The posters page doesn’t seem to be getting any visitors. Maybe nobody realizes it’s there. Perhaps this reminder will rectify that situation: there is a whole page of letter-size posters for you to print and proudly display (suitable for framing!) Here’s one based on the famous “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters. The linked page is hi-res for printing:
If you like this, I’ve made a few more. Check out the Machiavelli posters page.
In 1937, researchers at Harvard began a remarkable psychological study of Harvard sophomores that has continued up to the present day. Unlike most other clinical studies which focus on illnesses, the goal of the Grant Study was to examine health and well-being. The Atlantic has published a fascinating article—What Makes Us Happy?—about the Study and Doctor George Vaillant, who has been its director for the past 42 years. The depth of it is just staggering.
One quote in particular jumped out at me. In the video interview accompanying the article, Dr. Vaillant says:
Its alright that young people can do the things that they can do. I mean the youth that the old envy is accompanied by the miserable process of getting from 25 to 35 where you’ve got all this health and all this youth and you’re scared stiff that when it’s all said and done you’re not going to amount to a hill of beans. And if you just wait virtually all of them by the time they were 45 or 50 amounted to something. And knowing that is such a relief. You just don’t know it at 30.
I must admit I hadn’t really thought of it this way before. Being in the (upper end) of that age group myself, I really hadn’t considered that the anxieties of the past decade are, in fact, typical for people our age. “And knowing that is such a relief. You just don’t know it at 30.” Yes it is, and no I didn’t. But I feel a bit better about it now.
A book launch is a scary thing. Even though I am serializing Machiavelli and publishing on the Web, it is still structurally a book: it has a narrative arc, chapters, pages, and other elements associated with books. And yet I’m adding hypertext commentary beneath the pages, footnotes and links that wouldn’t be included in a paper edition—or would only as endnotes that don’t interact with the artwork in the same way that this post does with the artwork that you see just above it. As I move from the prologue—which is intended to set a mood—into Chapter One, in which Machiavelli takes his place at center stage, I’ll be using footnotes in the form of blog posts to shed light on historical details which may be relevant but not central to the story I’m trying to tell. I may also link to sites which I feel will be interesting to my readers, or have some relevance to Renaissance studies. I will avoid linking to or posting about topics that have no connection to Machiavelli or the project. I hope not to do too many “meta” posts like this one. The web site is the book. And it will continue into the second book (not Machiavelli, but…I’m getting ahead of myself.)
But I digress. A book launch is a scary thing. What has struck me the most in the past week is how much support I’ve gotten from unexpected places and it’s caused me to reevaluate, seriously, the way I look at people. People who you think are critical to your success may not be, and it’s the people who stand by you when no-one is watching who count.
So thanks to you guys who have Twittered about Machiavelli, submitted it to BoingBoing, joined my Facebook “fan” page (we few, we happy few), or set up LiveJournal feeds. You’ve placed a trust in me and I will do my best to earn that.
1469 (May 3) – Niccolò Machiavelli is born
1475 – Bernardo Machiavelli receives Livy’s History of Rome from the printer Niccolò Tedesco o Alamanno as compensation for creating the index for the volume.
1478 – Pazzi conspiracy. An attempt by the Pazzi family to kill Lorenzo and Guiliano di Medici and usurp power fails as Lorenzo (later called il Magnifico) survives.
1486 – Bernardo puts Niccolò in charge of binding a number of his books, among them the Livy volume.
1489 – Poliziano publishes the first century of the Miscellanea.
1492 – (April 8 ) Lorenzo il Magnifico dies
(aug 11) Rodrigo Borgia is elected pope, becoming Alexander VI.
(Oct 12) Columbus lands on San Salvador.
1494 – Charles VIII of France marches into Italy
Piero di Medici gives up Pisa and Livorno, among other territories, to Charles in order to spare Florence.
Popular resentment boils over against the Medici because of this action. The Medici flee the city.
The Florence forms a republican government, in which Savonarola is influential.
The new government negotiates new terms with Charles, giving him safe passage through the city, but not giving up territory
Charles’ troops enter Florence.
1495 – Charles VIII enters Naples. An anti-French league is formed (Ludovico il Moro, the pope, Venice, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire); after fighting the league’s forces at the Battle of Fornavo, King Charles barely manages to take his troops back to France.
1497 – Five Florentines, sympathetic to the Medici, are accused of conspiring to bring down the Republic and condemned to die. Although the new constitution specifies the right to appeal, Savonarola recommends that they be put to death (as they are political rivals). They are put to death without appeal and popular opinion begins to turn agains Savonarola. Charles VIII dies.
(Dec 2) In the name of the “Maclavellana familia” Niccolò writes to the Cardinal Giovanni Lopez, bishop of Perugia.
1498 – (Feb. 13) Marcello Virgilio Adriani succeeds Bartolomeo Scala as the Secretary of the First Chancery of the Florentine Republic.
(Apr. 7) Louis XII succeeds Charles VIII as kink of France.
