Machiavelli: Biography, Quotes, The Prince, Human Nature, Beliefs, Facts (2000)

mauricio Broly author of niccolo's I did it wrong no I did it right giggling Israel yeah what does it mean when someone says a politician is Machiavellian when someone says that the politician is Machiavellian what they mean to say is that the person in question has very low moral standards that the person is not reliable that he is cunning like a fox astute that you cannot trust him but that is what they mean when they say that the politician is Machiavellian why did I say that where does it come from it came from the mid of the 16th century in within the context of the counter-reformation then at that time the Jesuits began to use the word Machiavellian in the sense that I have described meaning someone unreliable someone who always wears a mask someone who is ready to deceive who is always keen always ready and prepared to put his interest before any other moral consideration was Machiavelli himself like that niccolò machiavelli was the opposite of a Machiavellian precisely the opposite Machiavelli ins our calculators Nicola was passionate Machiavelli ins always try to adapt themselves to the circumstances like every fought many battles against the conventional political culture of his time Machiavelli ins normally win Niccolo was a loser makea variance always fight for what they think they can get nicola always fought for grand ideas he was precise in the opposite then why over the years does it mean the opposite of when you say someone's Machiavellian the opposite of the man that they took the philosophy from because niccolò machiavelli works have been read over the centuries by scholars who were not apt to understand did not want to make the effort to understand what nicola was saying either because they were prejudiced or because were two bigoted or for one reason and the other when did he live he was born in 1469 in Florence when did he die he he died in 1527 jus which made him how old when he died I'm very bad with numbers at 58 at night yeah mo we have 59 I guess but I'm very bad with numbers or should be 31 plus 27 50 80s even though in one of his last letters he say now that I am 60 was not true he was only 58 were me he was also very bad with numbers where was he from he was born in Florence yes and the family was coming from the south and part of Tuscany he was the son of a lawyer his father was a lawyer I was successful which is very rare poor which is even more difficult because in Florence lawyers then and even today are normally very wealthy so Nicola did not belong to the inner circle of the Florentine elite he was called he had the chance to study in new Latin rhetoric ancient history modern history grammar he knew how to write well it shows but he had he did not belong to the important families for him was impossible even to be elected or appointed to important positions in the government because according to the statutes of Florence in order to be appointed to the highest positions you you had to belong to a family that had already had someone covering I posts in the government that's important because Micheli was closed to power but never within the circle of power where are you from I come from Romania is a bit north of Florence Roman is the area of Ravenna Remini Forli if you have seen the Fellini's movie I'm are called that's where I came from how did you get to the United States it was it was a joke I I had completed my PhD thesis at European University Flores I was like many other people at the time jobless unemployed I had no chances to get into an Italian University or year 1980 1985 you are talking a friend of mine a friend of mine was here I attained stitute for Advanced Study in Princeton she said Mauricio they are looking for an assistant professor in political theory and I responded to that and do you think that it Princeton they need someone from early in Roman from Italy to cover a position in political yes it costs you nothing to try I applied I sent my Vita my dissertation that I composed then in French but was in part translated into English by Cambridge University Press and I shall never forget the fact that I got the position at Princeton University without even knowing the names of the people is in the committee one day I must tell the names of these people because they are an example of you should conduct this kind of activities if you want to keep a university great but how are they on what basis did they choose you it's the normal application as you know there were about 250 applicants they selected three I was what he called the shortlist then they summoned me I got a phone call late in the night from Professor Amy Gutmann who is now the director of the Center for human values in Princeton she said we would like to interview you and I asked back but I have to fly and she said no problem so I flew over I spent three days I gave my talk I met everyone in the department strange feeling very completely different world then I came back and after two months I got the phone call saying we would like to offer you a position as an assistant professor in politics that's that is as simple as that at Princeton at prints and how long have you taught there since 1987 teach what political theory and when did you first start writing about mark Mackay overhead it's a long it's an old and deep love for Nicola market I started writing on niccolò machiavelli in 1980 in 1989 why they title of this book makes it smile well because I have written a number of essays and the book on Nicola Michaelis political thought then while I was writing the book on the colour Machiavelli's political thought I discovered