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LETTER XXIV. - 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 XXIV.

Magnificent Signori, etc.: —

We wrote to your Lordships to-day at the twenty-first hour all that had occurred up to that time. Since then, at about the twenty-third hour, Messer Francesco del Lante and Ser Tommio da Calsi arrived here, and told us that they had come to signify to us that immediately on their arrival in Pisa, and after having informed their Priors of the terms of the treaty, which were satisfactory to them as well as to all who had heard them, they had endeavored to assemble their Council with as many adjuncts as possible, so that this business, which concerns every one, might be confirmed by every one; but that with all their efforts they had not been able to get as many together as they desired to have; for very many of them were busy in getting their houses in order to receive us and our troops; and a portion of the country people had gone out to work in the fields and attend to other business. Thus they had been obliged to put off the meeting for the approval of the treaty until to-morrow; but that at the first hour of night they would have notice published for the meeting of the general Council to-morrow morning; and that they would not have the city gates opened to-morrow until after the Council had assembled. They have promised to bring us the ratification to-morrow before dinner, and seemed delighted to have found those persons pleased and well disposed who until now had been very differently disposed. We fully believe that they will come to-morrow according to their promise; and we shall see to it that we get possession to-morrow of the whole or part of the state, making ourselves masters of the artillery and of some strong positions in the city, of which we shall notify your Lordships successively.

The gentlemen Condottieri have met to-day for the object mentioned in our letter of the 18th, and have concluded that it will be necessary at first to keep a garrison of not less than one thousand men in Pisa; and for this purpose we shall keep six hundred of the regular infantry, and the other four hundred of the troops under the old constables.

We have nothing further to write at present, except to recommend ourselves to your Lordships.

ANTONIO DE FILICAJA,} Commissaries-General.
ALAMANNO DE SALVIATI,
NICCOLO CAPPONI,

From the Florentine Camp at Mezzana,
6 June, 4th hour of night, 1509.*

MISSION TO MANTUA ON BUSINESS WITH THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY.*

[* ]The Florentines entered Pisa on the 8th of June, 1509. The letter of the Commissaries giving an account of their entrance has not been found with the others given above. A full account of the surrender of Pisa, and of the extremity to which the inhabitants had been reduced, will be found in the eighth book of Guicciardini’s History, and in Biagio Buonaccorsi’s Journal, page 14.

[* ]After the fatal League of Cambray against the republic of Venice, the soil of Italy was overrun, in the spring of 1509, by foreign armies, who from the first had easy victories. But the Emperor Maximilian was less fortunate than the other members of the league; for although his troops succeeded at the first rush in taking Padua and Treviso, yet these cities soon freed themselves from this new domination, and returned to their submission to the Venetians. When the Emperor thereupon crossed the Alps in person, he began at once to molest the Italian states with demands for money; and, most naturally, the first called upon was the republic of Florence, who sent ambassadors to the Emperor at Verona, and concluded a treaty with him. By the articles of this treaty the Emperor obligates himself to guarantee to the republic of Florence all her possessions, and pledges himself not to disturb the actual government of Florence nor the liberties of the state, nor permit his generals to do so. The Florentines, on the other hand, obligate themselves to pay the Emperor the sum of forty thousand ducats, in four instalments: the first, in the course of the month of October; the second, on the 25th of November, which is the present one, to which this mission relates; the third, in the course of January; and the fourth and last, in February. See Buonaccorsi’s Diary, p. 144, and Guicciardini, Lib. VIII.

Having to make the second payment of ten thousand ducats in the middle of November at Mantua, the Signoria of Florence commissioned Machiavelli to proceed there for that purpose, giving him the following instructions.