Page:The Works of the Famous Nicholas Machiavel.djvu/16

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Authors Introduciion.

HEN I first took upon me to write the History of Florence, and its Transactions both at home and a- broad, T thought to have begun at the year 1434, at which time the Family of the Medici (exalted by the merits of Cosimo and his Father Giovanni) was in greater authority than any other in that City; be- lieving that Mess. Leonardo d' Arezzo, and Mess. Poggio, two excel- lent Historians, had given particular description of all the passages before. But upon diligent perusal of their writings to inform my self of their Orders and Methods, that thereby my own might have, better approbation, I found that in their Narratives of the Floren- tine Wars, and Foreign Negotiations, they had been accurate e- nough ; but in their Civil Dissfentions, their Intrinsic Animosities, and in the Effects which followed them, they were either totally silent, or where any thing was mentioned, it was with such brevi- ty and abruptness as could yield neither profit nor recreation to the Reader : Which I conceive they did, either out of an opinion that they were inconsiderable, and unworthy to be transmitted to Po- sterity; or else they apprehended a necessity of respecting upon some Great persons, whose Family would be disobliged thereby; both which arguments (if I may speak it without offence) are beneath the grandeur and magnanimity of a Great person. For if any thing in History be delightful or profitable, it is those particular descri- ptions; if any thing be useful to such Citizens as have the Go- vernment in their hands, it is such as represents the feuds and dis- sentions in the Cities, that thereby they may be enabled to main- tain their own unity at other peoples expence; if the example of any Commonwealth moves a man, certainly that which is written of ones own, makes a much stronger impression; and if the Fa- ctions of any State were ever condiderable, the Factions in Florence were not to be pretermitted; the greatest part of other States have not had above one, which sometimes has advanced, and sometimes ruined the Government; but Florence has had many divisions. E- very body knows how in Rome after the expulsion of their King, there arose division betwixt the Nobles and the People, which con- tinued till one of them was oppressed. So it was in Athens and all the