that perhaps Nicola the person his life his passions his ideals was more interesting than the thing and what was interesting about Nicola his wisdom of life the wisdom with which he conducted his life the wisdom with which he tried to make sense of his own experience and of human experience in general meaning how to deal with despair hopelessness defeat ingratitude but also with love friendship the various dimensions of life I have discovered if I'm right then Nicola conducted his life he dealt with all the issues that I've mentioned all the aspects of human experience that I have mentioned with a remarkable depth and intelligence wisdom that wisdom was so to speak summarized by his smile his way of smiling at life at himself and who knows perhaps even smiling at God where does this portrait come from it's on the career but it's Tito Santi Sol TD Tito is his correct name he painted the pole or trade after Machiavelli's death so he did not seem accurate that's how he imagined Nicola Miguel to be on the basis of existing sketches or statues there is a marble sorry wooden bust of Niccolo Machiavelli in Palazzo Vecchio where of course I always go to pay my tribute in the pilgrimage what is Pilate oh thank you yes second floor what is it Palazzo Vecchio is the palace in which the Great Council of the Republic of Florence used to meet is in Piazza della Signoria is the center of the Republican power of the Republic of Florence in fact when Mackay rarely tried to persuade the Medici in 1521 to restore Republican institutions in Florence the manner in which he said that was Rio pre-op Rotella sala reopen the main hall in Palazzo a classic is the symbol of Florence self-government what is the merging the Medici is the Medici where the most powerful family in Florence they were buying kurz silk traders they had only Machiavelli's lifetime two popes imagine a family that can produce two popes he's much more than producing two presidents of the United States like the Bush family they are they were extremely wealthy and thanks to their wealth they were able to offer favors lending money helping people in various ways to set up their business or help them to find the solution or legal problems in this way they became they became extremely powerful they had a large network of partisans supporters so in fact they were practically the rulers of Florence the masters of Florence particularly between 1434 and 1464 under the leadership of Cosimo de Medici then the Medici were expelled from Florence in 1494 when a Republican governor was instituted very turned in power in 1512 with the help of Spanish armies and they were so to speak the enemies of the Republic Florence lived its own political life than the oscillation between Republican governments more or less aristocratic and the regime of the Medici you talk about the Republic of Florence and a lot of other Republic's that you mentioned in your book what was Italy in the early 1500s what did it amount to well you have to consider that you had northern part of Italy you had the Dukedom of Milan that was under was a dukedom then is the Republic of Florence Venice sorry they're very powerful very wealthy very aristocratic south you had small principalities in bologna Rubino you had the republic of genoa and then south you had the Republic of Florence Florence was not just the city Republic Florence also controlled a large countryside did the Republic of Florence have to answer to anybody else to be Republic means to be as dead as the jurists used to say to be see between ships which means you are you are your own Prince or you are Prince onto yourself and you do not recognize superior powers that is the meaning of being Republic means that there are you do not recognize political powers how many people lived in that part of the world back in the 16th century in Flores the seat that whole area you know though Italy it's difficult to give figures I know for Florence at the time of Machiavelli Flores must have been around sixty thousand people so the whole areas rather to be small but yes they got a small population you say and the authors note and I'll just read it say the reader will find some fairly strong language in the letters by Machiavelli in his correspondence and in documents of the period expressions that other biographers have edited or cut and I must admit to you that I was surprised that some of the language that was used back then the four-letter words a lot of the F word used in those days where does all that come from interestingly as you have perhaps noticed the correspondence and the Friends of Machiavelli use that kind of language more than Nicola himself let me give you an example he one of the best friends of Nicolo Machiavelli was Francesco Latorre they had more or less the same age with the difference that I'm giving you a little background that Francesco Vettori was powerful and successful Niccolo Machiavelli was powerless and unsuccessful nonetheless they remained friends when Vettori was the ambassador of Florence in Rome in the at the paper court Vettori wrote his friend Nicola who was at the time in Florence elected in which with Tory says I'm so bored by life here that I must necessarily think about something pleasant and I know nothing that is more pleasant than you know what I mean or the thought of interesting materially Nicola responds back with the Latin which he speaks or the enchanting sweetness of love someone is using a friend he'll use that language F so on Nico responds with a poem on the beauty and sweetness of the passion of love nonetheless Nicola himself was famous in Florence while his stories he used to tell and I'm sure that he was pretty