e Commissarie: The Foundations of Experience 95

HILARY GATTI“El nome della libertà e gli ordini antiqui sua”: The Problem of Liberty in The Prince 107

Machiavelli’s Prince6

II. Text

GIORGIO INGLESEEditing Il principe, 1899-2013 121

GIORGIO SCICHILONEThe Unnamed Machiavellian Prince: A Hypothesis 133

EUGENIO REFINI“Sufficienti e fedeli”: Aristotelian and Biblical Patterns in The Prince, Chapter XXII 153

III. Translations

GERMANO PALLINIBreaking the Mirror: Poems of Praise in Early French Translations of The Prince 167

ALESSANDRA PETRINA“A Treatise of several forms of Government”: A Sixteenth-Century English Translation of The Prince 177

FRANCESCA TERRENATOThe Prince in the Dutch Republic: Dutch and French Translations, 1615-1705 191

Martina OžbOt

Between Political Pragmatism and Literary Canonization: The Prince in Slovene Translations 203

RITCHIE ROBERTSONMachiavelli in Germany, 1678-1810 215

Bibliography 239

Index 261

Acknowledgements

The conference from which this book derives was generously supported by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford (which also partly funded this volume of proceedings, together with Magdalen College, Oxford); Keble Advanced Studies Centre, Keble College, Oxford; the Modern Humanities Research Association; the Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin. The editors would like to thank Elisabetta Tarantino for her invaluable help with the editing of this volume.

Note

Throughout the volume, quotations from The Prince are from Giorgio Inglese’s 2013 edition. For other works by Machiavelli we have used the Edizione nazionale delle opere di Niccolò Machiavelli published by Salerno Editrice, if available, or other editions as identified by the abbreviated titles listed in the Bibliography. The Bibliography also lists the English translations adopted in this volume. Within the chapters, where no other reference is given, a translation is by the chapter author or the editors.

Behind The Prince 81

Claudia Bonsi

Behind The Prince: Machiavelli as the Transcriber of the “Consulte e pratiche” of the Florentine Republic

Starting from the linguistic analysis of the ten written minutes of the “Consulte e pratiche” drawn up by Niccolò Machiavelli between 1505 and 1509, this paper aims to show how his transcription activity differs from that of other transcribers, especially that of Biagio Buonaccorsi, and to illustrate how Machiavelli took advantage of the daily practice of chancery language, as testified by these documents, to construct his own personal style and vocabulary.1

The question of the lesser degree of conceptual (and stylistic) autonomy in Machiavelli’s diplomatic and administrative written output compared to that of his private and literary writings is addressed by Jean-Jacques Marchand in his preface to the first volume of Machiavelli’s government writings.2 This caveat nevertheless has not precluded several other attempts to trace the origins of Machiavelli’s style back to this rich linguistic reservoir.3 Hence, in approaching

1. These documents can be read in Consulte e pratiche 1505-1512 (every document is cited using the numbers given in this edition): 4bis (29 May 1505); 23bis (13 September 1505); 29 (5 May 1506); 30bis (20 May 1506); 44bis (6 October 1507); 58bis (13 December 1507); 73 (16 November 1508); 81 (6 July 1509); 82 (3 August 1509); 83bis (13 August 1509). These ten written minutes are transcribed in volume 69 of the “Consulte e pratiche” kept in the State Archive in Florence. There are also ten more minutes by Machiavelli distributed across volumes 64, 65, 67 (these are published in Consulte e pratiche 1498-1505), plus one which is kept among the “Carte Machiavelli” of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence (I.71) and one in the collection “Acquisti e Doni” (I.3) of the State Archive in Florence, making a total of twenty-two minutes written by Machiavelli between 1498 and 1509. Since these documents do not seem to reveal a significant diachronic evolution from a linguistic point of view, I have chosen to analyze only the ten minutes contained in volume 69. We thus have a manageable sample of writings for a limited range of years close to the period of composition of The Prince that allows us to compare Buonaccorsi’s and Machiavelli’s transcriptions for the same assemblies (see below).

2. Jean-Jacques Marchand, “Premessa” to Legazioni e Commissarie I, pp. ix-xxvi: xviii-xx.3. These attempts range from Fredi Chiappelli’s pioneering work, Nuovi studi sul

linguaggio del Machiavelli, Florence, Le Monnier, 1969, to more recent contributions such as those by Emanuele Cutinelli-Rèndina, “Osservazioni e appunti sulla corrispondenza amministrativa di Niccolò Machiavelli”, in Machiavelli senza i Medici (1498-1512), ed. by Jean-Jacques Marchand, Rome, Salerno Editrice, 2006, pp. 117-129, and Andrea Guidi, “‘Esperienza’ e ‘qualità dei tempi’ nel linguaggio cancelleresco e in Machiavelli”, Laboratoire

italien, 9 (2009), http://laboratoireitalien.revues.org/560 (accessed 26.04.2017).

Claudia Bonsi82

the transcriptions contained in the registers of the “Consulte e pratiche”, it is necessary to keep in mind that a fortiori

Machiavelli’s autonomy as secretary was more limited compared to that which he enjoyed in his administrative writings, since his job was to put down as faithfully as possible at least the sense of the speaker’s intervention: this was basically a procedure of rewriting, an abbreviated reconstruction of the words that were actually used (as happens in any official statement).4

Although we can assume that Niccolò Machiavelli contributed actively to the Florentine Chancery from 1494, he was officially appointed Secretary and acted as unofficial Second Chancellor to the Florentine Republic on 19 June 1498, under the direction of the First Chancellor, Messer Virgilio di Adriano Berti. In these years, there was a huge turnover of government staff: trusted Medici men, such as Francesco Gaddi and Alessandro Braccesi, were removed from their positions and replaced by homines novi such as Biagio Buonaccorsi and Niccolò Machiavelli.5 So Machiavelli began to perform different tasks: he was under the command of the Signoria, but also working with the First Chancellor, and fulfilling the tasks formally pertaining to the Dieci di Balìa.6 A small but interesting layer to add to the definition of the Secretary’s job was the transcription activity of the “Consulte e pratiche”.7

In this chapter, I will first of all attempt to clarify the definition of Italian chancery language, by focusing on the chronology of the gradual ascendancy of vernacular over Latin. From the second decade of the fourteenth century, part of the correspondence of the Florentine Chancery is in the vernacular: 1353 is the

4. Marchand, “Premessa”, p. xxi.5. Cf. Vanna Arrighi and Francesca Klein, “Aspetti della cancelleria fiorentina tra

Quattrocento e Cinquecento”, in Istituzioni e società in Toscana nell’età moderna, ed. by Claudio Lamioni, Rome, Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali, Ufficio Centrale per i Beni Archivistici, 1994, pp. 148-164: 152.

