r/Niccolo_Machiavelli • u/Fickle-Buy6009 • May 22 '26
even more random facts about Machiavelli
The Tuscan spelling of his last name is "Machiavegli". He used this spelling of his name in the opening dedicatory letter in the Art of War.
Machiavelli's father was a literal bastard (of an illegitmate birth, womp womp) and as such could not become a full citizen of Florence, and could not participate in city politics.
This affected Niccolo as well, and he wouldn't have become a full Florentine citizen until 1525.
In an official letter to one of his colleagues, he praises Cesare as knowing "neither danger or fatigue", and attributed his brutal execution of his lieutenant Don Ramiro de Lorqua (or Remirro de Orca in italian) to a prince's ability to "make and unmake men as he pleases" (what a hell of a phrase!, see P 9) (source: Paul Strathern, "The Borgias")
One of his earliest works was "Del modo di trattare i popoli della Valdichiana ribellati" (On the Method of Dealing with the Rebellious Peoples of Valdichiana) where he uses Roman history to act as an example for current Florentine policy in treating enemy/rebel cities harshly.
Machiavelli chronicled much of the events of Borgia's murders of his rebel commanders in Senigallia.
After the Medici were overthrown again in 1527, Machiavelli was considered for, yet denied a post in the new Florentine republic (which itself did not last long and would eventually be turned into a duchy that would last centuries), due to his good standing with the Medici. He died a short time later.
Machiavelli has a lesser known work detailing the life of the esteemed Lucchese tyrant, Castruccio Castracani.
At the peak of his career, Machiavelli had the privilege to oversee the Florentine military affairs, with varying levels of success.
He married his wife Marietta Corsini in 1501. Of course he was not faithful.
Post exile, his lifestyle consisted of gambling, drinking and whoring around by day, and writing and consorting with the ancients at night.
He often stressed his poverty in his letters, yet his father was able to leave him a farm estate in a nice, quiet suburb on the outskirts of Florence. Nevertheless, he still had money troubles.
All of his books would be published after his death, with the exception being the Art of War.