Context: At first glance Machiavelli’s characterization of his circumstances seems willfully

misleading. The Machiavelli were an old and respected family and by most measures the
particular branch into which Niccolo was born in the spring of 1469 was solidly middle-class.
Niccolo’s father, Bernardo, was a man of property. He owned a house near the Ponte
Vecchio, one of a cluster of buildings occupied by various cousins, grouped about a small
courtyard with a loggia known as the chorte di Machiavelli. This alone was enough to lift the
family above the great majority of the urban poor, who owned little more than the ragged
clothes on their back. Nor was this Bernardo’s only piece of real estate. Furnishing the city
house with wine, oil, eggs, meat, and fresh vegetables was his farm in Sant’ Andrea in
Percussina, situated some ten miles south of Florence along the road to Rome. Even in lean
times the family could fall back on its own resources to feed and clothe itself.
Question: When was Niccolo Machiavelli born?
Answer: Niccolo was born in the spring of 1469.
Question: What was Niccolo’s family status?
Answer: Niccolo was of Middle- Class.
Question: Who is Niccolo’s father?
Answer: Bernardo, and he was a man of property he owned a house near Ponte Vecchio,
one of a cluster of buildings occupied by various cousins, grouped about a small courtyard
with a loggia known as the chorte di Machiavelli.
###
Context: The Status of the Machiavelli in Florence was measured by more than material
possessions.
Question: In what city was Machiavelli?
Answer: Machiavelli was in Florence
###
Context: In the city the family was equally established. For centuries the Machiavelli had
belonged to Florence’s ruling elite. Niccolo’s ancestors had been prosperous bankers and
merchants, dealing mostly in the lucrative wool and silk industries.
Question: What did Niccolo’s ancestors do?
Answer: His ancestors had been prosperous bankers and merchants dealing in wool and silk
industries.
###
Context: In other words Bernardo Machiavelli was an intellectual. He had earned a
reputation as an amateur scholar and expert on legal matters, something confirmed by the
honorific messer used by his peers when greeting him on the Ponte Vecchio or Piazza della
Signoria. He was the prototypical scholarly dilettante. Years after his death, when it was
brought to Niccolo’s attention that strangers had been mistakenly buried alongside his
father in the Machiavelli family crypt in Santa Croce.
Question: What was Niccolo’s Machiavellis father Bernardo reputation?
Answer: His fathers reputation was an amateur scholar and expert on legal matters.
Question: Where was Niccolo’s father buried?
Answer: He was buried in the Machiavelli family crypt in Santa Croce.
###
Context: Niccolo Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469, in the family house just south of the
Ponte Vecchio. The modest residence stood on the Via Romana, which led from the city’s
oldest and busiest bridge to the southern gates.
Question: When was Niccolo Machiavelli Born?
Answer: Niccolo Machiavelli was born on May, 3rd of 1469.
Question: Where was Niccolo born?
Answer: In the family house just south of the Ponte Vecchio.
Question: What was the most modest residence of Niccolo Machiavelli when he was born?
Answer: His modest residence stood on Via Romana which led from the city’s oldest and
busiest bridge to the southern gates.
###
Context: It is almost certain, then, though there are no documents prior to the thirteenth
century to prove this, that Niccolo’s distant ancestors were among those nameless tillers of
the soil who, since before the days of the Roman Empire, cultivated grape and olive on the
sloping, rocky hillsides that lie between Florence and Siena.
Question: Who were Niccolo’s distant ancestors?
Answer: They were among those nameless tillers of the sloping, rocky hillsides that lie
between Florence and Siena.
###
Context: Opposite the Machiavelli compound was the parish church of Santa Felicita, where
the family claimed patronage rights over the small chapel of San Gregorio. Here young
Niccolo spent many a Sunday morning gazing up at Domenico Ghirlandaio’s fresco of
Christ’s deposition from the cross, commissioned by his cousin Alessandro, an experience
that seems to have done little to instill in him either piety or any aesthetic sense.
Question: What did Niccolo Machiavelli’s family claim rights over?
Answer: The small chapel of San Gregorio.
Question: Where did young niccolo spend many Sunday mornings?