6. Cf. Marzi, La cancelleria della Repubblica fiorentina, pp. 295-296: “La seconda Cancelleria era Ufficio con funzioni poco determinate, che spesso si confondeva con la cancelleria dei Dieci. Per lo più egli [Machiavelli] faceva quanto avrebbe dovuto fare, se vi fosse stato il secondo Cancelliere. Apparisce, perciò, Segretario de’ Signori, secondo Cancelliere, Cancelliere dei Dieci.” See also Arrighi and Klein, “Aspetti della cancelleria fiorentina”, p. 150: “Al Secondo cancelliere fu affidata in particolare la corrispondenza con i vari settori del dominio ... la figura di Secondo cancelliere fu non di rado istituita per arginare e controbilanciare il potere del Primo cancelliere”.

7. The first to take these documents into account in order to draw a picture of Florentine society in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was Felix Gilbert: see his “Florentine Political Assumptions in the Period of Savonarola and Soderini”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld

Institutes, 20 (1957), pp. 187-214, summarised in a subchapter of Machiavelli and Guicciardini, pp. 28-45. For a discussion of the thematic and rhetorical features of the texts in “Consulte e pratiche” (1495-1497) in relation to the Florentine political situation, see Denis Fachard, “Tra cronaca e storia”, in Cultura e scrittura di Machiavelli. Atti del Convegno di Firenze-Pisa (27-30 ottobre 1997), Rome, Salerno Editrice, 1998, pp. 165-196; in the same volume, see also Fabrizio Franceschini, “Lingua e stile nelle opere in prosa di Niccolò Machiavelli. Appunti”, pp. 367-392. A meticulous analysis of Machiavelli’s presence as a transcriber in these registers is found in Francesco Bausi, “Machiavelli nelle Consulte e Pratiche della Repubblica Fiorentina”, in Marchand, Machiavelli senza i Medici, pp. 81-115.

Behind The Prince 83

date of the first chancery letter written in the vernacular in Naples, 1369 that of the first vernacular letter in the Mantuan Chancery, while the earliest evidence regarding Venice dates back to the first decade of the fifteenth century, and for Milan to the third.8 The division of roles and functions between Latin and vernacular is not well defined, but can be read, according to Breschi, as the result of a process during which Latin and the vernacular compete and interchange with each other: a sort of competition between conservation and renewal, eventually won by the vernacular during the humanistic age, a moment characterised by functional diglossy, at least at the highest levels of the chanceries.9 Thanks to the circulation of statesmen, ambassadors and merchants, and the correspondence between the various centres, Italian chancery language, that is the language of written communication used at all levels of administrative governance in different types of text, can be described as a set of recurrent terms and fixed phrases in different geographic areas within the peninsula, which was strongly influenced by the Florentine vernacular because of the economic and cultural prestige of the Tuscan city-state: a hyper-regional koiné.10 With regard to our documents, the vernacular had definitively superseded Latin in the “Consulte e pratiche” from 1495.11 But what exactly does the label “Consulte e pratiche” mean? It refers to a series of deeds transcribed between 1349 and 1527, with some periods of intermission,12 amounting to a total of seventy-two registers preserved in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze. These registers contain

8. See respectively: Marzi, La cancelleria della repubblica fiorentina, pp. 421-423; Francesco Sabatini, Napoli angioina. Cultura e società, Naples, ESI, 1975, pp. 129-133: 129; Ghino Ghinassi, “Il volgare mantovano tra Medioevo e Rinascimento”, in Ludovico Ariosto.

Lingua, stile e tradizione, ed. by Cesare Segre, Milan, Feltrinelli, 1976, pp. 7-28: 12; Lorenzo Tomasin, “Il volgare nella cancelleria veneziana fra Tre e Quattrocento”, Medioevo letterario

d’Italia, 4 (2007), pp. 69-90: 69; Maurizio Vitale, La lingua volgare della cancelleria visconteo-

sforzesca nel Quattrocento, Milan-Varese, Cisalpino, 1953, p. 16 and “La lingua volgare della cancelleria sforzesca nell’età di Ludovico il Moro”, in La veneranda favella. Studi di storia

della lingua italiana, Naples, Morano, 1988, pp. 169-239.9. Giancarlo Breschi, “La lingua volgare nella cancelleria di Federico”, in Federico da

Montefeltro. Lo stato le arti la cultura, ed. by Giorgio Cerboni Baiardi, Giorgio Chittolini and Piero Floriani, 3 vols, Rome, Bulzoni, vol. III: La cultura, 1986, pp. 175-217: 181.

10. Cf. Marcello Durante, Dal latino all’italiano moderno. Saggio di storia linguistica

e culturale, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1981, pp. 138-142 and pp. 163-164; Mirko Tavoni, Il

Quattrocento, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1992, pp. 47-55; Alvise Andreose and Lorenzo Renzi, “Dai volgari ai dialetti. Schizzo di storia linguistica dell’Italia medievale”, Laboratorio sulle varietà

romanze antiche, 4 (2011), pp. 59-77: 65-66.11. Stefano Telve, Testualità e sintassi del discorso trascritto nelle Consulte e Pratiche

fiorentine (1505), Rome, Bulzoni, 2000, pp. 15-16. Significantly, this linguistic change started to take place immediately after the creation of a controversial republican institution, the “Consiglio Maggiore”, or Great Council, in 1494, after the fall of the Medici, and at the same time as the rise of Savonarola: see Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini, pp. 19-28.