good at using the same language you asked why because they were Florentine in Florence there is the air the atmosphere itself is irreverent they are colorful there are various ways of expressing a concept that they always prefer the most colorful and the most colorful is exactly the language that I have described but you decided for some reason to leave it in the language and why did most biographers take it out because I think most biographers well they thought that perhaps was a bit damaging to show how they were speaking I think that in fact there is nothing wrong in showing contemporary readers how sixteen today foreign time are speaking and it's office also funny because I must say that you can use colorful words without being vulgar and you can be vulgar without using colorful words when you use words that I like the ones we are alluding to you must be very good because then it takes a special intelligence sensitivity you have to use them with in the right moment in the right context and you can see that there are letters in which if you replace the colorful words with ordinary words the letter or the expression would lose its brightness its intensity remember that niccolò machiavelli and many other many friends of him they were belonging to popular classes to the people that's where the way that was the way in which they spoke one of those story you're going to reveal too much no I'm not gonna read this as you all know it's on page 109 it's the old board 109 yeah you know it's it's it's Machiavelli oh oh no please don't do that but well if you want if you read it now I'm not gonna read it but I did I bring it up because I want to ask you I want to ask you the circumstances of that as a way of showing what Machiavelli was like personally is that is that a true story no I think that this is you big an important place I think that Nicola like to make fun of himself he liked to exaggerate not his virtuous his vices and in this case what is doing is to respond they are referring to the famous letter in which he narrates the misadventure he had with it an old prostitute very old very ugly prostitute in Verona that's what you're mentioned well you have to consider that Machiavelli in that letter is responding to a letter of a friend Luigi Witcher teeny Luigi Witcher Dini we can guess from Nikolas answer must have written him a letter that's all you know Nicola last night a method gorgeous so charming and we did this and that and he must have gone forever and he must certainly have ended the letter V G by say I can't wait to see her again Nikola what does it do he turns upside down the letter of which he says I instead I've met the most ugly woman on earth I had the most horrible sexual experience I ever had and I I'm sure that for a long time I will not see her again and for sure I will not even look for other similar experience it's the opposite of what we did which our Dean was glorifying himself nicola debases himself to have fun what about his marriage his love life his relationship with women now you bring me into very difficult a terrain like a valley was we have only one letter from his wife murrieta we have letters of friends that speak of his wife we have two letters from his younger son Guido in which Guido speaks of mother what we can derive these little evidences is that Murrieta crostini was very fond of Nicola she missed him badly when did they marry if I remember correctly he must have married her soon after and that of the father I guess 15:01 15 how old were they well we don't know Murrieta but Nicola at the time must have been around 31 32 where did he meet her while they were belonging to they both belong it to feminists that Florentine families of the same social ranking megive le could not have married niccolò machiavelli could not have married a woman of the nobility and murrieta car scene II could not have married a prominent our aristocrats as you know at the time marriages were a political and economic affair was essential for a rich father to marry their daughters way to someone at least as powerful or as wealthy so he's not surprising that was my Nikola must've thought about getting married after the death of his father because I'm sure we call all dislike it loneliness and solitude and and he wanted to be surrounded by a family they had seven children he was affectionate Nicola you can see that because Marietta says when you are here we feel safe it's better when you are not with us and said I'm disconsolate and she was angry at him because he was spending so much time abroad for diplomatic missions Nikola was also a good father a wonderful father and he's a wonderful father I mean a father who was not imposing not authoritarian he was too poor and too powerless to be authoritarian but we have a 1 we have two letters from niccolò machiavelli to his son widow that are really spectacular the best I think of the entire collection of Nikolas personal letters you can see that Nicola was teaching his son how to be a good person how to try to attain great things by working by studied and the way in which he teaches his tender is affectionate doesn't say you must he says if you do that if you believe in yourself you will attain in life probably great things more than I've done and he tells Guido he teaches some with a wonderful story about weak creatures the story of the little mule widow says well we have here in the farm a mule that has become crazy mad and what you normally do with crazy mules is to kill them or to tie them up Nicola says to the son don't do that let him free bring him somewhere where he can be free freedom we probably help the little animal to regain his sanity it's a