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INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN TO NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, SENT TO PANDOLFO PETRUCCI AT SIENNA. - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings, vol. 3 (Diplomatic Missions 1498-1505) [1498]

Edition used:

The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings of Niccolo Machiavelli, tr. from the Italian, by Christian E. Detmold (Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1882). Vol. 3.

Part of: The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings, 4 vols.

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INSTRUCTIONS

GIVEN TO NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, SENT TO PANDOLFO PETRUCCI AT SIENNA.

Resolved,16 July, 1505.

Niccolo, —

You will proceed on horseback to Sienna, so as to arrive there to-morrow morning at business hours, and you will immediately call upon the Magnificent Pandolfo, for whom you have our letters of credence. You will express to him the pleasure we have derived from his having sent a confidential agent to communicate to us the information he had received of Bartolommeo d’ Alviano’s intention to proceed immediately to Piombino. You will thank Pandolfo for the offers he has made to us, and add at once that we have sent you to him for the purpose of learning from his Lordship what he thinks ought to be done so as to prevent any further disorders; enlarging upon the subject as you may judge necessary for the purpose of more effectually finding out the truth. You will treat the subject in all its bearings, for which purpose you will have to take counsel of yourself, and govern your conduct with your habitual prudence.*

[* ]This mission to Sienna has reference to the attempt made by Bartolommeo d’ Alviano, a Condottiere in the service of Spain, to assail the Florentine dominions and to furnish help to the Pisans. Pandolfo Petrucci, who was in secret understanding with D’ Alviano, had advised the Florentine government of this movement, for the purpose of deceiving them, and with the view of getting some military engagement from them. No such engagement, however, was made with him, as his duplicity and hostility to the republic were well known. Bartolommeo d’ Alviano was subsequently defeated at Torre di S. Vincenzio in the Maremma, on the 17th of August, by the Florentines, under command of Antonio Giacomini. Vide Buonaccorsi’s Journal, pp. 107-115, where he gives all the details of this affair.