Leon Battista Alberti’s Porcaria coniuratio

The second chapter focuses on Leon Battista Alberti’s Porcaria coniuratio, the historical epistle on Stefano Porcari’s conspiracy against pope Nicholas V written immediately after the thwarted plot in 1453. The political perspective underlying Alberti’s text does not reflect a merely propagandistic view, but conversely is the expression of a complex and ambiguous political reading of the events. The analysis aims to shed light on Alberti’s unsettled political view, by examining not only the ideological standpoint that emerges in the epistle, but also the rhetorical and stylistic elements that permeate this work. In particular, specific attention is paid to both the choice of the epistolary genre, which is employed to produce a historiographical work and is combined with other literary forms, and the studied use of various classical models (Sallust, satirical authors, Cicero, etc.). The examination of this text, which is read in connection with other works by Alberti, reveals the humanist’s view on historiography, which occupies a pivotal position in the lively fifteenth-century debate on historical writing. Moreover, the analysis shows how the complex rhetorical and stylistic framework of the Porcaria coniuratio implicitly conveys Alberti’s uneasy political thought, which proves to be completely distant from any sympathy with the plotter. Although the epistle is informed by a questioning approach, it reveals the humanist’s disapproval of any attempt at overthrowing established governments. It also betrays Alberti’s problematizing attitude towards political power and his unresolved view on the intricate Roman political background.

Conclusions

The final section sums up the main innovative findings of this whole study. It points out how starting from the second half of the fifteenth century the development of a ‘thematic genre’ of literature on conspiracies was influenced by, but at the same time contributed to, the phenomenon of the literary fashioning of the profile of the ideal ruler, who now corresponded to the figure of a princeps. This literature also contributed to the creation of a new language and symbology of power through the multifunctional reworking of the classical legacy. This evolution culminated in Machiavelli’s attention to the issue of political plots in this work, with an approach that proves to be partly inspired by the previous cultural horizon, but already prominently projected towards an utterly new conceptual world. This analysis, besides providing a missing chapter on the background of Machiavelli’s work, more generally, underlines the significant contribution made by the humanist tradition, through its various literary expressions, to the development of modern political theories and to the history of our culture.

‘Congiure contro a uno principe’

The final chapter examines the relationship between Machiavelli’s work and fifteenth-century literature on conspiracies. The analysis highlights the role that this humanist literature played in the development of Machiavelli’s complex theorization of conspiracies as a political phenomenon, but it also underlines how, although he was influenced by this background, he also radically departed from it. Machiavelli dealt with this political subject in several sections of his works: in particular in his long chapter Delle congiure in the Discorsi (III, 6), which can be considered a comprehensive treatise on plots; in chapter XIX of Il principe; and in some significant chapters of the Istorie fiorentine, where Machiavelli narrates the conspiracies that took place in Italy in the previous centuries. He was the first author to develop a substantial theorization of political plots and he based it on concrete historical examples drawn from previous narratives and from ancient history. Machiavelli’s analysis of conspiracies shares some key elements with the political perspective underlying fifteenth-century literature on plots: his focus on the figure of the prince as the main target of the conspiracy; the importance assigned to the role of the common people and to the issue of building political consensus; the attention paid to internal enemies and internal matters within the state, rather than to the relationship with foreign political forces; the evolution in the analytical approach regarding tyranny and tyrannicide; the centrality of the notion of crimen laesae maiestatis; the emphasis on the negative political outcome of plots.

Angelo Poliziano’s Coniurationis commentarium

The fourth chapter focuses on Poliziano’s Coniurationis commentarium, the literary account of the Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici brothers, Lorenzo and Giuliano (1478). The critical analysis reconstructs the circumstances of composition of the text, its publication in two printed editions, and its circulation in the manuscript tradition, revealing that the work enjoyed widespread diffusion as the central pillar of pro-Medici propaganda. The investigation into the text shows that it totally adheres to the guidelines of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s cultural politics in the aftermath of the plot. The thorough examination of the changes made by Poliziano in the second version of the text confirms that its political perspective also mirrored the evolution of the political situation in Florence and in Italy in 1480. Despite being a highly propagandistic work, Poliziano’s Commentarium is also a sophisticated piece of literature produced by the eclectic combination of manifold sources drawn from the classical tradition: a conflation that reflects the humanist’s principle of docta varietas. The main prototype of Sallust is combined it with multiple references to a variety of models: other classical historians (Suetonius, Caesar, and Livy), poetry, comic authors (most of all Terence), and even technical literature (Celsus, Pliny the Elder, etc.). In particular, the extensive use of Suetonius, especially his biography of Caesar, conveys particular political overtones. One of the crucial ideological elements in the text is the representation of Lorenzo de’ Medici as an actual heroic prince, who is loved by his people and embodies the idea of the whole state.

