This week we studied the Medici and Machiavelli. Our essential question was “How did new wealth in Florence contribute to new ideas during the Renaissance?” In class, we discussed the question, watched videos, and read documents on the Medici family and Machiavelli during the Renaissance. We learned about patronage, and how it was artists that were paid to complete works of art in the homes of the families that paid them. We discussed the Medici family, and their rise to be the most powerful and most wealthy family in all of Florence. They sponsored someone who aspired to be pope, and the pope made the Medici bank the head bank of Florence. We also talked about Machiavelli, and how he wrote a book called “The Prince” when he got banished, to try to win back his political career, but it was too late, and it failed.
It is important for a prince to spend all of his time studying the art of war because “it is the sole art that belongs to him who rules”, or, it is the key art of a true ruler. It is not only, as he states, the force that upholds those who are true, born princes, but it allows men to rise up through the ranks. By studying war and knowing it well he could be well-respected, and well at ease knowing these skills. By being lazy and not studying war, you will grow to be despised and even more lazy.
Overall, I don’t agree with Machiavelli’s ideas on leadership. It seems his idea of a good leader is a strong one, who studies war and martial arts. Also, he states that, of the two, it is better to be feared than to be loved. I don’t think many leaders nowadays follow his principle of leadership, because a good leader is loved, not feared. Men during this generation would not follow this, because morals of peace, not war, is being spread around.
Link to the excerpts: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/prince-excerp.asp
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