"Machiavelli's Prince: Political Science or Political Satire?" by Garret Mattingly
In Machiavelli's Prince: Political Science or Political Satire? (1958), Mattingly deviates from the common characterization of Machiavelli's The Prince as a serious piece of literature; instead, he uses Cesare Borgia's actions, as well as the examples of the Medici family's slothful son Giuliano and his slyer relatives Giovanni and Giulio, to explain how Machiavelli wrote The Prince both as caricature to the Medici and warning to the Florentine people. In the end, Mattingly, through his observations of The Prince's tendency to repeat the inevitability of the overthrowing of principalities and the hypocrisies of Machiavelli's given examples to his treatise's argument, exposes The Prince as nothing more than a joke and a jab at the Medici.
Source:
Mattingly, Garret. Machiavelli's Prince: Political Science or Political Satire? The American Scholar 27.4 (1958): 482-91. Web.
Source:
Mattingly, Garret. Machiavelli's Prince: Political Science or Political Satire? The American Scholar 27.4 (1958): 482-91. Web.
"Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia: A Reconsideration of Chapter 7 of The Prince" by John. M. Najemy
Like Mattingly, Najemy magnifies the inconsistencies in The Prince's text; in particular, he makes note of Machiavelli's lauding of Cesare Borgia, a man previously described as "reviled" in Italy, and how it contrasts with Machiavelli's previous assessment of Borgia from the four months he'd spent in his court. At the start of the paper's second section, Najemy says that the apparent independence of Borgia after he dismantled the conspiracy against him is the main issue; he goes on to cite numerous alliances Borgia made with other groups to borrow their armies and the deteriorations of said armies during and after 1502. Throughout the proceeding section, Najemy lists the four objectives Borgia sought to achieve in order to consolidate his power, then explains why the final fourth task failed due to Borgia's overconfidence and misplaced trust in others to do what he himself should have done. In fact, by the paper's end, Borgia has now become an utter failure, since instead of fully completing his objectives "by his own arms", he only ends up boasting of how he plans to achieve them through others.
Source:
Najemy, John M. "Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia: A Reconsideration of Chapter 7 of The Prince." The Review of Politics 75.04 (2013): 539-56. Web.
Source:
Najemy, John M. "Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia: A Reconsideration of Chapter 7 of The Prince." The Review of Politics 75.04 (2013): 539-56. Web.