Essay about The Early Life of Machiavelli

Essay about The Early Life of Machiavelli Essay about The Early Life of Machiavelli Slide 2: The early life of Machiavelli Machiavelli was born on May 3rd 1469 in Florence, Italy, the first son and third child of attorney Bernardo di Niccolà ² Machiavelli and his wife Bartolomea di Stefano Nelli. He was born to an established though not affluent middle-class family whose members had traditionally filled positions in local government. Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era- popes waged acquisitive wars against Italian city-states, and people and cities might fall from power at any time. Married Marietta Corsini, 1501; children: five. Slide 3: About his life He was born as aristocrat†¦.This is a member of a aristocracy government. His father was an aristocrat. The most powerful class in Greek history While little of the author's early life has been documented, it is known that as a boy he learned Latin and that he quickly became an assiduous reader of the ancient classics. His main political experience in his youth was watching Savanarola from afar. Soon after Savanarola was executed, Machiavelli entered the Florentine government as a secretary. His position quickly rose, however, and was soon engaging in diplomatic missions. He met many of the important politicians of the day, such as the Pope and the King of France, but none had more impact on him than a prince of the Papal States, Cesare Borgia. Unfortunately, for Machiavelli, he was dismissed from office when the Medici came to rule Florence and the Republic was overthrown. The lack of a job forced him to switch to writing about politics instead of being active. His diplomatic missions were his last official government positions. Slide 4: Fields of work During the renaissance, he was an Italian diplomat, political philosopher, musician, poet, and playwright. He was a founder of modern political science, and more specifically political ethics. Machiavelli is regarded by some as the founder of value-free political science. He describes politics as it is, not as it might be, and shows how this knowledge can be exploited to bring greater order into human affairs. But Machiavelli's science is anything but value-free: He prefers glory to security, and admires innovators more than conservatives. Though he writes both for republics and tyrants, many have argued that he favors one over the other. In fact, he clearly has a preference for republics, but believes that the founding father of every republic needs to possess unrestrained power. Machiavelli engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity on behalf of Florence, travelling to the major centers of Italy as well as to the royal court of France and to the imperial curia of Maximilian. We have letters, dispatches, and occasional writings that testify to his political assignments as well as to his acute talent for the analysis of personalities and institutions. During his lifetime, Machiavelli was best known as a playwright, and the Mandragola is his most original play. In this comedy Machiavelli applies his views to ordinary, seemingly nonpolitical life: Callimaco, a young man, is attracted to young Lucrezia, who is unfortunately married to Nicia, an older man. Thus Callimaco agrees to a plan devised by the Machiavellian figure Ligurio to gain access to Lucrezia. As this is a work of fiction, and not a long one to read, I will not reveal the whole plot here so as not to spoil anyone’s fun. The Mandragola is regarded as a classic of Italian literature, illustrating Machiavelli’s versatility as an author. It touches on many of the themes common to his political works: people’s ambition to get what they want, the gray areas in moral life, criticism of the church and so forth. But here his irreverent attitude is more visible than in his more â€Å"serious† works. Slide 5: Impacts Scholars have argued that Machiavelli was a major indirect and direct influence upon the political thinking of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson followed