Answer: Opposite the Machiavelli compound where the parish church of Santa Felicita
###
Context: Niccolo was the third child of the union between Bernardo and Bartolomea. He had
two older sisters: Primavera, born around 1465, and Margherita, born in 1468. Niccolo, born
the following year, was the oldest son, and in this patriarchal society his arrival was a
momentous occasion since it all but guaranteed that the family name would endure and
prosper.
Question: Who are Niccolos sisters?
Answer: Niccolos two older sisters are Primavera and Margherita.
What is the name of Niccolos mother?
Answer: His mothers name was Bartolomea.
###
Context: What we can glean from these pages is that Bartolomea was a practical woman, a
frugal housekeeper and helpmate to her husband in managing their modest properties.
Question: What did Niccolo’s mother held his father with?
Answer: She was a housekeeper and helped her husband manage their properties.
###
Context: Machiavelli grew to maturity in one of the most peaceful interludes in the
turbulent history of Florence. Through the tireless diplomacy of Lorenzo de’ Medici the city
became, in the words of Michiavelli’s friend and contemporary, Francesco Guicciardini, “ the
fulcrum of Italy”- the keystone in an elaborate system of alliances that prevented the rival
states of Italy from destroying each other and that kept greedy foreigners from swooping in
to pick up the pieces.
Question: During whose diplomacy did Niccolo Machiavelli grow?
Answer: He grew through the tireless diplomacy of Lorenzo de’Medici.
Question: Who was Michiavelli’s friend and contemporary?
Answer: Francesco Guicciardini was Michiavelli’s friend and contemporary.
###
Context: Crucial to the development of Machiavelli’s political thought were the institutions
that made Florence a laboratory of republican government and that fostered a vibrant, if
often contentious, political climate.
Question: What was crucial to the development of Machiavelli’s political thought?
Answer: The institutions that made Florence a laboratory of republican government that
adopted a political climate was crucial to the development of Machiavelli’s political
thought.
###
Context: Niccolo was nine years old when the bloodiest upheaval of Il Magnifico’s reign
occurred-the Pazzi Conspiracy in which Lorenzo and his brother were set upon in the
Cathedral of Florence.
Question: What was the bloodiest upheaval for Niccolo at the age of nine years old?
Answer: The bloodiest upheaval was of Il Magnifico’s reign that occurred it was called the
Pazzi Conspiracy in which Lorenzo and his brother were set upon in the Cathedral of
Florence.
###
Context: When it came to raising his children Bernardo shared the priorities of his
compatriots. On May 6, 1476, Niccolo, who had just turned seven, began his formal
education with “Maestro Matteo, master of grammar whose school is located at the foot of
the Santa Trinita bridge, where he goes to learn to read his Donatello”. In 1480, the eleven-
year-old Niccolo switched from studying Latin to studying “abacus”, that is, applied
mathematics, an important subject in a town built on banking an trade, Niccolo’s education
was typical of boys of his class, though it is clear that time spent delving into classical texts
was more fruitful than time learning arithmetic. Like his father, Niccolo had no head for
business, preferring to lose himself in a volume of poetry rather than pore through his own
account books. Throughout his career and in his writings Machiavelli demonstrates a
familiarity with the poetry, history, and philosophy of the ancient world, though there is
little indication that, in addition to Latin, he mastered the newly fashionable but still esoteric
Greek.
Question: When did Niccolo Michiavelli begin his formal education?
Answer: Niccolo began his formal education on May 6,1476 at the age of seven. He began
his education with Maestro Matteo master of grammar at a school located bottom of the
Santa Trinita bridge. Niccolo went there to learn to read his Dinatello.
Question: What did Niccolo switch to studying at the age of eleven?
Answer: At the age of eleven Niccolo switched from studying Latin to studying “abacus”
which is applied mathematics.
Question: What did Niccolo find more fruitful than time learning arithmetic?
Answer: Niccolo found more fruitful time spent into classical texts than time learning
arithmetic as he had no head for business and preferred poetry rather than account books.
Question: What can is demonstrated throughout Machiavelli’s writings and career?
Answer: Machiavelli demonstrates familiarity with poetry, history, and philosophy of the
ancient world throughout his career and writings, and in addition to Latin he mastered a
newly fashionable but still esoteric Greek.
###
Context: The young read Scripture to prepare their souls for the world to come, but read
Cicero, Aristotle, and Plato to learn how to tackle the responsibilities of civic life. The fact
that Machiavelli largely rejected traditional religious doctrine did not mean that he rejected
any ethical framework.