(May 23) Without the backing of the Florentine people, Savonarola is vulnerable to the Church in Rome. He is excommunicated and burned at the stake.
(June 15) Niccolò enters public life. He becomes Chief of the Second Chancery, in part due to the support of Marcello Virgilio Adriani, Secretary of the First Chancery. As chief of the Second Chancery, Niccolò is Secretary to the Ten of Liberty and Peace, the commission which oversees military matters and foreign affairs. Niccolò is entrusted with keeping the Signoria and the Ten informed in military and political problems so they can make apprpriate and timely decisions.
1499 – Mar. – Niccolò’s first mission for the Ten: to Jacopo IV d’Appiano, lord of Piombino. July – Niccolò travels to Forlí, to the court of Caterina Sforza Riario. Cesare Borgia, Son of the Pope, Alexander VI, begins to build his dominion with conquests in Romagna. He also takes Forlí—and Florence does nothing to help Caterina Sforza. Florence attempts to retake Pisa. Mercenary troops, however, refuse to enter a breach in the Pisan walls. The condottieri, professional captains, are put to death for treason.
1500 – (May) Death of Bernardo Machiavelli.
(Jul) Niccolò & Francesco della Casa travel to the court of Louis XII. It is his first foreign commission, Florence seeks redress for the poor showing of French troops in the seige of Pisa.
(Oct) Cesare Borgia’s campaign: takes Pesaro, Rimini, Faenza (resists), Piombino
1501 – (Aug) Marries Marieta Corsini, with whom he will have seven children: Primerana, Bernardo, Lodovico, Piero, Guido, Bartolomeo, Baccina, and Totto.
(Sep.) Mission to Siena
1502 –
(May) Primerana born.
Jun – Borgia takes Urbino.
Jun. – Niccolò is dispatched to the court of Cesare Borgia for the first time.
Sept – In Florence, the office of gonfalonier for life is established-Piero Soderini.
Oct 9 – Borgia’s lieutenants, fearing his ambition, rebel against him.
Oct 11?- Niccolò is dispatched to Borgia a second time.
Dec – Borgia kills Orsini, Vitelli, et al. at Senigallia.
1503 –
Jan – Niccolò returns to Florence.
Oct. – Julius II becomes pope.
Nov. – Bernardo born.
Dec. – Without his father as Pope, and with Julius hostile to him, Cesare’s power base collapses. He is broght to Rome as a prisoner and disappears. Rumor has it that he has been killed by the Pope. He is never seen again.
1504 – First Decennial ( A chronicle in verse of the events in Florence in the decade 1494 to 1504)
1506 – Florence’s first militia is mustered, with Niccolò playing a significant role.
1512 – Return of the Medici to Florence.
Nov. – Niccolò is removed from government, barred from the Palazzo and forbidden to leave Florence for one year. MiH 32
1513 – From 12 Feb. to 13 Mar. Machiavelli is imprisoned in the Bargello and tortured on suspicion of being a supporter of a plot to assassinate Giovanni de’ Medici. 11 Mar. – Giovanni de’ Medici becomes Pope Leo X and grants an amnesty to those in jail under such suspicion, including our author.
1514 – Second Decennial (A successive chronicle covering the years 1505 to 1509; unfinished)
1513–c.1515 – The Prince
1513–1517 – Discourses
1517–1520 – Niccolò holds court in the walled gardens (the Orti Orcellari) of the Rucellai family. MiH pp 112–113, 367
1520 – The Mandragola
“Discursus” a proposal for a new constitution, presented to Giulio de’Madici (future pope Clement VII)
1521 May – The government and wool guild of Florence sends Niccolò to a meeting of the Chapter General of Minorite Friars at Carpi
Art of War
1522 – Younger brother Totto (a priest) dies.
1525 – Florentine Histories, begun in 1520, presented to Clement VII. Niccolò has brought it up to the death of Lorenzo de’Medici. It is well received by the Pope, who grants him a subsidy for its continuation. Further, Clement sends him to Romagna to advise Francesco Guicciardini, the Pope’s representative there, on raising papal troops in the region.
Clizia – Affair with Barbera.
1526–1527 – During the fight between the League of Cognac and the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor, The Pope, the Florentine Government, and the leutenant-general of the pontifical army all use Niccolò with their military forces for various missions of advice, reporting, and evaluation. He also is called upon to inspect the fortifications of Florence. He is appointed a new commission, the “Five Administrations of the [City] Walls,” his last official post.
1527 – May – second expulsion of the Medici from Florence. A new government
June 22 – Death of Niccolò Machiavelli
Beginning today, I’ll be publishing Machiavelli to the web. I aim to publish twice a week. I’m not sure of the exact schedule yet, but I’ll work it out to something regular. You can look forward to plenty of footnotes if that’s your thing; I’m going to link to as many resources as I can and quote from primary and secondary sources where appropriate. You may have seen earlier versions of the prologue and chapter one before, but I’ve completely reworked a lot of the first pages, so it’s almost all new.
I hope you enjoy Machiavelli.
—D.M.