12. However, the registers of the “Consulte e pratiche” do not contain “atti nel senso vero e proprio della parola, perché non sono Deliberazioni che abbiano valore esecutivo, né leggi da seguirsi od applicarsi; sono semplicemente consigli ed atti preparatorj per leggi, per deliberazioni importanti della Signoria e de’ Consigli del Popolo e del Comune” (Marzi, La

cancelleria della repubblica fiorentina, p. 344).

Claudia Bonsi84

verbal statements of opinions expressed in meetings held for a given purpose, of debates held in those meetings in order to study a law, a legal question, the State’s interest in something, concerning mostly external policy, war or peace; but sometimes also concerning internal politics, the scrutiny of insiders and outsiders, revenues, taxes, and similar issues.13

In the beginning, the distinction between “Consulte” and “Pratiche” did not mark a boundary between different areas of expertise, but rather reflected different steps in the decision-making process within the Republic.14 Francesca Klein noted that from 1429 the vernacular was used for the “Pratiche”, but not for the “Consulte”: this linguistic division suggests a responsible government staff with a detailed and technical vocabulary, and a new political role for the “Pratiche”.15 The citizens admitted to these meetings belonged to the most influential institutions or families in Florence: they are the spokesmen for their power élite, and speak according to the “gradi dell’arringare”, that is, according to their political weight.16

From a typological point of view, the “Consulte e pratiche” may be defined as “deliberative monologues transcribed”: this “formalised orality” leads Machiavelli, on the one hand, to reflect in his transcripts typical phenomena of the spoken language and, on the other hand, to follow the model of Chancery documents in Latin, whose influence can be seen in the ubiquitous Latin forms and hypercorrections.17

In this chapter I will summarise the results of my linguistic exploration of the main graphical, phono-morphological and textual characteristics of these documents. The physiognomy is that of the so-called “fiorentino argenteo”,18

13. Cf. ibid. See also Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini, p. 65: “the mounting of external

and internal difficulties in the years 1501 and 1502 led to a number of attempts on the part of the Signoria to explore the possibilities of a constitutional reform which would be acceptable to all the citizens. These explorations were done by means of pratiche. Although the pratiche were not, during the republican period, a constitutionally established institution, they served the important purpose of giving the policy-making boards a means of testing the citizens’ reactions to some of their proposals and of allowing the citizens to air their opinions. The pratiche were only advisory meetings; and their recommendations were not binding. If a recommendation of a pratica was to become law, the recommendation, like other proposed legislation, had to be approved by the Signoria and then submitted to the Great Council for its approval”.

14. Cf. Francesca Klein, “Leonardo Bruni e la politica delle Consulte e pratiche”, in Leonardo Bruni. Cancelliere della Repubblica di Firenze, ed. by Paolo Viti, Florence, Olschki, 1990, pp. 157-174: 160.

15. Cf. ibid., pp. 164-165. See also, for the republican period, Jean-Marc Rivière, “Le temps du conseil dans les Pratiche de Florence de 1498 à 1512”, Il Pensiero Politico, 33.2 (2000), pp. 185-211.

16. Cf. Guidubaldo Guidi, Lotte, pensiero, istituzioni politiche nella Repubblica fiorentina dal 1494 al 1512, 3 vols, Florence, Olschki, 1992, vol. I, p. 86; Telve, Testualità e sintassi, p. 15.

17. For the typological definition, cf. Telve, Testualità e sintassi, p. 29; the notion of “formalised orality” is taken from Giovanni Nencioni, “Parlato-parlato, parlato-scritto, parlato-recitato”, in his Di scritto e di parlato. Discorsi linguistici, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1983, pp. 126-179: 126-127.

18. See Arrigo Castellani, “Italiano e fiorentino argenteo”, in Saggi di linguistica e filologia italiana e romanza, 3 vols, Rome, Salerno Editrice, 1980, vol. I, pp. 17-35; Paola Manni, “Ricerche

Behind The Prince 85

although expressions of fourteenth-century Florentine are not uncommonly mixed with it. Thus we find: assimilation of some features of the verbal morphology of western Tuscany (dia 23bis, 30bis, instead of dea, haranno

58bis, harebbe 81, hauto 30bis, 58bis, 73); a high rate of plebeisms: 3pl form of the future with the -no ending (hareno 81, potreno 83bis), while the 3sg is fia (81, 83bis), an ancient form employed by Dante and Boccaccio;19 analogical 3pl form of the simple present (1st conj.) ending in -ono (mostrono 4bis, portono 23bis, pensono 73, giudicono 81); suto, an apheretic form of the ancient analogical participle essuto, prevalent in The Prince and in the Mandragola,20 used only 4 times vs the prevalence of the form stato; the change from -schi- to -sti- (Mandragola, III.126; V.57; Prince, XII.9, XXVI.1 etc.; Discourses, II.xvi.1 etc.): “et che questo nocciolo lo stiacci altri che questi presenti cittadini” (58bis); use of the numeral dua (dua principali opinioni 73, dua oratori 81 etc.), predominant in The Prince (38 times) vs due (twice), and of the possessive sua, instead of suo/sua, suoi/sue (ad sua modo 58bis, le preparationi sua 58bis, sua

padri 73); present and imperfect subjunctive ending in -i (3sg) and -ino (3pl), i.e. “quello che paressi ad quelli di campo” (23bis), “che lo oratore dicessi” (44bis), “quando lo havessi facto” (81) etc.; facessino, volessino (23bis), ricordassino (29), andassino (55bis), consigliassino (81) etc.;21 absence of the diphthongization of ŏ after consonant + r (approva 23bis, 58bis, prova 4bis, 29), but also appruova (4bis, 23bis) and pruova (4bis), with the diphthongization that is typical of Boccaccian prose;22 3pl form of conditional simple in -ebbono

(renderebbono 4bis, sarebbono 23bis, porterebbono 44bis, acconsentirebbono 73, giudicherebbono 81 etc.); 2sg form of simple conditional used for 2pl: “se se n’andassino in Pisa, saresti scusati” (23bis), “voi torresti” (30bis) etc.;23 3pl form of the simple past ending in -orno, predominant in The Prince:24 si

affaticorno (29), consigliorno, confermorno (44bis) etc.; vocalic apocope of articulated prepositions (a’, de’), but also ad; the indeclinable fuora (23bis) but

sui tratti fonetici e morfologici del fiorentino quattrocentesco”, Studi di grammatica italiana, 8 (1979), pp. 115-171; Stefano Telve, “La grammatica e il lessico nelle Consulte e pratiche della Repubblica fiorentina (1495-97)”, Studi di grammatica italiana, 21 (2002), pp. 19-35.

