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LETTER XL. - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings, vol. 4 (Diplomatic Missions 1506-1527) [1506]

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. 4.

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

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LETTER XL.

Magnificent Signori, etc.: —

After having written the enclosed to your Lordships yesterday, the courier of his Magnificence the Ambassador arrived, and notified me that he would be this evening at Tosignano, and that, the locality serving as an excuse, he would wish all ceremonies and formalities on his arrival to be dispensed with, for being indisposed he desired to avoid that fatigue; and he requested me to inform him of what I had done in the matter.

I called at once upon his Eminence of Pavia, and informed him of the near arrival of our ambassador; his Eminence immediately sent for the master of ceremonies to arrange that all the cardinals with their suites and the other prelates should go out to meet the Ambassador according to custom. Whereupon I told his Eminence that, as the Ambassador was indisposed, he wished to avoid the fatigue of a ceremonious reception, provided the locality would excuse it. This request was promptly conceded, to the satisfaction of everybody, for the cardinals have but scanty retinues, and matters are done here in military fashion and not with all the formalities of Rome. His Magnificence the Ambassador has arrived here this morning, and his Holiness has appointed an audience for him for to-morrow at the fifteenth hour.

The news here is that the government of Bologna have written a letter to their ambassadors here, under date of yesterday, enclosing a copy of the summons which Monseigneur de Chaumont has addressed in the name of the king to that city; by which he informs them that if within two days they have not returned to their obedience to his Holiness, and submitted to all his commands, he will hold them as enemies, and will consider himself absolved from all obligations of protection under which he was to the state and person of Messer Giovanni and the city of Bologna. The government charge their ambassadors to throw themselves at the feet of his Holiness, and to recommend to him their city, and to inform him that they are ready to obey all his commands; and that they entreat him to spare the person and effects of Messer Giovanni and of his children. To which the Pope has replied that he has nothing to say to them except that they obey his Bull, to which sentence he adheres. We learn also, from a courier sent here express, that the French will be here to-day before Castel Franco.

His Magnificence the Ambassador, as I have said above, will have an audience of the Pope to-morrow, and will report to your Lordships from day to day the progress of events here; and, God willing, I shall, with the gracious permission of your Lordships, return to-morrow or next day to Florence.

I recommend myself to your Lordships, quæ bene valeant.

Servus

Niccolo Machiavelli,
Secret. apud Papam.

Imola, 26 October, 1506.

THIRD MISSION TO SIENNA.*

[* ]When Pope Julius II. heard that the Emperor Maximilian wascoming down into Italy to assume the imperial crown, he resolved to send a Legate to him in Germany, and appointed for this purpose the Spaniard Bernardino Caravajal, “Cardinal of Santa Croce in Jerusalemme.” As this Legate had to traverse Tuscany in going to Germany, the Signoria of Florence, uncertain as to what they ought to do, and uninformed as to the number of persons in the Legate’s suite, and at the same time not wishing either to go too far in showing him too much honor, or to fall short of doing their duty to so illustrious a stranger, resolved to send their Secretary to Sienna, where they knew that the Cardinal would stop a few days, so as to find out and report to them all they wished to know about him. Machiavelli’s letters treat the matter according to his instructions; but it seems that the Ten did not write to him during this mission, as no letters from them on the subject have been found in the archives. — Edition of Machiavelli’s Works by Passerini and Milanesi.