‘Conforme al vivere civile et politico’: Machiavelli's newly discovered proposal for electoral reform in 1512

This paper examines the role of electoral procedures in an unknown Machiavellian document, which can be assigned to a crucial moment in the life of Machiavelli as well as the history of Florence: the days which followed the return of the Medici into town and the dismissal of the popular regime. In late August 1512, as a consequence of the fall of the Tuscan small town of Prato under siege by the Spanish troops of the Holy League, Pier Soderini, who had led the popular government since 1502, left the city. In mid-September Machiavelli – who had served as Secretary in the chancery since 1498, but was about to be dismissed from his office by the Medici – wrote by his own hand a proposal for a constitutional reform. This proposal intended, first of all, to prevent the suppression of the Great Council by the Medici and find a compromise with the aristocratic faction, which was temporarily leading the new administration. A detailed account of the electoral procedures recommended by this Minuta, however, as well as an analysis of the vocabulary used to promote them, will provide evidence for the hypothesis that Machiavelli's goal was, above all, to preserve the liberty of the city. From this perspective, the document could be compared to Machiavelli's political theory as elaborated in his major works, and especially in the Discourses on Livy. Particularly the expression «conforme al vivere civile e politico» («consistent with the civil and political life») used by Machiavelli recalls the opposition between a despotic and a civil and free government in the first chapters of the Discourses (book I, chap. 9).