Question: During Niccolo’s childhood what did the young read to prepare their should for
the world to come?
Answer: The young read scriptures of Cicero, Aristotle, and Plato to learn how to tackle the
responsibilities of civic life.
Question: What did doctrine did Machiavelli reject as a matter of fact?
Answer: Machiavelli largely rejected traditional religious doctrines. However, that does not
mean he rejected ethical frameworks.
###
Conext: Educated Florentines like Machiavelli found their moral bearings not by emulating
the lives of the saints but by studying the deeds and adopting the attitudes of the ancient
Greeks and Romans. “ We call these studies liberal,” wrote the fifteenth-century pedagogue
Pier Paolo Vergerio, “ Which are worthy of a free man: they are those through which virtue
and wisdom are either practiced or sought, and by which the body or mind id disposed
towards all the best things.” These studies were also called bonae litterae (good letters) or
litterae humaniores (human letters) and the stories of great mean and great achievements,
as well as the salutary lessons to be learned from wicked men who received their
comeuppance, provided a template against which to measure one’s own behavior. The
constant back and forth between ancient history and current events that forms the
structure of The Prince and the Discourses is not unique to Machiavelli, but is the product of
an educational system that encouraged students to interpret the present in light of patterns
set down long ago. Whenever he was in danger of succumbing to despair, Niccolo found
solace in the great literature of the past. “ Leaving the woods, I go to a spring,” he recalls in
his famous letter to Francesco Vettori: “and then to one of the spots where I hang my bird
nets. In my arm I carry a book: Dante, Petrarch, or one of those minor poets like Tibullus,
Ovid. I read of their amorous passions and their loves and recall my own, and lose myself for
a while in these happy thoughts.”
Question: In what did educated Florentines like Machiavelli find their moral bearings?
Answer: Educated Florentine like Machiavelli found their moral bearings by studying deed
and adopting attiuteds of the ancient Greeks and Romans though studies called “ Liberal
Studies” as written in the fifteenth century pedagogue Pier Paolo Vergerio. These studies
were all called bonae litterae (good letters) or litterae humaniores (human letters).
Question: In what did Niccolo Machiavelli find solace?
Answer: He found solace in the great literature of the past as he recalled in his famous letter
to Francesco Vettori “ Leaving the woods, I go to a spring,”. He found solace in great
literature in books on Dante, Petrarch, Tibullus, and Ovid.
###
Context: The young Niccolo was no worse, though not much better, than most of his peers.
The best one can say is that while he can boast no record of achievement for these years,
neither did he appear on the rolls of the Otto (the Eight), the police who patrolled the
streets and attempted to curb the worst excesses of the giovani. Though he was certainly
not living in monkish denial, ,much of his time was spent in study, either formally through
the Studio, Florence’s university, or by delving into the numerous learned volumes in his
father’s library.
Question: Where did young Niccolo spend much of his time n study ?
Answer: Young Niccolo spent much of his time in study either formally through the Studio,
Florence’s university or Learned Volumes in his father’s library.
###
Context: In appearance the young Niccolo was unremarkable. He was of average height and
possessed a wiry frame that would serve him well on many a harrowing voyage in service to
his country and during his weeks of imprisonments, ordeals that would have overwhelmed a
less robust constitution. His nose was aquiline, his lips thin, features that gave him a sharp
and somewhat birdlike aspect. But the impression of hardness was relieved in conversation
when his face lit up and his eyes sparkled with mirth.
Question: What was young Niccolo’s appearance?
Answer: In appearance, he was unremarkable, average height, and possessed a wiry frame,
his nose was aquiline, his lips thin.
###
Context: Early on, Machiavelli took the first tentative steps on the routs to success already
traveled by the poets Luigi Pulci and Angelo Poliziano. These talented but impecunious
youths managed to parlay their gifts into a coveted seat at Lorenzo de’ Medici’s table, and
Machiavelli saw no reason why he might not duplicate this feats of upward to mobility. As
part of his effort he dedicated one of his earliest works, a carnival poem titled “Pastoral,” to
Giuliano de’ Medici, youngest son of Il Magnifico. This minor work offers a tantalizing clue
that Machiavelli wished to join that glittering circle of poets and artists who congregated at
the palace on the Via Larga
Question: Like who did Machiavelli take his first tentative steps to success?