wonderful story on the first story having said all that I must immediately emphasize Machiavelli was not a lawyer husband not at all he loved Murrieta crostini was not the greatest love of his life he was too fascinated by women's beauty and he pursued it with great devotion some success if we judge from the records that we have until he was quite old for his time till he was 54 his last love let me know the most dramatic because he fell in love with a younger woman very attractive miss Barbara or Barbara an opera singer and Niccolo sadly remarks that if you fall in love with a woman who is very attractive much younger than you is likely that you suffer bit because as you wrote in a nice poem little poem so much beauty deserves much younger person with women but I found extraordinary is that the common opinion sustained by important scholars that Nicola was a macho is completely absurd completely I've seen I've shown in the book that in important occasions he treats women as equals that's not the behavior of a matter he says that he has found in women more tenderness more gratitude deeper compassion and friendship more lasting friendship than in men he says that women are better than men even in governing kingdoms and what impressed me in reading this side of Nicholas life is that he felt for women a kind he felt he was similar to women in one sense that like women in 16th century Florentine society he was not part of the privileged circle and all the stories I have have rediscovered about his love affairs they show us in Machiavelli that Michael who is a poet as a poetic abandonment about love how many love affairs were you able to identify the record speaks we one woman who was waiting for him nearby pond Telegraph see certainly one when he was in France Yan or Jana then the best the most lasting story with Lucrezia SEC detta Morita the curly Curtis then probably the wife of inferna Chaya then for sure Barbara and in how many others did he have any children violin his woman no and did his wife know about these women I asked myself the same question I think that was difficult for her to know but I cannot answer the question that I think is even more difficult namely as she known what was would have been what would have been her reaction how did all this go down in a Catholic country back then oh precisely in a Catholic counties the right country where you can have affairs one because there is the double morality because there is the Pope and remember that Pope's at time well the most liberty creatures on earth read the letter in which the Torah speaks describes a Tory was in Rome with the Ambassador the papal court he describes how he spends his evenings and he says around 8 o'clock some women come to spend the evening with us only to chat he says because I'm too old too much else they're coming from the court of the Pope they've completed their day of service and now they stopped by graciously the friars there were famous for being Libertines consider the story that Machiavelli says puts in the mouth of a character in one of his comedies CLE Thea there is a woman speaking of another woman and she says well she wanted to be pregnant they told her that if she goes for 40 days in a row to take the first mass in the morning in the fryer in difference in the convent in the monastery she will certainly get the miracle of getting pregnant and the other woman said it would be a miracle if she did not get pregnant by after going for 40 days to take mass Catholic countries are countries in which transgression is much easier much easier certainly Nicola had no moral anxieties about his devotion to women's beauty in consider one last aspect that Flores was Catholic but also it was this vein of paganism that is the same mentality focused on the pursuit of beauty pleasure trans grace you why and this is my dog yard copy from many years ago in college why has this survived all these years 400 years and is read in this country still by a lot of people in college high school it is certainly it is discussed it is translated there are new translations coming out every year why I think because in that text niccolò machiavelli tells us reveals to us some important truths about political life truths that surpass that go beyond his own time his own intellectual context of his time of course in the Prince Machiavelli meant to teach something to the political leaders of his own time but certainly he wanted to teach something important about politics to possible future princes interested in becoming great princes is one thing I want to make clear Niccolo never Thoth never intended to teach princes real or possible present or future princes how to gain power he wanted to teach them how to do great things in politics such as redeeming a country liberating the people restoring political life emancipating a republic from corruption there was not a teacher of ordinary law mediocre mean miserable politics he was a teacher of grand politics that is I think is the lasting beauty of that text then you've been in this country around 15 years 1313 of all the politicians you've seen in the United States would you call any of the Machiavelli it's a difficult question you know that in my courses I teach course in political theory I never comment about the United States because I'm a resident alien and I think it is indelicate for me to comment about the life of a country to which I cannot contribute since I'm not an American citizen but I can certainly answer your questions by saying that if you mean to know what the meaning of your question is you think there are politicians that are Machiavellian the answer is easy please plenty of politicians who are