19. Cf. Gerhard Rohlfs, Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti, 3 vols, Turin, Einaudi, 1966-1969, vol. II, § 592.

20. Cf. Carmelo Scavuzzo, Machiavelli: storia linguistica italiana, Rome, Carocci, 2003, p. 12. See also Maurizio Dardano, “Note sul Principe”, La Lingua Italiana, 9 (2013), pp. 57-99.

21. Giuseppe Patota notes that Leon Battista Alberti does not mention these forms in his Regole della lingua fiorentina, also known as Grammatichetta vaticana, a useful synchronic grammar for the 15th century, written after 1437. Alberti accepts only the ancient forms fusse,

fussero, amasse, amassero (§ 51, 52, 63 and 64), although he employs the more recent forms too in his writings. See Leon Battista Alberti, Grammatichetta e altri scritti sul volgare, ed. by Giuseppe Patota, Rome, Salerno Editrice, 1996, p. lxxiii.

22. Castellani, “Italiano e fiorentino argenteo”, p. 22; Manni, “Ricerche sui tratti fonetici”, p. 121.

23. Rohlfs, Grammatica storica, vol. II, § 560; Manni, “Ricerche sui tratti fonetici”, pp. 162-164.

24. Scavuzzo, Machiavelli, p. 11.

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also fuori (30bis); the definite articles el and e’; the personal pronoun lui (4bis, 58bis etc.), but also egli, although just once (58bis).

However, we also find forms of the simple conditional and future with unetymological -rr-: doverrebbe (4bis), troverrete (30bis), crederrebbe (30bis), doverrà (58bis) etc., which is a typical feature of fourteenth-century Florentine.25 The conditional in -ìa (potria 44bis, 82, saria 81) is well represented in the lyric tradition, starting from its use by the Sicilian school.26

These traits coexist with the graphical habits of a transcriber used to chancery Latin, such as: the use of etymological and pseudo-etymological h-; the phenomenon by which the glide j- does not produce a palatal affricate at the start of a word (i.e. iudica 81, iuditio 4bis, but also giudicare 4bis, 29 etc.); a considerable number of lexical Latinisms (tristitia 23bis), though the majority are graphical only (intelligentia 4bis, licentiare 29, effecti 4bis, expeditione 29, condocta 29, doctori

29, lectere 44bis, decto 44bis, lecte, facto, nectare 81, septembre 29, examinare

58bis, nonobstante 58bis, recuperatione 73 etc., but also licenza 4bis, lettere 23bis, experienza 23bis, detto 44bis); the presence of Latin textual connectives (tamen, sed, dixit ut supra, but also the hybrid form dixe ut supra de oratoribus 83bis).27

This linguistic make-up, characterized by strong oscillation between competing forms, reflects the different registers the speakers and the transcriber dealt with, i.e. spoken Florentine, fourteenth-century literary Florentine and chancery Latin.

The texts are structured using a series of devices that ensure textual cohesion, within an extremely elliptical communicative system, based on a shared communicative context. The most commonly used means of cohesion is anaphoric encapsulation, consisting in summarising propositionally structured co-textual information, often with the combination of a determiner such as questo, tale, detto, sopradetto followed or preceded by a noun (“Adcorderebbesi ad fare la diversione detta” 4bis); moreover, the speaker that takes the floor often literally resumes the sentence of the speaker that preceded him, according to a procedure defined by Telve as “phraseological imprinting”.28 This tends to occur especially when the earlier spokesman is a person of some prestige.29 Within the macrostructure constituted by the different partes orationis, the different segments are marked by textual connectives: argumentative (perché, per, adciò

(che), così, però, siché, ancora che, nonobstante, benché), reformulating (pure,

25. Rohlfs, Grammatica storica, vol. II, § 600.26. Ibid., § 594; Manni, “Ricerche sui tratti fonetici”, pp. 155-156. 27. In other minutes by Machiavelli, crystallized locutions, both hybrid and vernacular, are

used to indicate the speakers, who spoke “per pancate”, that is for their order or institution (see Guidi, Lotte, pensiero, istituzioni politiche, vol. I, pp. 81-83). For instance, in the minute of 2 September 1498 (31) we read “Pro alia pancha”, “Pro tertia pancha”, “Pro prima panchata” etc., but in that of 14 June 1499 (73) we have “Per la prima pancata”, “Per la II pancata de’ Richiesti” etc.

28. Telve, Testualità e sintassi, p. 174: “con una ripetizione letterale il parlante ricorda ai presenti le parole dette in precedenza da altri per ribadirne la validità e, insieme, dichiararsi in accordo (di qui la definizione proposta di imprinting fraseologico) secondo un procedimento di espressione del consenso (o del dissenso) tipico del resto delle conversazioni di carattere argomentativo”.

29. Examples of this are found in 4bis and 23bis, where the speakers refer to Piero Popoleschi’s opinion. The same occurs with Giovanbattista Ridolfi in 81.

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tamen, ma), or demarcative (circa, di, quanto, in, insomma). The minutes are often built upon binary oppositions and enumerative constructions (“Et se alcuna cosa impedissi, o viaggio o altro, l’andata degli oratori” 58bis; “Un’altra difficultà è che ognuno vuole compagnia, et voi havere il pieno delle spese; l’altra, non si sa che le genti vostre sieno per ubbidirli” 30bis). These are sometimes based on anaphoric repetition (“et chi non può come e’ vuole faccia come e’ può; chi non può havere uno, tolga un altro; chi non può haver genti d’arme, tolga fanterie” 4bis), which are functional to the progress of the political debate.30 Orality leaves its mark also through a phenomenon of mise en relief typical of the spoken language, i.e. right dislocation: “et che questo nocciolo lo stiacci altri che questi presenti cittadini” 58bis.