Giovanni Pontano’s De bello Neapolitano

This chapter presents a critical study of Giovanni Pontano’s De bello Neapolitano, the historical account of the ‘conspiracy of the barons’ against Ferdinando of Aragon, king of Naples, and the war that followed the rebellion (1459–65). Pontano’s work is contextualized in the historical and cultural scenario of the Aragonese monarchy and in the humanist’s broader literary and political activity, as a historian, political and literary theorist, and royal secretary. In particular the De bello Neapolitano can be placed in the realm of ‘political historiography’, a genre that enjoyed considerable fortune in Italian Renaissance. Pontano’s work is inspired by different models, both classical and contemporary, and continues the tradition of Aragonese historiography (inaugurated by Valla, Facio, and Panormita). Moreover, the chapter examines the text from a political angle by investigating its connections with Pontano’s most significant political-theoretical treatises: De principe and De obedientia. The analysis illustrates how the humanist’s princely ideology and his theory of statecraft is framed by means of different works, through the interplay of historical narrative and theoretical speculation. In this productive literary interaction, the topic of internal political conflict occupies a prominent position and its treatment in Pontano’s works reveals a developing idea of political realism. Pontano provides a concrete model of an ideal state that is based on the principle of obedience and on the hierarchical relationship between different social components: the prince, the barons, and the common people, components that play a key function, both narrative and exemplary, also in the humanist’s historical work.

The Conspiracy Against the Prince

The chapter offers a comparative study that traces the evolution of fifteenth-century conspiracy literature, illustrating its distinctive features, narrative approaches, and political perspectives. The analysis focuses on the multiform operation of recasting classical models, which matches and, at the same time, underpins the ideological viewpoint in these texts. Specific attention is also paid to the multifunctional role of history in this literature, as it exploits historical narrative, historiographical techniques, and principles, in order to construct a historical memory that conveys a precise political message. This message coincides with the condemnation of the conspiracy as an attack against the state and the ‘prince’, who is now the dominant figure in the political discourse. The key elements that frame this political outlook in the texts are: the function of the author–narrator (as a poet, letter writer, historian, witness); the speeches delivered by historical characters; the stress on the exceptionality of the historical event; the portraits of the conspirators; the representation of the common people; the image of the revenge against the plotters; and the uneasy balance between clemency and vengeance in the ruler’s reaction to the conspiracy. Through the interplay of these components the texts reflect, and contribute to, the development of a theory of statecraft that is informed by a blossoming notion of political realism and plays a crucial role in the definition of a new model of state. Significantly this strand of political thought also emerged in mirrors for princes, which display many elements in common with works on plots.

Introduction

The first section is a general introduction to Italian Early Renaissance literature on the topic of conspiracies. It sets out the theoretical basis of this study, providing the definition of the ‘thematic genre’ of texts on political plots and contextualizing it within the historical, cultural, and political background of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. This substantial corpus consists of texts produced in different political centres and through different literary forms, but with significant thematic and ideological traits in common. The expansion of this kind of literature, in an epoch that can be rightly defined an ‘age of conspiracies’, is connected with the concentration of political power in the hands of newly established leaders. In this scenario, the fruitful interaction between literature and politics is evident in the development of two intertwined genres: historical-literary works on plots and political treatises de principe, texts that are informed by similar political perspectives and contribute to the legitimization of new types of authorities. The crucial implications that the issue of conspiracy had in the literary debate on princely power will also emerge clearly in the following century in Machiavelli’s thought. This chapter additionally introduces the crucial role played by the classical tradition in this ‘thematic’ literature. Sallust is predictably the chief source, but all texts are based on the recovery of manifold classical models and display a complex process of imitation that affects structural, thematic, stylistic, and ideological aspects. The last section offers an overview of the main fifteenth-century texts on plots.

Orazio Romano’s Porcaria

This chapter presents a thorough critical study of Orazio Romano’s poem Porcaria, a not very well-known text on Stefano Porcari’s conspiracy against Pope Nicholas V, in 1453. The comprehensive analysis of this work provides a complete reconstruction of the history of the text, based on the examination of the only manuscript copy of the poem still extant, and a thorough investigation of the wide-ranging classical sources used by the author in his work: in particular Vergil, Lucan, Statius, Sallust, Livy, and Claudian. The intertextual analysis points out the complex and multifunctional process of imitation performed by Orazio Romano in the creation of his sophisticated poem: a practice that affects both stylistic and thematic elements and is also aimed at creating a complex dimension of exemplarity. Moreover, the chapter analyses the political perspective of the text, which proves to be closely connected with the system of cultural politics developed by Nicholas V in the same years. Orazio Romano’s poem, in fact, is informed by a secular dimension in dealing with the issue of the conspiracy against the pope. Nicholas V himself emerges in the Porcaria as the figure of a papal prince, whose power is legitimized by an ennobling connection with the classical tradition. Classical symbols, values, and exemplars play a prominent function in bestowing authority on a new kind of papal government typical of the Renaissance age, which assumes the traits of a secular principality.