simulators people will whom you cannot trust people who are always prepared to seek their own advantage all the advantage of their faction and to put the interest of their group above the common interest of the Republic there are plenty of them but if you asked me have you ever seen in America or do you know off from American history political leaders whom like yearly would have admired Buddha said he is a great politician then the answer is yes Machiavelli loved founders and Redeemers those who have founded new states or those who have redeemed republics from corruption from slavery from oppression you had plenty Machiavelli like leaders were table inspiring of touching people's passions of generating a culture of sustaining hope you had politicians like that you had people like Roosevelt had people like link you had people like Martin Luther King please we're certainly politicians that Meharry would have enjoyed to meet and I'm sure that they would have enjoyed the company of niccolo how big was he slim tall reasonably tall but slim it's a guess because we ever yes we had a letter of his wife in which his wife describes him the baby that she just she had just had and she say he looks like you so we know that he had dark eyes that he was limb and also because he was slim he survived the torture in when he was tortured in 1513 when he was accused of a conspiracy against the Medici he was tortured and the torture was the torture of the Rope people were hanged to the ceiling tied to their back put the arms behind her back and rope was tied and then they let the rope and they went and that was the torture and he stood by because he was leave me here what were the circumstances that he found himself in that position because they found a note who's they the prosecutors of the Medici regime they discovered a note in the pocket of one of the conspirators that they captured and there was a list of names 18 names and one of the names was the name on the name of niccolo machiavelli so the prosecutors prosecutors were people loyal to the Medici imply that niccolò machiavelli was part of the conspiracy so they seized him they put him in jail and they tortured in order to obtain the confession because the legal system at the time was based on the confession was not a based on evidence how long was he in jail from January I is easy through March 10 he was about your 15 13 because he was liberated thanks to the amnesty because a member of the Medici family became Pope with the name of Leo 10 so there was great they were great festivities in Florence and they'd and of course the election of the Medici Pope meant that the regime of the Medici in Florence felt to be much safer therefore it could afford was he religious that's an it that's a question that on which tons of hink have been that with tons of ink as we have been used in not to try to answer some scholars maintain that he will had the religiosity of his own not Catholic he disliked the Roman Church he despised Christianity the ethos of Christianity he writes in the discourses on Livy his major work he says that Christianity has the great responsibility of having made the world weak because Chris Christian religion teaches human beings to be humble to suffer that there is dignity suffering that their sufferance would be reward in the afterlife I don't think Nikola was religious in as a Christian or as a Catholic did he entertain a Christian or religious hope for salvation my answer is that he didn't in fact if there is one figure one name that is remarkably absent from his works and from his that is Jesus can you be a Christian without taking Jesus the figure of Jesus very Deemer the Savior see I think that he never became religious not even in his last years and they here I enter in a very difficult terrain because there are scholars who have claimed that Nicola in at the end of his life had the moral and religious crisis he became religious I think on the counted on the contrary that certainly until 1521 it is to say six years before his death he showed no sign of religious conversion we have evidences that he was still Nicola the Reverend the anti Christian and the evidence is a letter from a man who knew Nicola very well the intelligent stilt cold powerful creature Dini Francesca Whichard in one of the greatest eternal political thinkers of the time and which our dana says now that you are in carpi he was involved in a strange mission in a monastery having to do with monks all day which i Dini says be careful not to become devout because you are dealing everyday with monks because since you have lived all your life as a non-religious person if you now become if you now convert yourself you become a devout people will say that your conversion is not the result of the fact that your good is the result of your senility people who think that he hands senile and what he did in carpi to the monks shows that he was not very keen to become religious in fact he spent most of his time plotting jokes against the monks hilarious jokes pranks then we have the story of Nikolas dream friends it's a story there are some evidences but not compelling evidences that on his deathbed Machiavelli described the dream that he had and in the moral of the dream was that Machiavelli openly said to his friends that when he said when I die I don't want to go to paradise I want to go to hell because is much more interesting place and inhale I can talk to the great people on tickety the people he loved my last remark on your question was he religious is the following I think Nicola did not believe in God though he spoke a lot about God from a political point of view because Nicola did not need God