Let us move on now to what emerges from a comparison between the transcripts written by Machiavelli, contained in register 69 of the “Consulte e pratiche”, with the subsequent transcription of the same assemblies by Machiavelli’s colleague and friend Biagio Buonaccorsi in register 68, which illustrates some of the tendencies followed by Biagio.31 Buonaccorsi writes his transcripts in the past tense, while Machiavelli uses the present (see a. below), often shifting from direct speech to reported speech (b.). This transposition obviously implies the modification or even elimination of the temporal markers (b.; c.). The third case offers also an example of the elimination of repeated sentences, a typical mark of a transcription made currenti calamo or immediately after the assemblies:

Machiavelli Buonaccorsi

a.Messer Francesco Pepi: veduto le lettere del Marchese et di Roma, vorrebbe disputare la cosa alla pancha; pur per ubbidire etc. [4bis]

Messer Francesco Pepi dixe che, considerato il contenuto delle lectere di Roma et da Mantova, harebbe voluto disputare la cosa alla panca; pure, per obedire, direbbe quello li paressi. [4]

30. These are a characteristic feature of Machiavelli’s argumentative pattern. See Chiappelli, Nuovi studi.

31. The italics in the quotations are mine. The five minutes by Machiavelli, subsequently copied by Buonaccorsi in volume 68, are marked by Fachard with bis (see n. 1). Cf. Telve, Testualità

e sintassi, p. 19: “il registro 69 (alla redazione del quale intervennero in minima parte anche altri copisti [besides Buonaccorsi]), relativo alle Consulte tenutesi tra il 1505 e il 1512, presenta alcuni interventi successivi (correzioni, aggiunte, cancellature) mirati a rielaborare la stesura originaria. Lo stesso Buonaccorsi trascrisse successivamente il testo nell’attuale registro 68 (forse per ragioni interne di cancelleria, come è propenso a intendere Fachard [see Denis Fachard, “Nota introduttiva” to Consulte e pratiche 1505-1512, p. xiv]), dove assume una ‘forma definitiva e quasi editoriale’”. Register 68 could have been transcribed probably on the basis of drafts and notes that, in some cases, differed from those taken by Machiavelli and the other transcribers (see Telve, Testualità

e sintassi, p. 18 and n. 18): in my opinion, in at least one case Buonaccorsi made his transcripts without using Machiavelli’s (83-83bis). In any case, the habit of rewriting the registers to produce a fair copy dates back to Benedetto Accolti: see Robert Black, Benedetto Accolti and the Florentine

Renaissance, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 157-163.

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b.“Et per questo io credo che sia da fare resolutione di levarsi da la ’mpresa in ogni modo, perché non vi offende la quantità de’ fanti ma la qualità, la quale non è per miglorare con altri fanti”. [23bis]

Et per questo credeva fussi da fare resolutione di levarsi dalla impresa in ogni modo, perché non offendeva la quantità de’ fanti ma la qualità loro, la quale non era per migliorare con altri fanti; [23]

c.Gulielmo de’ Pazi dixe che, circha li oratori, si è consiglato sempre che vadino, ma che si goda el benifitio del tempo; et nell’ultima praticha si dixe

el medesimo, maxime per aspectare la ritornata di questo huomo che è hora venuto. Et parendo che per queste lettere si concluda la passata sua, et però consigla che li oratori vadino; et perché li haranno ad havere qualche dì di tempo, si può in quel mezo consiglare la commissione. [58bis]

Guglielmo de’ Pazi: che li oratori vadino; et perché hanno ad avere qualche dì di tempo, si examini in questo mezo la commissione loro, parendo a lui che questi advisi concludino la passata. [58]

Buonaccorsi tends to regularize the syntactic and textual architecture of the period thanks to a different segmentation of the units between main clauses and dependent clauses, often reshaping the punctuation system (see d. and e. below) or inserting argumentative connectives (e.). Moreover, he gives fuller indications about elements that would be taken for granted in a situation of pseudo-conversation, such as the complete names of people already mentioned, in order to make the discourse clearer (e.).

d.Gulielmo de’ Pazi: che li piacque il consiglio di messer Francesco Pepi; sarebbe di parere che si fuggissin questi periculi per via di diversione, ma non li piace per via di Carlo Balioni, perché vorrebbe questi tumulti più discosto, et non si potrebbe fare secreta; ma tenterebbe quella de’ Colonnesi, dando loro qualche migliaio di ducati, o veramenti soldare le genti, come facevon li antichi. [4bis]

Guglielmo de’ Pazi dixe che li piaceva el consiglio di messer Francesco Pepi, et che era di parere di fuggire questi periculi per via di diversione; ma non li piace quella di Carlo Ballioni, volendo simili tumulti discosto da casa. Et non si potendo anchora fare secreta, tenterebbe quella de’ Colonnesi con dare loro qualche migliaio di ducati, o veramente soldare le gente loro, come facievano li antichi. [4]

e.“Del Duca di Melfi io non ho notitia”. Crederrebbe che di pari sufficienza con Luigi, si facessi meglo ad tòrre el Duca, né la dependenza da Spagna può fare tanto quanto quella di Francia in Luigi; pure, quando di costoro altri non si potessi fidare, sarebbe meglo stare sanza. [30bis]

Del Duca di Melfi dixe che non aveva notitia, tamen che credeva che, di pari sufficientia, fussi la città per fare meglio con il Duca, perché la dependentia che elli ha con il Re di Spagnia non può in lui tanto quanto quella del Re di Francia in Luys d’Ars. Et quando la città non vedessi di potersi fidare et servire liberamente di quello si prendessi di loro, che più tosto era da stare sanza capitano che tòrlo ad altri. [30]

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Moreover, in his texts Buonaccorsi maintains a neutral register thanks to the elimination of idiomatic and proverbial expression and the normalization of “eccentric” or too strongly connoted forms. For instance:

f.È il vero che quello che è detto de’ Colonnesi potrebbe, ma non vorrebbe che si facessi come

fe’ il compare della cavalla. [4bis]

