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