in order to attain kind of transcendence infinity for him great pages thinking about grand political ideas composing books that would last was his way of attaining glory and glory means that you survive time he didn't need God do you teach Machiavelli at Princeton I do I do what are your students think of him teaching at Princeton has been for me spectacular experience spectacular experience what students in the I teach large courses courses like political theory this year I have about 300 students what do they say about Machiavelli some of them say no professor we're all you're wrong you know that American students they do not hesitate to question the professor which would be scandal by Italian standards some say no professor we're only Machiavelli is a teacher of evil he is immoral but others say Nicola deserves admiration because he was courageous he said with the other political theorists did not want to say about politics he hasn't covered to us the real meaning of political action both the greatness of politics and the harbor's of politics in any case Machiavelli has showed us with um beveling the ambivalent greatness of politics in bed terms in good terms so I get as you would say mixed comments from the students Machiavelli worked for a government how often how long how many years how many different princes niccolò machiavelli served as a secretary of the Republic of Florence from 1498 through November 1512 it is about 15 years then he was dismissed when a new regime replaced the regime controlled by the family of the Medici replaced the Republic for which Machiavelli was working Mercury never had the direct political power he was an advisor he his job was to say go to France or to Rome and meet the King of France or meet the Pope and report back in writing so when people say Machiavelli was a politician it's not correct he was he could not make a single decision other other leaders other committees were deciding on the basis of his letters but he had no political power whatsoever then from 1512 until very late until 1525 he was in disgrace he had no relevant political positions I'll make money he had he was penniless in order to make money while he was living out of his possessions he had some land south of Florence in Sant Andreu cocina some land so he had wood the products of the head chicken he was he says in a letter in the evening when I sit with my family with little that we can afford or he's likely to see his family our letters that and with the recommendation tried to spend as little as possible do you have a family of your own yeah I ever I live with a companion in Italy children no I do not have children on my own how much time do you spend in Italy how much time the United States I spend a lot of time in Italy because I'm involved in some kind of civic activities because I think that the duty of the scholar is not simply scholar who studies political theory it is not simply to write books and to teach but also to be active by being active I mean taking position on political and moral issues in my case on political and moral issues in Italy speaking up trying to criticize do you belong to a party in Italy no I don't belong to a party I belong to cultural association that dates back to the old days of the Risorgimento is a secular liberal Association small prestigious not powerful what do we do our goal has always been to try to keep alive a civic culture by civic culture and mean a culture or a mode of life based on the idea that to be a citizen does not simply mean to have rights but also to have duties responsibilities doesn't simply be a citizen does not simply mean that they owe something to you it also means that if you want to remain free if you want to live in a decent society you have to be prepared to give something give your intelligence your time your strength your courage and in order to do that they go to Italy I write for a newspaper I'm a columnist which one last Tampa of Turin you say your communist don't know it columnist I'm sorry because chimeras are active in Italy aren't they where they were and I too was a member of the Communist Party this is that's a funny story I think oh another time I might reveal it we are about out of time but I want to ask you to dedicate this book to the former mayor of Raveena Raavan Ravenna and who is the mayor and when did he live the mayor of Ravenna was my great friend Pierre Paulo the Torah he was a few years older than me he died some years ago he was a brilliant historian and at a certain time in his life he decided to become the mayor of his own City Robin on Adriatic coast and for me Pierpaolo the Torah remains the example of a person who entered in politics in order to do some good to his own City to his own people to build the city that is beautiful because it is just that is pleasant because it's dignified and it is dignified because it's a city that takes care of all of those who are weak people the Torah in my mind my judgment is the best example of what a democratic politician should be here's the cover of the book it's called Niccolo smile Mauricio parolee has been our guest thank you very much thank you

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Keywords: The Prince (Book), Niccolò Machiavelli (Politician), Human Nature (Quotation Subject), Belief (Quotation Subject), Nature (TV Genre), Adventures, History, Documentary, Killers, Culture, Civil, Museum, Human (Quotation Subject), Episode, Brandon, These, All, Pretty, The Adventures (Musical Group), Live, Things, Karl, Television (Invention), Flowers, Done, Project

Id: _A-UCkmldnk

Length: 58min 15sec (3495 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 08 2015