Credeva quello era suto ditto de’ Colonnesi, et però si facessi intendere subito ad Fabritio quello che voleva dire. [4]

g.Et se si muovono, voi non saprete poi che vi fare, et tale crede ire ad pascere che andrà

ad arare, ché ’ colpi non si danno ad pacti. Et verificherassi el carico dato che noi non siàno uniti. [4bis]

… et però vorrebbe si facessi a ogni modo, perché se ’ nimici si muovano non si saprà poi quello s’habbia ad fare, et verificherassi quello si dice, che la città non è unita. [4]

h.Messer Antonio Strozi: pàrli che le cose habbino difficultà, perché si tracta della levata o di seguitare la ’mpresa; pàrli che non si possa sperare in quelle fanterie di meglo, etiam arrogiendo; perché, credendo che le mutassino

viso, le ingrosserebbe delli Spagnoli et delli altri, et manderebbevi li Spagnoli come ad cura disperata. [23bis]

Messer Antonio Strozi dixe che li pareva che le cose havessino difficultà, et che si disputassi o della levata del campo o di seguitare l’impresa. Et che li pareva che in quelle fanterie non si potessi sperare di meglio, etiam ingrossandole; pure, proverrebbe di mandarvi li fanti spagniuoli, et delli altri che potessi havere di Romagnia, et li manderebbe come a cura disperata. [23]

i.Ma quello che fussi da fare non ne vuole dare iuditio sì presto, ma pàrli da masticarla questa sera o domattina maturamente. [23bis]

… ma di quello fussi da fare non ne voleva dare iudicio sì presto, parendoli fussi da pensarla anchora qualche poco. [23]

Bausi remarks that “Fare come fece il compare con la cavalla” (f.) is probably taken from Boccaccio’s Decameron, IX.10, and means “to be credulous”, while “tale crede ire ad pascere che andrà ad arare” (g.), meaning “someone believes he has been hired to do a particular job and finds himself doing a worse one”, derives from Francesco Sacchetti’s Trecentonovelle. “I colpi non si danno a patti” (g.), that is, “you cannot plan or foresee moves in a conflict”, can be found in Benvenuto Cellini’s

Vita and in Le Cene by Antonio Grazzini (also known as Il Lasca).32 These sayings are completely removed from Buonaccorsi’s transcripts. In example h., “arrogere”, a verb taken from notary language, is changed to the less connoted verb “ingrossare”, the vivid remark “credendo che le mutassino viso” is deleted while the opaque “altri” is explained by the syntagm “altri che potessi havere di Romagnia”. Moreover, the expressive verb “masticare”, that is, “to examine a question in depth”, is normalized into “pensare” (i).33 These

32. Cf. Trecentonovelle, 213; Vita, I.73, I.100, II.89; Cene II.vii.11. The intertexts are identified in Bausi, “Machiavelli nelle Consulte”, pp. 107-108.

33. Other examples can be found in Bausi, “Machiavelli nelle Consulte”, pp. 110-114.

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data seem to indicate that Machiavelli leaned towards proverbial and idiomatic formulas, some of which were rooted in the Florentine novella tradition:34 his taste for the vivid and lively elements of daily language anticipates the concrete style of The Prince or the Mandragola, which are studded with metaphors taken from everyday reality.

But we need to take a step back and reconsider Buonaccorsi’s attitude towards his political role and his historiographical ambitions in order to understand the important differences between the two series of minutes.

If, in Bruni’s time, the work of the Chancellor, dedicated to the direct transcription of minutes, included the delicate task of drawing up an official image of political confrontation,35 we can easily argue that this activity could not be totally deprived of political relevance also at the time of Machiavelli, despite Soderini’s efforts to reduce the role of the “Consulte e pratiche”, so as to monitor the power of the Florentine oligarchy.36 So these texts are to be read, on the one hand, as an attempt to convey an official narrative of Florentine political vicissitudes. To achieve this goal, Buonaccorsi often deletes in his drafting some disturbing or contingent elements contained in volume 69.37 For example, in the minutes from 29 May 1505 (4), Buonaccorsi removes Bernardo Neretti’s speech about the condotta of the Marquis of Mantua, probably because it was too explicit.38 In the minutes from 13 December 1507 (58) the question of the new commissioner for the Romagna territory is omitted, perhaps because it is seen as too irrelevant to be transcribed in a fair copy. The same happens with the discussion about the condotta of Tarlatino from 13 August 1509 (83).

On the other hand, the alteration of content, probably indirectly, goes together with formal revision, which was apparently conducted without real motivation.39 However, it is worth considering two documents that show

34. Cf. Gilbert, Machiavelli e Guicciardini, pp. 41-42: “ogni regola di comportamento umano era applicabile anche alla politica. Così si faceva spesso ricorso alla secolare saggezza riflessa nei proverbi per valutare la possibile condotta di un avversario e per prendere decisioni politiche”.

35. Klein, “Leonardo Bruni”, pp. 160-161.36. Cf. Bausi, “Machiavelli nelle Consulte”, p. 101.37. Other omissions and alterations were made in volume 68 in order to hide direct

references to the Medici’s endeavours to come back to Florence and accusations regarding internal and external politics. These are listed in Bausi, “Machiavelli nelle Consulte”, p. 104 and Fachard, “Nota introduttiva” to Consulte e pratiche 1505-1512, pp. xvii-xxii.

38. This is reported by Machiavelli in his minutes (4bis): “Bernardo Neretti giudicha che voi non vi possiate servire del Marchese mediante el tenore della lettera; et che bisogna prepararsi, perché qualche intelligentia potrebbe tenere el Marchese addreto; armarsi con presteza, et per ogni modo; ma chi si dovessi piglare, lo lascierà da canto, rimettendosi ad quello ne sarà ditto.”

39. Cf. Bausi, “Machiavelli nelle Consulte”, p. 116: “Il Machiavelli ‘riscritto’ dal Buonaccorsi, insomma, è un Machiavelli senza sali e senza sapore, appiattito senza pietà (e, almeno apparentemente, senza motivo) sullo standard del più grigio e anonimo stile di cancelleria; uno standard rispetto al quale la prosa di Niccolò, anche in questi giovanili documenti d’ufficio vergati di getto e senza intenti letterari, sembra talora distinguersi tanto per ricercatezza e vivacità di lingua, quanto per efficacia e rigore di stile.”

