MACHIAVELLI'S PRINCE AND THE FLORENTINE REVOLUTION OF 1512

AbstractIn December 1513 Machiavelli wrote a letter to Francesco Vettori in which he reported that he had composed a book ‘on principates’ (de principatibus), and intended to dedicate it to Giuliano de' Medici. At some date in the next three years or so Machiavelli changed the dedication to Lorenzo de' Medici, nephew of Giuliano. It is usually thought that Machiavelli hoped to present Giuliano with a work which would assist him in governing that state which Giovanni de' Medici (since March 1513 Pope Leo X) planned to establish for him in Northern Italy. However, historians have suggested recently that in and after 1513 Machiavelli's political thought was prompted, less by present concerns than by a wish to understand the failure of the popular government in Florence which had fallen the year before, and warn of the mistakes committed by its chief magistrate, Piero Soderini.