Answer: He took his first steps to success already traveled by poets Luigi Pulci and Angelo
Poliziano as they managed to parlay their gifts into a seat at Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Table.
Question: What was Machiavelli effors as part of his earliest works ?
Answer: As part of his effort he dedicated one of his earliest works a carnival poem called
“Pastoral,” to Giuliano de’ Medici, youngest son of Il Magnifico to gain a seat.
Question: What circle of poets did Machiavelli wish to join?
Answer: Machiavelli wished to join that glittering circle of poets and artists who
congregated at the palace on the Via Larga.
###
Context: Perhaps Machiavelli’s failure to secure a place for himself at the Medici court owed
something to his prickly personality. Though he never lacked for friends, those close to him
knew he could be his own worst enemy. A few years later, when he was just beginning his
career in the civil service, his friend Biagio Buonaccorsi had to intervene to intervene to
prevent him from alienating his collegues.
Question: What did Machiavelli start his career as?
Answer: Machiavelli started his career in civil service.
###
Context: As one influential educational text claimed, men are motivated primarily “ by
eagerness for praise and inflamed by love of glory,” words Machiavelli will paraphrase in
The Prince. He wanted to make his mark, to achieve something that would cause his name
to be remembered by the future generations. Not particularly well connected or well
heeled, he lacked only the opportunity to demonstrate the singular talents of an obscure
young man of modest means.
Question: What are the words Machiavelli paraphrased in order for the future generations
to be remembered?
Answer: The words Machiavelli paraphrased in the Prince in order for his name to be
remembered by the future generations is “ by eagerness for praise and inflamed by love of
glory”.

Chapter II – A Sword Unsheathed

###
Context: On the morning of March 3, 1498, Machiavelli left his home near the Ponte Vecchio
and set out for the monastery of San Marco on the northern outskirts of the town. Here, far
from his accustomed haunts- and in a departure from his usual routine- he attended a
sermon delivered by Girolamo Savonarola, the charismatic monk whose messianic visions
had alternately inspired and convulsed the city for six tumultuous years.
Question: Where did Machiavelli head to on the morning of March3, 1498?
Answer: He left his home near the Ponte Vecchio to the monastery of San Marco on the
northern outskirts of the town in order to attend a sermon by Girolamo Savonarola who is a
charismatic monk with messianic visons.
###
Context: He had gone at the request of Ricciardo Becchi, the Florentine ambassador to the
Holy See, “to give you, as you wished,” Machiavelli reminded him, “ a full account of what is
going on here regarding the friar.” As far as we know it was his first political assignment, the
moment when, after twenty-eight uneventful and unproductive years, Machiavelli walked
onto the stage and took his place as an actor in the great political drama of the day.
Admittedly, it is a small part that of a witness standing in the wings and offering occasional
asides while the star commands most of our attention. But it is a role that suited him well.
Throughout his career as a diplomat, for which this assignment was something of an
audition, Machiavelli proved himself a perceptive analyst of character. Attending this
morning’s sermon offered him an opportunity to exercise his critical faculties on the most
compelling and controversial figure of the age.
Question: On who’s request did Machiavelli attend the morning’s sermon and what
opportunity did it offer for him?
Answer: Machiavelli had gone to the sermon on the request of Ricciardo Becchi, the
Florentine ambassador to the Holy See and that was his first political assignment throughout
his career as a diplomat. This offered Machiavelli the opportunity to exercise his critical
faculties.
###
Context: Future missions would take him to exotic courts and involve elaborate ceremony
and official credentials, but few would rival the raw emotional intensity of this initial
assignment. It would be another three months before Machiavelli took up his position in the
government of Florence, but it was in San Marco, where he had gone as an emissary to an
alien territory of the soul, that Machiavelli’s remarkable career really began.
Question: What did Machiavelli’s future missions involve?
Answer: Machiavelli’s future missions would involve him in exotic courts and elaborate
ceremony and official credentials.
What position did Machiavelli take in his career ?
Answer: Machiavelli took up the position in the Government of Florence in San Marco
where he had gone as an emissary to an alien territory and that is when his career began.
###
Context: In the Art of War, Machiavelli provides a vivid description of Italy on the eve if the
French invasion. Corrupt and complacent, greedy for profit and incapable of finding
common ground for the common good, its leaders were singularly ill-prepared for what was
to come:
Question: What did Machiavelli provide in the Art of War regarding the French Invasion?