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Buonaccorsi’s concerns about his own personal style of writing. In a letter to Machiavelli dated 19 July 1499 Biagio apologizes for his poor epistolary style:

Ma vi fo fede che se qui fu mai faccende, hora trabochano, sì che, se non fussino scripte le

mia lettere come si richiederebbe, harete patientia, et voi con la industria et ingenio vostro ne caverete più constructo vi fia possibile; et quando harò punto di tempo, più vi scriverrò, et più ad pieno et più distincto, benché io non credo habbiate ad soprastare costì molto tempo, ché qui è nicistà de’ casi vostri.40

Vat. Lat. 5283, one of the manuscripts that transmit Buonaccorsi’s Diario,41 opens with a dedicatory epistle to Marco Bellacci, in which, speaking about the composition of the work, Machiavelli’s colleague reveals his difficulty in writing as “ordinatamente” as when the occurrences were “più fresche” in his mind:

e benché io mi accorgessi tardi ad intraprendere sì laudabile opera, et però mi fusse difficile poterle mettere insieme ordinatamente come nel principio vedrai, dove le cose non sono notate e distese con quello ordine che le sono dal mezo indietro perché erano più fresche, tamen dove mancarà l’arte e la diligenza supplirà la verità, dalla quale non mi sono in alcuna parte discostato.42

In composing the Diario, Buonaccorsi is trying to “mettere insieme ordinatamente” the events long after they happened. Accordingly, he structures these drafts, which were redacted after the assemblies, according to an ideal of uniformity and composure, in a strenuous search for “pienezza” and “distinzione”.43

40. Niccolò Machiavelli, Tutte le opere, ed. by Mario Martelli, Florence, Sansoni, 1971, p. 1015b (emphasis added; edition used for the letters in this chapter because it preserves the original spelling). (“But I can assure you that, if there ever was business to take care of here, now it is overflowing, so that if my letters should not be written as they ought to be you will forgive me, and with your diligence and your intelligence you will derive as much benefit as possible from them. And when I have a moment’s time I shall write you at greater length, more

fully and in more detail, although I do not believe you will have to stay there very long, since there is need here for you to take care of your business”; Letter 8, Correspondence, pp. 18-19: 18). On the relationship between the two chancellors, see Gennaro Sasso, “Biagio Buonaccorsi e Niccolò Machiavelli”, La Cultura, 18 (1980), pp. 195-222, now in Machiavelli e gli antichi e

altri saggi, 4 vols, Milan-Naples, Ricciardi, 1987-1997, vol. III, pp. 173-209.41. Biagio Buonaccorsi, Diario dall’anno 1498 all’anno 1512 e altri scritti, ed. by Enrico

Niccolini, Rome, Istituto storico italiano per il Medioevo, 1999.42. The letter is published in Denis Fachard, Biagio Buonaccorsi. Sa vie - son temps - son

œuvre, Bologna, Boni, 1976, p. 117 (“and although I was late in realizing that I had undertaken such a praiseworthy work, and consequently it was difficult for me to collect these together in an orderly fashion, as you will see at the start of the work, where things are not recorded and explained with the orderliness that characterises those episodes that were recorded from the middle of the work onwards because they were fresher in my memory, nevertheless if in places there is a lack of art and diligence, these will be compensated for by the truth, from which I have never departed in any part of the work.”)

43. A similar interpretation of these data can be found in Telve, “La grammatica e il lessico”, p. 34: “il … prestigio [of the Florentine vernacular, compared to Latin], presso i fiorentini medesimi, è testimoniato dalla disinvolta noncuranza formale esibita dai cancellieri nelle trascrizioni (un atteggiamento che di lì a qualche anno sarà proverbialmente proprio del Machiavelli); decisamente più attento all’omogeneità formale e di registro il Buonaccorsi, all’atto di trascrivere alcuni registri in bella copia”.

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Furthermore, it seems possible that this register could have been used as a source, since in his Diario Biagio refers numerous times to the “Consulte e pratiche” contained in volumes 68 and 69.44

By contrast, Machiavelli’s prestige would impose, within a few years, a different way of narrating politics, one that was less concerned with the problem of reaching a classical adaequatio between the parts of the argumentation, and more interested in conveying an idea or a way of reasoning as effectively as possible, exploiting idiomatic and proverbial formulas from the Florentine tradition and metaphorical images drawn from a variety of semantic fields.

Finally, I will trace how some expressions, recurrent within the minutes of the “Consulte e pratiche”, shift from chancery language to the vocabulary of Machiavelli’s literary and historiographical works, from an interdiscursive perspective.45

“Fare frutto”, which means “to get positive results”, occurs four times in the transcripts taken into account (“vorrebbe andassino in tempo che facessino

fructo e fussino accetti” 58bis; “et desidera di rihavere Pisa; da l’altra, teme di non fare fructo”; “se facessin buono fructo, bene quidem”; “Et se ’l mandarvi fussi da fare fructo, mandarvi, et vedere se ci fussi riparo alcuno” 23bis). It is employed with exactly the same meaning in Discorsi, III.xix.9 (“E molte volte si vide che migliore frutto fecero i capitani romani che si facevano amare dagli eserciti”) and in Istorie fiorentine, II.xxvii.7 (“e così, senza fare alcuno frutto, si spiccorono dalla impresa”).46

“Tenere la pratica” means “to continue the bureaucratic iter in order to get an administrative or military appointment”, while “tagliare la pratica” means “to interrupt the bureaucratic iter”. These phrases recur in the minutes from 5 May 1506 (30bis), where there is a discussion about the status of Luigi d’Ars: “Pierfrancesco Tosinghi: che taglerebbe la praticha di Luigi d’Ars per le ragioni ha dette Bernardo. Et del Duca terrebbe la praticha per quest’altra hanno, et non per questo, come dixe Bernardo”, “che ’l consiglo di Bernardo et messer

44. Cf. Denis Fachard, “Nota introduttiva” to Consulte e pratiche 1498-1505, p. xv, and Bausi, “Machiavelli nelle Consulte”, p. 104, who notes: “per il personale di cancelleria era normale ... affiancare, a quella amministrativa, l’attività di ricerca storica; non a caso si hanno copie coeve di alcuni registri delle Consulte e Pratiche (il manoscritto Ottoboniano Latino 2759, copia integrale del registro 69, e il codice Riccardiano 1846, copia parziale del registro 68, preceduta per l’appunto da una copia, eseguita dalla stessa mano, del Diario del Buonaccorsi).”

