MAGHIAVELLI,LEONARDO& BORGIA

A FATEFUL COLLUSION

What happened when a philosopher, an artist and a ruthless warrior - all giants ofthe Renaissance - met on campaign in northern Italy? Paul Strathern explains.

During the latter half of 1502.when the Italian Renaissancewas at its height, three of its

most distinguished yet disparate figures[ravelled together through the remotehilly region of the Romagna in north-eastern Italy Cesare Borgia (1475-I5U7),backed by his father Pope Alexander VI(1431-1503), was leading a militar}- cam-paign whose aim was to carve out hisown personal princedom. He had hiredLeonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) as hischief military engineer whose brief wasto reinforce the castles and defences inthe region as well as to construct a num-ber of revoiutionary new militarymachines, which he bad designed in bis

notebooks. Accompanying this unlikelyduo was the enigmatic figure of NiccolöMachiavelli (1469-1527), wbo bad beendespatched by tbe Florentine authoritiesas an emissary to the travelling 'court'with instructions to ingratiate himselfwith Borgia and, as far as possible, dis-cover his intentions towards Florencewhose position to the west, just acrossthe Apenninc mountains, left it particu-larly vulnerable to Borgia's territorialambitions.

In a characteristically Machiavellian

Above Portrait details from left, NiccoloMachiavelli painted by Santi diTito; Leonardo daVinci self-portrait,C.I512;Cesare Borgia painted

byAltobello del Meloni.

situation Borgia l̂ üiew perfectly well whatMacbiavelli was up to and Macbiavelliknew that be knew tbis. Macbiavelli hadbeen instructed to send regular diplo-matic despatches back to Florence,reporting on all he bad discovered.Machiavelli well understood that Borgiawas intercepting tbese despatches andreading them himself, discarding thosebe felt sbould not be sent. As a result,Macbiavelli would often resort to allud-ing in tbe most oblique form to what wasactually taking place. Borgia, a manwhose considerable intellect matcbed hisreputation for trcacbery and violence,was not tooled by tbis. He knew tbat theFlorentine autborities would certainly

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MACHIAVELLI, LEONARDO AND BORGIA

have established a simple code withMachiavelli before he had set out.Remarks about the mountains, ihc localpeople, the weather and even the state ofMachiiivelli's accommodation might allrefer to vital intelligence.

Machiavel lis information came from anumber of unlikely sources. Sometimes iteven came directly from Borgia himself,but could he believe what Borgia toldhim? Machiavelli had to be guarded aboutany other sources of information, which

usually came Irom careless remarks letdrop by secretaries or high-ranking offi-cers among Borgias entourage whomMachiavelli had befriended. Thougheveryone knew Machiavelli was a spy.there was something wittily subversive inhis character which seemed to appeal tothem. This also appealed to Borgia him-self: here was a man of some learning,whose intellect matched bis own, whogenuinely appeared more interested indiscussing philosophical ideas than in per-

forming the task of amere envoy. Such a manwas rare companyamong the rough andready mercenar)' com-manders with wbomBorgia was surrounded.And, unlike his com-manders, in a curiousway he knew tbat hecould trust Macbiavelli,man to man: up to apoint, that is. Many ofBorgia s most daring andsensational plans reliedupon the notion otsecrecy and betrayal,elements which be wasnot even willing to passon to his military com-manders until tbe lastmoment, when therewas no chance of sucb

Left Mona Lisa, against thebackround of the upperArno valley through whichLeonardo travelled whileemployed by Borgia.

Below Leonardo's sketch of1502 of a man believed tobe Cesare Borgia.

secrecy being compromised.For obvious reasons, Machiavelli fre-

quently made misleading remarks aboutthe sources of his information in order toprotect their identity. However, one par-ticular source - referred to only as a'friend' - was a combination of variousinformants, who observed intelligenceand bits of gossip picked up here andthere, Or so Machiavelli would have hadus believe. It has now become clear thatmost of the information from tbis 'friend'did in fact come directly from one sourceand that this vital informant was noneotber than Machiavelli's friend and fel-low Florentine Leonardo da Vinci.