Answer: Machiavelli provided a vivid description of Italy on the eve of the French Invasion
on the Art of War and provided that the leaders were ill prepared for what was to come ,
corrupt, and greedy for profit.
###
Context: The establishment of the Great Council placed real power once again in the hands
of an unwidely body that not only spoke for but actually included a wide swath of the
citizenry. As it was finally constituted it included 3,500 citizens, though only one third,
serving a six-month term, were seated at any given time. Historians have calculated that, in
a population of roughly 40,000 to 50,000 this council represented a little under half the
male population over thirty, a remarkably expansive franchise for the day. Florence had
reconstituted itself as a true republic, responsive to the will of the people to a degree
remarkable in an age of deep social and economic inequality. It was this government, where
in raucous sessions in the Hall of the Great Council butchers rubbed shoulders and matched
wits with wealthy bankers in ermine-lined robes, that Niccolo Machiavelli would serve
throughout his career as a civil servant.
Question: In what Government did Niccolo Machiavelli serve?
Answer: Niccolo Machiavelli served his career as a civil servant in government of which
Florence had reconstituted itself as a republic and where the establishment of the Great
Council that placed power in the hands of the citizenry.
###
Context: Instead, Machiavelli should be counted among the growing number of citizens who
cherished the popular democracy established after the expulsion of Piero de’ Medici but
who now saw that the greatest threat to its continued existence was the increasingly erratic
and fanatical behavior of Savonarola himself.
Question: What as Machiavelli considered as a citizen of after the expulsion of Piero de’
Medici?
Answer: Machiavelli was among the citizens that cherished popular democracy after the
expulsion of Piero de’ Medici.
Question: What did Machiavelli consider a greatest threat from Savonarola?
Answer: Machiavelli considered the greatest threat is the erratic and fanatical behavior of
Savonarola.
###
Context: On Saturday, June 15, 1498, three weeks after Savonarola’s death, Niccolo
Machiavelli made his way to the Palazzo della Signoria, where he was nominated to serve as
Second Chancellor of the Republic, an important post in the civil service of a government
now seeking to regain its balance after the recent convulsions.
Question: What events occurred to Nicola Machiavelli after Savonarola’s death?
On Saturday June 15th 1498 just three weeks after Savonarola’s death, Niccolo Machiavelli
made his way to the Palazzo della Signoria and was nominated as Second Chancellor of the
Republic in the civil service of the government.

Chapter III
The Civil Servant
###
Context: “ When you see a minister who thinks more about his own interests than about
yours, who seeks his own advantage in everything he does, then you may be sure that such
a man will never be a good minister, and you will never be able to trust him.”-
MACHIAVELLI, THE PRINCE
Question: What is Machiavelli’s quote on ministers in the Prince?
Answer: Machiavelli quoted the following regarding ministers in the Prince – “When you see
a minister who thinks more about his own interests than about yours, who seeks his own
advantage in everything he does, then you may be sure that such a man will never be a
good minister, and you will never be able to trust him”.
Question: What does Machiavelli think about a Minister that thinks about his own insrerets
based on his quote in the prince?
Answer: Machiavelli thinks that a minister who puts his own interest ahead of anyone for his
own benefit can never be a good minister and cannot be trusted.
###
Context: JUNE 15, 1498, MARKS A TURNING POINT NOT ONLY IN Machiavelli’s life but in the
history of Western thought, for this was the beginning of his career as a civil servant and, as
he made clear on more than one occasion, it was years of service in the Florentine
government that formed the basis of his political philosophy.
Question: What marked the turning point in Machiavelli’s life?
Answer: June 15, 1498 markets the turning point in Niccolo Machiavelli’s life in the History
of Western thought as it was the beginning of his career as a civil servant.
Question: What formed the basis of Niccolo Machiavelli’s political philosophy?
Answer: Niccolo Machiavelli’s years of service in the Florentine government formed the
basis of his political philosophy.
###
Context: This was actually Machiavelli’s second attempt to land a government job; at the
beginning of the year he had successfully applied for the post of First Secretary to the
Signoria. This came at a time when Savonarola’s men were still in power, and the
Machiavelli’s defeat offers one more clue that he was out of favor with the religious zealots.