45. These examples are in addition to those offered by Fachard, “Nota introduttiva” to Consulte e pratiche 1498-1505, p. xii, and Bausi, “Machiavelli nelle Consulte”, p. 112. For a wide-ranging investigation of the key-terms that form the basis of the language of politics in the Italian Renaissance see Catégories et mots de la politique à la Renaissance italienne, ed. by Jean-Louis Fournel, Hélène Miesse, Paola Moreno, Jean-Claude Zancarini, Bern, Peter Lang, 2014, in particular Dora d’Errico, “‘Che si tenessi l’arco teso’. Conditions et fondements d’une science de l’action dans les Consulte e pratiche della Repubblica fiorentina”, pp. 117-140, and Jean-Marc Rivière, “Rhétorique de l’action dans les Consulte e pratiche della Repubblica

fiorentina”, pp. 161-176.46. “And many times better results were gained by the Roman generals who made

themselves loved by their armies” (Discourses, p. 475); “hence without getting any results [they] gave up the attempt” (History of Florence, p. 1113).

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Francesco li piace, et che tenendo la praticha in lungha et del Duca li piace”, “che la praticha di Luigi d’Ars si tagli, et più destramente si può” etc. The expression can be found also in a text with greater authorial autonomy, such as the letter of 6 July 1499 addressed to Pier Francesco Tosinghi, commissioner in campo adversus Pisanos, and signed personally by Machiavelli, summing up the debate on the wisdom of the Florentines declaring themselves collegati

to Ludovico Sforza: “Non parve a questi Signori che ’l declararsi fussi utile, e totaliter tagliare questa pratica pareva pericoloso”.47 As a result of a semantic shift, this technical term from Florentine chancery language comes to mean “to discuss with someone in order to reach an agreement”, often secretly. It is employed with exactly the same meaning by Machiavelli in the Vita di

Castruccio Castracani, 85 (“Costoro tennono pratica con loro amici di dentro, tanto che, con lo aiuto de’ Fiorentini entrorno di notte in Pistoia e ne cacciorno e partigiani e ufficiali di Castruccio e parte ne ammazzorono, e renderono la libertà alla città”), Arte della guerra, VI.109 (“Questa diligenza fa che il nimico non può, se non con difficultà, tenere pratica co’ tuoi capi e essere consapevole de’ tuoi consigli”) and Istorie fiorentine, VI.ix.4 (“e sapendo Batista quanto il duca desiderava avere quella città favorevole, tenne pratica seco di ammazzare Annibale e ridurre quella città sotto le insegne sua”).48

“Rassettare”, originally meaning “to tidy up”, comes to mean figuratively “to fix a situation”, “to bring order to someone or something”, especially inside the military semantic field: “Che si rassetti le genti d’arme vostre”; “Gerardo Corsini: che si rassettino le genti vostre, et provedersi di fanterie; et che si armassi, potendo, di uno condoctiere” (4bis). Biagio Buonaccorsi writes to Niccolò on 5 November 1502: “Il nuovo Gonfaloniere comincia ad rassettare la città dal volere scemare li salarii a’ cancelieri”;49 and Niccolò uses the same verb to point out Valentino’s fierce political strategy: “E così ne andreno alla volta di Perugia e di Castello al certo, e di Siena si dubita; e poi si distenderà verso Roma a rassettare tutte quelle castella orsine” (Legazioni e Commissarie II, 327.15; 1 January 1503).50 In Discorsi I.ii Machiavelli, comparing the type of republican regime that is “wholly out of the straight road” (6) with other forms that are in a less perilous

47. Legazioni e Commissarie I, 170.6. Cf. Marchand, “Premessa”, p. xx (emphasis added; “Such a declaration did not seem prudent to the Signoria, yet it seemed dangerous to break off

these negotiations completely”, Letter 6, Correspondence, p. 16).48. “They schemed with their friends at home, so that with Florentine aid they entered

Pistoia at night and drove out Castruccio’s partisans and officials – part of them they killed – and restored liberty to the city” (Life of Castruccio, pp. 545-546); “Such care makes the enemy unable, except with difficulty, to carry on negotiations with your officers and to become acquainted with your plans” (Art of War, p. 689); “Battista, knowing how much the Duke wished to have that city on his side, discussed with him the killing of Annibale and the bringing of that city under his banners” (History of Florence, p. 1295).

49. Tutte le opere (ed. Martelli), p. 1043b.50. “And so they will certainly move towards Perugia and Castello, and we are unsure

about Siena; and then he will go as far as Rome in order to sort out all those castles belonging to the Orsini.” Another occurrence of rassettare is found in Legazioni e Commissarie II, 360.6, 10 March 1503.

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state, will resort to this expression: “Perché quelle che sono in questo grado, è quasi impossibile che per qualunque accidente si rassettino; quelle altre che, se le non hanno l’ordine perfetto, hanno preso il principio buono, e atto a diventare migliore, possono per la occorrenzia degli accidenti diventare perfette” (7).51

Machiavelli’s experience as a transcriber, although severely limited by the situation of “formalised orality” of these debates, which were rhetorically codified and somehow fixed, is bound to have affected the construction of Machiavellian discourse. Hence these documents, together with Machiavelli’s extensive administrative and diplomatic correspondence, constituted an important training ground for the Florentine Secretary: this long apprenticeship of political action and writing will supply him with the instruments, both conceptual and expressive, with which to explain the complexity of modern politics.

51. “because for those in this class it is almost impossible that through any happening they can set themselves right again. Those orders that, if they do not have a perfect constitution, have made a beginning that is good and adapted for getting better, can through the meeting of unexpected circumstances become perfect” (Discourses, p. 196; emphasis added).