The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca

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Set amid the ferment and factionalism of early modern Italy, Life of Castruccio Castracani is a vivid and action-packed account of the rise and fall of a very "Machiavellian" prince. A charismatic warlord of the early 14th century, Castruccio Castracani came from humble beginnings as a foundling, and ended his life as ruler of Lucca, Pisa, Pistoia, and Florence. In this Life, Machiavelli extols Castracani for his acute understanding of the politics of warfare and statecraft, and while sparing no detail of his shrewd and often bloody tactics, he overturns our moral prejudice, depicting Castracani as a popular unifying force. Life of Castruccio Castracani is accompanied by selected passages from Machiavelli’s Florentine Histories to give a powerful, rounded portrait of the abandoned child who rose to become the most powerful man in Tuscany.

The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca (1520) is a sketch of Castruccio Castracani (1281–1328), the Ghibelline ruler of Lucca (a city near Florence), who is presented as the greatest man of postclassical times. It concludes with a list of witty remarks attributed to Castruccio but actually taken from ancient philosophers, providing a rare glimpse of Machiavelli’s view of them.

Machiavelli was first employed in 1520 by the cardinal to resolve a case of bankruptcy in Lucca, where he took the occasion to write a sketch of its government and to compose his The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca (1520; La vita di Castruccio Castracani da Lucca). Later that year the cardinal agreed to have Machiavelli elected official historian of the republic, a post to which he was appointed in November 1520 with a salary of 57 gold florins a year, later increased to 100.

The Life of Castruccio Castracani (Italian: Vita di Castruccio Castracani) is a short work by Niccolò Machiavelli. It is made in the form of a short biographical account of the life of the medieval Tuscan condottiere, Castruccio Castracani, who lived in and ruled Lucca.

A view of Serravalle Pistoiese, which is set upon a hill with some sides being quite steep. Machiavelli describes an attack by the Luccan forces of Castracani on the ridge of this town, that successfully caught Florentine forces by surprise.

The book is thought to have been written during a visit to Lucca in 1520. It was dedicated to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Luigi Alamanni. The former was also one of the two men to whom the Discourses on Livy was dedicated. Both, along with Machiavelli, are considered members of the so-called Orti Oricellari group.

Despite being in the form of a biography the sayings of Castracani are generally considered to have been fabricated by Machiavelli. It is therefore sometimes compared to his more well-known works including The Prince, the Discourses on Livy, and the Art of War.

A distinct section of sayings appears at the end of the work, after Castracani's life has ended. Leo Strauss, in 1958, analyzed the various speeches attributed to Castracani in this work and found that they had mostly come from classical Roman and Greek sources, including most significantly several that had been attributed to Democritus by Diogenes Laërtius.

Machiavelli treats Castracani as a person whose aim was to unite Tuscany, but who failed because, as Machiavelli has the dying Castracani tell his heir "Fortune, who is admitted to be arbiter of all human things, did not give me so much judgement that I could early understand her, nor so much time that I could overcome her". This proposal that leaders can overcome the arbiter of all things is a common theme in Machiavelli's better known political works such as The Prince.

By treating Castracani as a founder, almost, of a new state, Machiavelli used him as an example of the most important type of prince according to his other writings. In fact Machiavelli opens with a passage that treats prophets as the highest type of secular prince.

...the larger part, of those who in this world have done very great things, and who have been excellent among the men of their era, have in their birth and origin been humble and obscure, or at least have been beyond all measure afflicted by Fortune. Because all of them either have been exposed to wild beasts or have had fathers so humble that, being ashamed of them, they have made themselves out sons of Jove or some other god. Who these are, since many of them are known to everybody, would be boring to repeat and little acceptable to readers... Machiavelli (1958:533)

Castracani was found as a baby left in a field, Machiavelli reports.

Machiavelli ends by touching upon another theme found in his other works, which is that Italy in his time was weak.

...because when living he was inferior neither to Philip of Macedon, Alexander's father, nor to Scipio of Rome, he died at the age of both; without doubt he would have surpassed both if instead of Lucca he had had for his native country Macedonia or Rome. Machiavelli (1958:559)

A VIVID AND ACTION-PACKED ACCOUNT OF THE RISE AND FALL OF A VERY "MACHIAVELLIAN" PRINCE...!

The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca

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English

12,163 Words

Tyrannical Rule, Greatness, Political Strategy, Political Science, Political Philosophy, Fortune, Virtue, War, Human Nature, Power, Florence Italy History, Military Art, Political Ethics

Political Philosophy & Florence Italy History

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