Question: What was Machiavelli’s first attempt to land a government job before Second
Chancery?
Answer: Niccolo Machiavelli’s unsuccessfully applied for the position of First Secretary to
the Signoria during the time Savonarola’s men still in power as First attempt to land a
government job.
###
Context: Among those who lost his job in the shake-up was Alessandro Braccesi, chief of the
Second Chancery. Braccesi was closely associated with the disgraced preacher and his
dismissal was part of a general pruge of the friar’s men. On June 15 the Eighty nominated
Niccolo Machiavelli to serve out the remaining two years of Braccesi’s term, beating out
three other candidates. The appointment was ratified by a vote in the Great Council on June
19.
Question: Who was holding Machiavelli’s post of Chief of the Second Chancery?
Answer: Alessandro Braccesi was the Chief of Second Chancery before Niccolo Machiavelli
as he was dismissed due to his association with the disgraced preacher Savonarola.
Question: What happened on June 15 to Niccolo Machiavelli?
Answer: On June 15 the Eight nominated Niccolo Machiavelli to serve out the ramining two
years of Alessandro Braccesi’s terms as Second Chancellor.
Question: When was the nomination of Niccolo Machiavelli ratified for the post of Second
Chancellor?
Answer: The appointment of Niccolo Machiavelli was ratified by a vote in the Great Council
on June 19.
###
Context: The hidden web of patronage that landed Machiavelli his job is difficult to
untangle, but it is clear he had friends and admirers among the moderates who now
dominated the government. He almost certainly lobbied for the job since they were highly
competitive and no one with the power to grant the favor was going bestow it on someone
who wasn’t sufficiently grateful. It may have been Bernardo’s friendship with the former
Chancellor of Florence, Bartolomeo Scala, that first brought his son Niccolo to the attention
of the new regime. Niccolo was also friendly with Alammano Salviati, Piere de’ Medici’s son-
in-law, who was now a member in good standing of the ruling elite, and he was on cordial
terms with the new Chancellor, Marcello Virgilio Adriani, a man who, like Scala and like all
the chancellors before him, shared Machiavelli’s taste for classical literature. Five years his
junior, Machiavelli probably knew Adriani from his time spent rounding out his education at
the Studio, Florence’s University, while Adriani was a professor there. Most significantly,
perhaps, Ricciardo Becchi, the ambassador to the Holy See who had just employed him to
snoop on the sermons of the friar, could have vouched for his anti-Savonarola views.
Question: Why was is difficult to untangle the hidden web of patronage that landed
Machiavelli his job?
Answer: It was difficult to untangle because Niccolo Machiavelli had friends and admirers
among moderates that dominated the government.
Question: What may be the reasons that Niccolo Machiavelli landed his job as Second
Chancellor?
Answer: The reasons may be is Bernardo Machiavelli’s Niccolo’s fathers friendship with the
former Chancellor of Florence, Bartolomeo Scala as he first brought Niccolos attention to
the new regime. Furthermore, Niccolo Machiavelli was friendly with Alammano Salviati who
was Piere de’ Medici’s son-in-law who was a member in good standing of the ruling elite
and he was also on Cordial Terms with the New chancellor Marcello Virgilio Adriani and they
all shared the same taste of literature like Niccolo Machiavelli.
Question: How did Niccolo Machiavelli probably knew the New chancellor Marcello Virgilio
Adriani?
Answer: Machiavelli probably knew Adriani from his time spent during his education at the
Studio in Florence’s University while Adriani was professor there.
Question: Why would Ricciardo Becchi the ambassador of the Holy See be a reason for
Niccolo Machiavelli landing his job as Second Chancellor?
Answer: Ricciardo Becchi the Ambassador of the Holy See could have vouched for Niccolo’s
anit-Savonarole views since he has employed Niccolo to snoop on the sermons of the friar.
###
Context: Machiavelli’s role was not to set policy was not to set policy but to aid his superiors
in implementing it. His immediate subordinates at the Chancery included ten to fifteen
notaries and secretaries, learned men of modest means who had the skill and command of
both Latin and the vernacular to convert the often garbled instructions of their superiors
into comprehensible documents drafted in a fine, legible hand. As worldly and well
educated as those who ruled the state, they differed from their bosses to the extent that
they needed to draw a steady income. Their office was located on the second floor of the
Palazzo della Signoria, just off the Room on Lilies where their lordships dined in regal
splendor beneath frescoes by Ghirlandaio.
