Description
Book SynopsisBy 1520, Niccolò Machiavelli’s life in Florence was steadily improving: he had achieved a degree of literary fame, and, following his removal from the Florentine Chancery by the Medici family, he had managed to gain their respect and patronage. But there is one figure whose substantial contributions to Machiavelli’s restoration has been hitherto neglected – Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi (1482–1549), a younger and fabulously wealthy Florentine nobleman. As manuscript evidence suggests, Strozzi brought Machiavelli into his patronage network and aided many of his post-1520 achievements.
This book is the first English biography of Strozzi, as well as the first examination of the patron-client relationship that developed between the two men. William J. Landon reveals Strozzi’s influence on Machiavelli through wide-ranging textual investigations, and especially through Strozzi’s Pistola fatta per la peste – a work that survives
Trade Review
'Strozzi and Machiavelli has many merits. It provides an original and lucid biography of Lorenzo Strozzi, a detailed discussion of the Strozzi-Machiavelli relationship, and critical editions and translations of several texts that circulated in Strozzi's circle, thereby shedding light on the particularly dynamic intellectual context of Florence in the first half of the sixteenth century.' -- Mark Jurdjevic Renaissance Quarterly vol 67:04:2014 'This elegant, short book presents an obscure text by a little-known figure to a new audience. Both the analysis and the text should attract the interest of a variety of scholars, both of history and literature.' -- Nicholas Scott Baker The Journal of Modern History vol 87:03:2015
Table of Contents
Chapter One: The Life of Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi Chapter Two: Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi and Niccolo Machiavelli Chapter Three: A History of the Pistola fatta per la peste: Its Manuscripts, Publication History and a Close Reading of the Text Conclusion: Pistola, Patron, Client and the Proposed Strozzi Marriage of 1525 Figures: Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi's Pistola fatta per la peste: An Italian Edition and an English Translation of the Text Appendix One: Appendix One: Supplemental Transcriptions from Banco Rari 29 Appendix Two: Francesco Zeffi's "Vita" Of Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi Appendix Three: A Recipe for an Antidote against the Plague by Mengo Bianchelli Appendix Four: Niccolo Machiavelli's Minuta di Provvisione per la Riforma dello Stato di Firenze L'Anno 1522 Bibliography