Borgia's reasons for hiring Leonardoda Vinci were obvious. Besides beingknown as a great artist, he had alreadyestablished himself as the most inge-nious and talented military engineer inItaly. Yet why on eartb sboutd an artist ofsuch refined sensibilities as Leonardosimply abandon painting to face therigours as well as the dangers of cam-paign life with a man as notorious as Bor-gia. The e\'idence suggests that Leonardowas going through something of a crisisat this time. He had grown tired of paint-ing - so mueb so that he bad alreadybecome notorious for leaving canvasesand frescoes unfinished because be had'solved' their difficulties and they tbus nolonger interested him. He wished to havetime to pursue his inventive and inge-nious scientific pursuits, which hesecretiy jotted down In his coded note-books, and perhaps felt tbat tbe freedomgiven to him by Borgia would let him dotbis. Borgia's instructions allowedLeonardo to roam the Romagna almost atwill, coming up witb ideas for new-defences and infrastructure as be saw fit.

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F10RENZ^

AnottiLT quirk of Leonardo's characterwas ttiiit tie seemed to be attracted to,and do his best work for, men oFpowerfuiand unpredictabte temperament wtiononethetess atlowed bim freedom todevelop his own ideas in between histtndemanding pubtic duties. Many ofLeonardos most accomptisbed and inge-nious creations literatty disappeared intotbe a i r - intricate ice scutptures, teehni-calty sophisticated macbines whicbwoutd exptode into fireworks, sensationaldramatic stage devices which woutd bediscarded after the night's performance.

In bis time, Leonardo da Vinci woutdbe employed by some of the most power-fut and ftamboyant figures of bis age -ranging from Lorenzo tbe Magnificent ofFtorence to Gatteazzo 'it Moro' Sforza,wbo murdered bis way to becoming Dukeof Mitan; from the young Francis I ofFrance, king of tbe most powerful nationin Europe, and to Cesare Borgia, a manwbose misdeeds were of such enormitythat he bas become a byword for evil.

Borgia was tbe ittegitimate son of PopeAîe.xandcr VL a puntitt whose notorietyptaced bim in a ctass of his own. evenamong tbe popes of tbe period. (CardinatRodrigo Borgia, as he was at tbe time oftbe papal elections, was tbe first man toensure bimsetf the papal throne byunasbamcdty buying - witb mute trainsof jewels and gold - tbe requisite amountof cardinals required to ensure his elec-tion.) His second son Cesare carried ontbe Borgia traditions to the best of bisconsiderable abilities: he may well bavemurdered bis otder brotber to ensure bis

Above The Carta déliaCatena shows Florence,

city of Leonardo andMachiavelli, in 1490.

Right Behind theCardinal's back: Cesare

Borgia (far left) andMachiavelli (far right) in a

16th-century painting byan unknown artist

place as bis father'sson and heir, andbad a psyebologicaltyintense relationsbipwitb bis notorious sis-ter Lucrezia, wbicbwas at the very leastsubconsciously inces-tuous. (A suspicious number ot her hus-bands and lovers met a gruesome endwbile be was around.) And, wbero treacb-ery was concerned, he was second tonone - in an age and culture wheretreachery was very mucb tbe norm.

We know tbat Borgia and Maebiaveltiformed a ctose, if somewbat wary, friend-ship. Leonardo's reactions to bis com-panions are tess ctear: Borgia is men-tioned just onee, in an aside, in hisnotebooks. Wbat we do know is that dur-ing ihe course of Leonardo's travels ofinspection for Borgia be came across tbemountainous landscape in the upperArno valtey ibat woutd form tbe mysteri-ous background to tbe Mona Lisa, one ofthe few paintings be would keep in bispossession to tbe end of bis days, con-stantly returning to it, pondering its com-position, emphasising or toning downdetails and so forth. The present some-

wbat podgy-faced beauty wbicb bangs inthe Louvre is now known to be a travestyof tbe originat. Over centuries tbe sur-face of the tighter pigments of her facehave developed many tiny fissures, thusbroadening and rounding her cbeeks,wbite tbe darker pigments whicb depictber more definite features bave lesser fis-sures and bave thus retained a mucbctoser approximation to tbeir originalform. Tbis continuous retoucbing of tbeMona Lisa was a symptom of a psyebo-iogical trait in Leonardo, wbich becamemucb more accentuated after his servicewitb Borgia.

