Machiavelli's Use of Civic Humanist Rhetoric

Abstract

'The text of this oration, now printed in most collected works of Machiavelli, (e.g., Mario Martelli, Niccolo Machiavelli, Tutte leOpere [Florence; Sansoni, 1971], 3637), was first discovered in 1782 by the abbots Reginaldo Tanzini and Bartolomeo Follini, curators of the library of Scipione Ricci, bishop of Pistoia and a descendant of Giuliano Ricci, one of the MachiavelU's grandsons. It was first printed in 1797 by Gaetano Pogialli. The original manuscript, which is available in MachiavelU's autograph, had no title of its own. The title was given by the first discoverers and editor. The current printed editions give the title as L'Allocuzione fatta ad un magistrate, as in MartelU. But the latest critical edition of the text, published by Jean-Jacques Marchand in Bibliofilia 86 (1974); 209-21, omits the word fatta from the title. Earlier editors had difficulty in dating the work. But thanks to Paolo GhigUeri, who has developed a scientific study of the evolution of MachiavelU's handwriting, it is now possible to place his works accurately. On the basis of changes occurring in MachiavelU's formation of specific alphabets, this work is ascribed to the period 1519-20, the same period when he frequented the Oricellari circle and published such works as the Art of War, Life of Castruccio Castracani, Balfagor, etc. ^A full account of this tradition is given by Emilio Santini in La Protestatio de Justitia nella Firenze Medicea del secolo XV, Rinascimento 10 (1959): 33-107. He gives the texts of several such Florentine orations, so that those who are interested