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The Early Editions of Machiavelli's First Decennale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Ernest Hatch Wilkins ,
William A. Jackson  and
Richard H. Rouse
Ernest Hatch Wilkins
Affiliation:
Harvard University
William A. Jackson
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Richard H. Rouse
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

Machiavelli's first Decennale is an historical poem in terza rima dealing with events that were of concern to the Florentine Republic in the years 1494-1504. Two slightly different forms exist: an earlier one, preserved in the Mediceo-Laurentian MS. Plut. XLIV, 41, which contains a dedication dated 8 November 1504, and a later one first printed in February 1506. At least three early editions of this text were printed, although no copy of one of them, a pirated edition, is known to exist.

The Laurentian MS. contains two forms of a dedication addressed to Alamanno Salviati, one in Latin and one in Italian (here printed as Appendix A), neither of which occurs in the printed editions, which have instead a prefatory letter by Agostino Vespucci. The Salviati dedication, in the Latin version, states that the poem had been written at his suggestion and, in both the Latin and Italian versions, that it was written in fifteen days, which, even if the boast were only approximate, would indicate, from the contents of the poem and the date of those dedications, that the poem was written in the autumn of 1504.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 11 , 1964 , pp. 76 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1964

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References

1 These variant but equivalent readings occur in lines 5, 11, 52, 74, 75, 76, 201, 282, 285, 286, 307, and 374.

2 Giuseppe Torre, in II Bibliofilo 11 (1881), 76-77, describes a copy which he then owned of what, from the title by which he refers to it, ‘Decemnale', must be this same edition. He likewise refers to a copy in the hands of Boone, the London antiquarian bookseller, which was inscribed below the title on the otherwise blank first page in Cardinal Bembo's hand ‘stampato in Venezia nel 1503'. The Harvard copy is in a modern vellum binding and no such inscription can be seen even under ultraviolet light. It, therefore, may or may not be the Torre copy, but it is definitely not the Boone copy. In the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence there is a manuscript (Magliabechiano xxiv, 604) which is copied from this first edition, as can be seen from its use of the one-word title, Decemnale, and by the fact that the heading of the dedication is in the form of an inverted pyramid as is not the case in the other surviving edition. This manuscript was not written by a professional scribe and its only importance is that it may indicate contemporary interest in the poem by some one who could not buy, or perhaps could not afford, a copy of the printed edition.

3 Machiavelli sent a copy of the first edition to Ercole Bentivoglio, asking for his opinion of it. Bentivoglio replied 25 February 1506, which confirms the inferred date of publication. Bentivoglio's letter is printed by Gaeta as no. 71 in the Lettere, pp. 144-146.

4 In his ‘Spigolature machiavelliane: la “contraffazione” del Decennale, in La Bibliofilia L.VII (1955), 201, the ‘notula’ is as follows:

'Errori piu sustanzievoli, ch'e’ piccoli son molti:

Desiderosi fuggir tanta pena

Qui la lega di nuovo s'incaviglia

La differenza che venne fra loro

Al cavallo sfregiato ruppe el freno

La parte hispana fe el sangue adverso la Pugla etc.

Non dico qui come habbia a dire, sappiendovel voi.'

The lines in question, and the correct readings, are as follows: 77, piena; 103, incavuglia; 147, La diffidenza che nacque fra loro; 334, sfrenato; and 416, del sangue.

5 In his edition of the Lettere (Milan, 1961) Franco Gaeta reads this date as 14 March, for reasons which he gives on p. 26.

6 Ridolfi, op. tit., asserts that Vespucci learned from Machiavelli of the existence of the pirated edition, but this is probably a misreading of Vespucci's letter. The letters which Vespucci says he had received from Machiavelli doubtless were about the business of the chancery.

7 Regarding the partnership of Tubini and Andrea Ghirlandi da Pistoia, see F.J. Norton, Italian Printers, 1501-1520 (Cambridge, 1958, Cambridge Bibliographical Society Monographs no. 3), pp. 32-33.

8 To what Vespucci here refers it is impossible to say; Fanfani and Passerini say that the letter is torn at this point. There are, it is true, one or two capital As which have broken feet, recto A2, but throughout there are even worse letters such as a crushed capital E, and rather battered capital Ms.

9 The British Museum copy was acquired through Payne and Foss at the Guglielmo Libri 1847 Paris sale, Lot 2960. The Morgan copy is a recent acquisition which belonged not long ago to Roberto Ridolfo; see the English translation of his Vita di Nkcolo Machiavelli, by Grayson, C. (Chicago, 1963), p. 280 Google Scholar, n. 5.

10 Gerber, Niccolo Machiavelli: die Handschriften, Ausgaben … (Gotha and Munich, 1912-1914), part 11, pp. 69-70, and Ridolfi, op. Cit.

11 The watermarks in the Morgan copy, at least, are quite regular, occurring in the top inner margin of leaves 9 and 12, according to a kind note of Mr. Curt F. Bühler.

12 The first and the third editions show many variations in spelling; but the only error noted is that in line 20 where the first edition reads ‘netenea la briglia', the third reads 'netea la briglia'. This corruption might have come from the pirated edition but is just as likely to be independent.

13 Published by Pietro Fanfani and Luigi Passerini in their edition of the Opere of Machiavelli, I (Florence, 1873), LXIII-LXVI; by Edoardo Alvisi as no. LXX in his edition of the Lettere familiariof Machiavelli (Florence, 1883), pp. 130-132Google Scholar, and by Franco Gaeta as no. 72 in his edition of the Lettere (Milan, 1961, Biblioteca di classici italiani 6), pp. 146-149. The text here printed is from the edition of Gaeta.

14 The contractions, except for ampersands, have been expanded.