Politics and the Italian Renaissance

Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince 1513

Renaissance Italy was not unified

® Italy did not create effective political institutions

® Italian politics became a stage where individuals might exhibit their virtu

® Machiavelli dreamed of the day when the citizens of Italy would behave like early Romans-fighting in citizen armies for patriotic causes.

The Prince 1513

® He produced the first purely secular writing on politics.

® He emancipated politics from moral philosophy and theology

® His writing was amoral- he simply sought to describe what effective politicians did.

® Credited with the phrase “the end justifies the means”

® In the Prince Machiavelli produced a handbook of statecraft which he hoped Italy might find useful.

Prince cont.

® Effective rulers and governments act only in their political interests

® They keep faith or break it, are merciful or ruthless, peaceable or aggressive according to their own political needs.

® Machiavelli was prepared to say such behavior was wrong, it was however how successful rulers behaved.

Italian High Renaissance 1500-1527

® Took place largely in Rome

® Renaissance Popes Julius II and Leo X

® Patrons of Arts

® Tomb of Julius II, Sistine Chapel, St. Peters church

® Ends with the sacking of Rome by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1527

High Renaissance Artist: Titian
1485-1576