How a 29-Year-Old Machiavelli Rose to Power – Ada Palmer

Added: 2026-05-03

[00:00:00]This is the system into which Machiavelli, right, is born.

[00:00:03]Uh in which his family has worked for the Medici family for generations. He grows up expecting to work for the Medici family. Um but the problem with heredity is that sometimes you get a weak link.

[00:00:16]And in the moment that Machiavelli is in his early 20s coming of age about to work in uh in government for the first time, a government in which he himself is not in fact even fully enfranchised.

[00:00:27]That's one of the fascinating things about the degree of his patriotism. Uh you weren't allowed to serve in government office fully the the elected uh lotteried offices if your family was deep in debt. And his grandfather had a lot of unpaid tax debt. So, he worked his whole life for a government of which he was not even quite a full citizen.

[00:00:46]Which is again deep love of your country, but also shows even people who could not be in office deeply loved and cared about this republic. And that important liberty that they felt they had being ruled by the 5% instead of being ruled by one dictator. Yeah. And to us that isn't a very big difference, right? They're still both not democracy.

[00:01:09]We would say they're both not liberty in the sense that we want liberty. But it's an inch more liberty than monarchy. And even that small amount of liberty people loved it. People were willing to fight for it. People were willing to go to the streets and wave their banners that say libertas uh for the republic and and because they were invested in it and Machiavelli observes they sustained it. Um but eventually one particular Medici, I'm not saying names because they all have the same names over and over and it's really confusing. So, it's easier without names. One particular Medici uh comes to power quite uh young and weak.

[00:01:45]He's basically 20 when he's at suddenly in charge of a very particular and precarious republic. And right then the French are invading Italy uh and he's scared and he botches the diplomacy with France and falls into disrepute and the city takes the opportunity to kick him out. The subsequent regimes which are an independent republic again are the ones for which Machiavelli works. And so, he's 29 when in the subsequent >> 21 Or sorry, who's he? Is Machiavelli 21?

[00:02:12]>> Machiavelli Machiavelli's 29 when in in the the next you know, theocratic republic he's made in charge of diplomacy.

[00:02:20]Um and how does that happen? How does a 29-year-old with a minor family >> this man saw his country nearly fall six times by the time he was 12.

[00:02:29]>> Right. Uh >> [laughter] >> he has grown up fast and he has grown up scared.

[00:02:33]>> Right. Uh and he has grown up bookish and and ready to to work hard at this.

[00:02:38]So, you can ask another question. Um how do you This is Okay, sorry. The printing press has been around for 50 years, but the books are still expensive, right? How is How is How is a guy from a minor family write so much? So, it's a it's a minor family in one sense.

[00:02:53]It's still a very wealthy family. He's he's not in the top 5%, but he's definitely in the top 10%. And he's had people who have been in the Senate in the family. So, he's still a wealthy elite kind of family. The kind of family that in the 19th century would have gone to Oxford, but would not have been right a duke, right? Um and uh also in Florence uh there are the libraries of other wealthier families and your well your family works for theirs. So, he has access to the Medici's library because he is from a Medici client family. And any smart bookish kid who is being well educated in that direction, the family will work hard to make sure that he has access to those collections as well. So, a number of his manuscripts that we know he looked at or copied from are in the Medici collections. Others were other important families like the Rucellai family uh which had an important library. We know that he visited their gardens and so on. And when I say these are important families like yesterday the Rucellai family filed a letter with the mayor of Florence demanding that they not let a slumlord redevelop some land outside the city and that it needs to be turned into gardens and art centers co-signed by a dozen other old noble families who were in the bag that lotteries were drawn out of 500 years ago. These families are still there and they're still powerful. And the Rucellai have Medici blood in their veins. And they're still exerting this influence over Florence even now that Florence is part of the larger Italian republic, right? So, these are very old institutions with a lot of staying power. If you enjoyed this clip, you can watch the full episode here and subscribe for more clips. Thanks.