Question: What was Machiavelli’s role as the Chancery?
Answer: Machiavelli’s role was not to set policy but to aid his superiors in implementing
policies.
Question: Who where Machiavelli’s subordinated at the Chancery?
Answer: Machiavelli’s subordinates at the Chancery where ten to fifteen notaries and
secretaries of learned men who had a good command of Latin and to convert instructions of
their superiors into documents.
Question: Where was Machiavelli’s and his subordinates office located?
Answer: Their officer was located on the second floor of the Palazzo della Signoria just off
the room of Lilies where their lordships dined.
###
Context: Working with him were his assistants Biago Buonaccorsi and Agostino Vespucci,
men who would become his friends and most reliable correspondents over the course of the
next few years, Buonaccorsi was particularly close to his new boss.
Question: Who were Machiavelli’s assistants that were working with him?
Answer: Biago Buonaccorsi and Agostino Vespucci were Niccolo Machiavelli’s assitants
working with him and they would become his friend and most reliable correspondents over
the coming years and Buonaccorsi was particularly close with Machiavelli.
###
Context: A cornerstone of Machiavelli’s philosophy is that success, particularly in the tricky
realm of politics, depends on a willingness to adapt to circumstances.
Question: What is the cornerstone of Machiavelli’s philosophy?
Answer: It is that success is tricky in the realm of politics and it depends on the willingness
to adapt to circumstances.
###
Context: Both Machiavelli’s career and thought were shaped by war and by the unsettled
condition of Italy following the French invasion four years before he took office.
Question: What was Machiavelli’s thoughts and career shaped by?
Answer: Machiavelli’s career and thought were shaped by wars and the conditions of Italy
after the French invasion four years before he took office.
###
Context: Much of Machiavelli’s writing, from The Prince to the Art of War, deals with
military matters, since he concluded that it was pointless to discuss proper form of
government unless and until a state could adequately defend itself.
Question: What does Machiavelli’s writings deal about in The Prince to the Art of War?
Answer: Machiavelli’s writings in the Prince to the Art of War deals with military matter as
he concluded that it was pointless to discuss proper form of government unless the state
could defend itself.
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Context: In March 1499, he was sent to the camp of one of the condottieri involved in the
effort to reconquer Pisa, Jacopo, lord of Piombino, who was threatening to withdraw his
services unless he received more money and more troops. Machiavelli’s mission was a
success; he managed to persuade Jacopo to adhere to the terms already agreed to. More
importantly, it was his first opportunity to witness the disastrous consequences of relying on
soldiers for hire.
Question: What even happened during 1499 related to Machiavelli?
Answer: Machiavelli was sent to the camo of one of the condottieri involved in the effors to
reconquer Pisa, Jaccopo, Lord of Piombino who was threating to withdraw his services
unless he received more money and more toorps.
Question: Why was Machiavelli’s mission a success being sent to the camp in March 1499?
Answer: Machiavelli’s mission was a success as he managed to persuade Jacopo, Lord of
Piombino to adhere to the terms already agree to.
Question: What did Machiavelli’s witness during his mission at the time he was sent to camp
to Jacopo, Lord of Piombino?
Answer: Machiavelli witnessed the consequences of relying on soldiers for hire.
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Context: A few months after his return from Flori, Machiavelli was confronted with the first
large-scale crisis of his tenure. It involved the captain-general of Florentine forces, Paolo
Vitelli, who had been hired with great fanfare, and at a great expanse, just as Machiavelli
was taking office.
Question: What was Machiavelli confronted with a few months after his return from Flori?
Answer: He was confronted with the first large-scale crisis.
Question: What did the first crisis involve after the return of Machiavelli from Flori?
Answer: It involved the capitan-general of Florentine forces, Paolo Vitelli.
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Context: The Vitelli affair merely served to deepen Machiavelli’s conviction that there was
something profoundly amiss with Florence’s military system.
Question: What merely served to deepen Machiavelli’s conviction?
Answer: The Vitelli affair served to deepen Niccolo Machiavelli’s convection that there was
something wrong with Florence’s military system.

Chapter IV
SIR NIHIL

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Context: