Niccolo Machiavelli
Machiavelli, Niccolo

13 November, 1502
Imola

LETTER XXIII.

Magnificent Signori: —

Humbly commending myself to your Lordships, I beg to say that, if you are surprised at not having received any letters from me, I regret it exceedingly for my part, but it has been from no fault of mine. Instead of Tommaso Totti, there came here a man on foot, who with very little practical knowledge of the country was but little accustomed to walking. On the 8th I gave him my letters in reply to yours, which were of as much importance as any that I have written since my being here. I would send your Lordships a duplicate of them if your courier had not told me that before leaving Florence he had met the bearer of my first despatches of the 5th. Although I happened to write privately to the Gonfaloniere upon public events, which was not much, I wrote nevertheless to your Lordships first on the 3d instant; and my last was of the 10th, which I sent you by the hands of Jacopo, a carrier of Monticelli, together with a copy of the treaty, and all the news from here, which letter ought to reach you to-day. I therefore beg your Lordships to hold me excused, and to bear in mind that matters here cannot be guessed at. And you must understand that we have to do here with a prince who governs by himself. To avoid writing mere fancies and reveries, one must study matters well, and in so doing time passes, and I endeavor to spend mine advantageously, and not to throw it away.

I shall not repeat what I have written in mine of the 8th and 10th, hoping that they are safely in your hands, although somewhat late. Your Lordships will have seen from those letters the turn that matters are taking here; and you will also have learned from them, at least in part, the disposition of the Duke, as well as what he told me in the conversations I had with him and with that friend of mine, who insists every day that he who temporizes seeks for better bread than can be made of wheat, and misses the opportunity when it presents itself. To which I reply that the delay is owing, first, to the desire of learning the wishes of the king of France; and next, by that of sending to Rome to ascertain the views of the Pope, which now depends on the going of the Bishop of Volterra

to France, and upon the coming of the Archdeacon of Celon here, all which is construed into intentional delay.

People are not wanting here who say that it is the custom of your Lordships to act thus, and I am reproached every day that ever since 1499 your Lordships, from not having taken sides with the French or the Duke, were first badly served by the Duke, and afterwards crushed by the king of France. I defend and maintain the honor of the republic as best I can, adducing all the arguments in my power, and they are plenty, but they are not admitted. I did not wish to write all this to your Lordships until to-day, lest I should be accused of presumption. However, seeing things go as I had anticipated, I prefer to complain of misrepresentations, rather than repent later of not having informed you of what is passing here. Your Lordships ask many explanations of me, and I believe that up to the present you will find that I have complied with your requirements, provided that all my letters have been read. In the first instance, your Lordships desire to hear whether people here believe in peace rather than in war. To this I have replied that they talk of peace and make preparations for war. And as regards peace I have written what has been done here by the Signor Paolo Orsino, and since then I have sent you a copy of the articles of agreement with my letter of the 10th, and pointed out the difficulties that have arisen because Messer Giovanni Bentivogli had refused to ratify that agreement, and because of the instructions from the Pope to Trocces. So that pending the ratification of Messer Giovanni and of the Pope, the treaty itself remains in suspense. On the 30th of the last month, I informed you of the conjectures made here as to the manner in which this peace might be effected, and of the difficulties that stand in the way. In view of the character of the Duke and that of the others, it was deemed impossible that any agreement could be brought about between them; but that most likely the Duke would be able to detach some of the confederates from their league. We now see things going that way because, as I have written before, the Protonotario Bentivogli is here, and is negotiating a separate convention with the Duke, which is as good as concluded. The Bentivogli may be able to justify this course to the other confederates, because in the general treaty the affairs of Bologna have been left to arbitration, whilst their security is the

guaranty of the king of France of the observance of that treaty. And this evening whilst conversing with the Protonotario, he asked me whether your Lordships would also guarantee this treaty to both parties, the same as the king of France? To which I replied that your Lordships would not hesitate to unite in any engagement with his Majesty the king of France. Of the conditions of this treaty I can say nothing, not having heard anything on the subject satisfactory to myself. Should it be argued that it may be difficult for the Duke to give up the idea of not taking Bologna, then I reply the same as I have written before, that it has been demonstrated to him that it will be better to establish a durable friendship than to take a city which he would not be able to hold. However, the Orsini and the Vitelli have given him cause for acting with prudence, and have shown him that it behooves him to think more of what he has acquired than to strive to acquire more. And the means of so preferring his state is to be armed with troops of his own, to treat his subjects kindly, and to make his neighbors his friends. This it seems it is his intention to do, according to what my friend tells me, and as I have stated to your Lordships in my letter of the 8th.

As to the treaty with the confederates, the ratification of which came as I have written you, his Excellency has sent some one to the Orsini to try and settle the difficulty made by Messer Giovanni, and thus he gains time. The Orsini, meanwhile, remain in the territory of Fano, without moving a step forwards or backwards; and thus this part of the general peace remains in uncertainty. The party that knows best how to impose upon the others will carry the day; and he will best impose upon the others who is strongest in troops and in allies. So much for the question of peace or of war.

I have already advised your Lordships of the preparations making here; these are steadily continued and urged, although they are later than what it was thought they should have been made. For the better information of your Lordships as to the troops and mounted men here now, and what are expected, I enclose a list of the same, made up from what I have gathered from several persons; not having actually seen them myself, I am obliged to depend for my information upon others. The Duke is here, and will not leave until after the arrival of the Swiss, who are looked for this week; and the remainder of

the French lances are expected daily. The Duke, as I have mentioned several times, receives all the enemies of Pandolfo, Gianpaolo, Vitellozzo, and of the Orsini.

I have nothing else of interest to communicate at this time, but beg your Lordships to excuse me if my communications are not satisfactory; and commend myself most humbly.

Niccolo Machiavelli.
Imola,
13 November, 1502.