Lecture by Giuliano Amato, Judge of the Costitutional Court of Italy
At Georgetown University
On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the composition of The Prince, Giuliano Amato, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy, will discuss the essential role Niccolò Machiavelli has played in the history of modern political thought.
Organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Italy in Washington DC, with the support of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism.
An initiative of the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana founded by Giovanni Treccani.
COVER IMAGE: Machiavelli’s portrait detail: Santi di Tito – Palazzo Vecchio – Florence, Italy
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OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – RESERVATION NOT REQUIRED
LOCATION
Georgetown University
Edward B. Bunn Intercultural Center (ICC)
3700 O St NW
Washington, DC 20057
Georgetown University
Giuliano Amato
Professor Emeritus at the European University Institute in Florence, member of Parliament for 18 years, twice Treasury Minister, Minister of Interior and twice Prime Minister of Italy, he also headed the 2003-2005 International Commission on the Balkans and was Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe. Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, until September 2013 he was President of the Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana in Rome, of the Scuola Superiore S. Anna in Pisa and of the Center for American Studies in Rome. He also chaired the Scientific Board of Astrid and the International Advisory Board of the Fondazione ItalianiEuropei. In September 2013 he was appointed Judge of the Constitutional Court by the President of the Republic and due to this new position he has resigned from all the other ones. He has written books and articles on antitrust, personal liberties, government, European integration and humanities.
The Prince
With the writing of The Prince in 1513, originally titled De principatibus and published for the first time in 1532, Machiavelli penned the first true treatise on modern politics. As a man of his times and careful observer of his period, Machiavelli composed a work that through the use of an original essayist style marked by rigor and intensity, reveals the profile of a writer who was very aware of the roles and duties of politics. Machiavelli’s ‘homeland’, citing Francesco De Sanctis, among the first authors to reassess the scope of his thinking, “is naturally the free commune, free for its virtue and not by thanks to the Pope or the Emperor, government by all in the interests of all.”
Machiavelli’s treatise, which has divided readers into supporters and detractors and is responsible for coinage of the term Machiavellianism, signaled the liberation of the concept of politics by separating the Prince’s actions from morality and religion.
In this transformed vision of the State, in juxtaposition to fortune, understood as the external world, unforeseeable and adverse, are the virtues of the Prince, understood as intelligence, energy and zeal in one’s work.
Between August and September 1512, Florence’s republican experience draws to a close when the Medici’s return to power. Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici, future Pope Leo X, together with brother Giuliano, reestablish the Medici dominion after an 18 year interlude. A list of anti-Medici conspirators contains the name Niccolò Machiavelli, who is thus arrested and tortured. While acknowledged as not having been connected to the affair, he was not able to regain the good graces of the powerful family, and thus Machiavelli, withdraws to his villa, Albergaccio, in Sant’Andrea in Percussina. Here he dedicates himself to writing The Prince, a treatise on political doctrine initially dedicated to Giuliano de’ Medici, who is in Rome with the Pope, and later addressed to Lorenzo, Captain-General of the Florentine Militia and Duke of Urbino from 1516. Upon receiving the work as a gift in 1515, neither realized the importance it would bear.
Written in 1513, but not published until 1532, after the death of its author, The Prince is divided into 26 chapters. Machiavelli cautions his reader, Lorenzo de’ Medici, that in it he will find “the cognition of the actions of great men, which I have learned through long experience in modern things and continuous instruction from ancient times”. Machiavelli outlines the qualities that a prince must possess to conquer and maintain a state, coming to an extremely realistic view of actuality in which the action of the prince must turn, very firmly and forcefully, to reaching his objective.
As the narrative unfolds, Machiavelli touches on a host of topics, from an analysis of various types of principalities and the autonomy of politics, to the morality of the Church and the concepts of virtue and fortune.
During these past five hundred years, The Prince has been interpreted in any number of different and sometimes conflicting ways, and it has been plagiarized, censured, and even confuted. It is one of the most widely translated literary works in the world, and the subject of many influential critiques. It remains a fascinating and controversial work that still reveals an extraordinary reflection on power.
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