Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi and Niccolò Machiavelli : patron, client, and the Pistola fatta per la peste/an epistle written concerning the plague

William J. Landon reveals Strozzi’s influence on Machiavelli through wide-ranging textual investigations, and especially through Strozzi’s __Pistola fatta per la peste__ for which Landon has provided the first ever complete English translation and critical edition.

By 1520, Niccolò Machiavelli’s life in Florence was steadily improving: he had achieved a degree of literary fame, and, following his removal from the Florentine Chancery by the Medici family, he had managed to gain their respect and patronage. But there is one figure whose substantial contributions to Machiavelli’s restoration has been hitherto neglected – Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi (1482–1549), a younger and fabulously wealthy Florentine nobleman. As manuscript evidence suggests, Strozzi brought Machiavelli into his patronage network and aided many of his post-1520 achievements.

This book is the first English biography of Strozzi, as well as the first examination of the patron-client relationship that developed between the two men. William J. Landon reveals Strozzi’s influence on Machiavelli through wide-ranging textual investigations, and especially through Strozzi’s Pistola fatta per la peste – a work that survives as a Machiavelli autograph, and for which Landon has provided the first ever complete English translation and critical edition.

By 1520, Niccolò Machiavelli's life in Florence was steadily improving: he had achieved a degree of literary fame, and, following his removal from the Florentine Chancery by the Medici family, he had managed to gain their respect and patronage. But there is one figure whose substantial contributions to Machiavelli's restoration has been hitherto neglected – Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi (1482–1549), a younger and fabulously wealthy Florentine nobleman. As manuscript evidence suggests, Strozzi brought Machiavelli into his patronage network and aided many of his post-1520 achievements.This book is the first English biography of Strozzi, as well as the first examination of the patron-client relationship that developed between the two men. William J. Landon reveals Strozzi's influence on Machiavelli through wide-ranging textual investigations, and especially through Strozzi's Pistola fatta per la peste – a work that survives as a Machiavelli autograph, and for which Landon has provided the first ever complete English translation and critical edition. Contents 7 Acknowledgments 9 In Memoriam 13 Notes on Translations and Editions Used 15 Introduction: An Interpretive Essay 17 1. The Life of Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi: An Overview 43 2. Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi and Niccolò Machiavelli 95 3. A History of the Pistola fatta per la peste: Its Manuscripts and Publication History, and a Close Reading of the Text 125 Conclusion: Pistola, Patron, Client, and the Proposed Strozzi Marriage of 1525 159 Figures 171 Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi’s Pistola fatta per la peste: An Italian Edition and an English Translation 177 Appendix 1: Banco Rari 29 Supplemental Transcriptions Related to, but Not Part of, the Pistola fatta per la peste 227 Appendix 2: Francesco Zeffi’s “Vita” of Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi 231 Appendix 3: A Recipe for an Antidote against the Plague by Mengo Bianchelli 255 Appendix 4: Niccolò Machiavelli’s Minuta di Provvisione per la Riforma dello Stato di Firenze L’Anno 1522 257 Bibliography 267 Index 285