Leonardo's tendency to leave worksunfinisbed and to flit from one subject toanother in bis notebooks, bis inahility toorder this work into separate topics, orexecute any overalt extensive plan, alltbese minor traits became exaggerated toalmost patbotogicat proportions after his

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work with Borgia. Despite Leonardo'slater attempts to order his voluminousnotebooks, nothing whatsoever came oftbis project except a comparatively brieftreatise on painting (which was probablyput together by his faithful assistantMeizi). As a result, Leonardo's scientificlegacy - to say nothing of the ground-breaking anatomical investigations tbattook him so much effort and caused himso much trouhle - would play no partwhatsoever in the advancement of sci-ence. A!l those ingenious devices, theworking machines (from helicopters tosuhmarines), the screws, tbe gears, the'hodometer' (for the precise measuring ofdistances, invented for Borgia), all thiscame to nothing. In the event, the note-books would be sold off after Leonardo'sdeath, sometimes a few separated sheetsat a time, to rich collectors. Tbese sou-venir hunters bad no conception of wbatLeonardo's notebooks were about andregarded them merely as curiosities ofgenius. They could not even read thetnirror-written Latin instructions besidethe drawings, a simple code wbose secre-tive crabbed script was not fully deci-phered until well over a century later.

Above A map of central Italy made by Leonardoin 1502 while travelling in the entourage of

Borgia.The north is on the left side.

Below German portrait of Rodrigo Borgia,notorious as Pope Alexander VI.

and father of Cesare Borgia.

The waste is inestimable. If Galileo (bornless than half a century after Leonardo'sdeath) had been able to peruse

Leonardo's notebooks, entire newbranches of science might have comeinto being, while others would havemade significant advances, in some casescenturies before they in fact did so.

How did Borgia contribute to this psy-chological flaw in Leonardo? And whydid Machiavelli make Borgia the exem-plary hero of his notorious political trea-tise Tlie Prince} Ironically, the reason forthese two disparate effects is the same:Borgia's duplicitous ruthtessness. Asupreme example tif this was witnessedby both Machiavelli and Leonardo on theoccasion when Borgia charined histreacherous commanders into meetinghim for a reconciliation at the town ofSinigallia, assuring them that he couldnot fullii his ambitions without them -then had them all murdered. Some weregarrotted in his presence, others trans-ported in cages and slaughtered later.

Machiavelli's initial despatch toFlorenee describing these events indicatesthat he was almost out of his wits witbterror. News of the betrayals spread fastand Sinigallia was in mayhem as Bor-gia's troops went on the rampage, beyondthe control ot even their redoubtable

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commander. We can only imagine bowtbis must bave affected the sensitivemind of Leonardo, wbo was witb Machi-avclli on this occasion. Tbe oblique, ever-secretive Leonardo makes no mention oftbis event in his notebooks. Sucb anomission is not unusual; be often simplysbut out from bis mind any upsettingreality be could not face. But tbis borrificevent wi)uld bave its effect nonetbeiess -almost at once it would accentuate wbatmigbt be termed bis 'intellectual stutter'.Tbe meticulous details of his observa-tions would lose any semblance of overallfluency as the intensity of bis minddarted from one idea to another. It was attbis time that be attempted to explaintbis curious mental tic (to bimself?) bywriting beside a diagram in bis notebooktbat be would not complete this projectbecause ofthe evil nature of man'.

Tbe more resilient and realisticMacbiavelli would eventually take a dia-metrically different attitude. Indeed, beeven went so far as to embrace tbe 'evilnature of man'. If a prince was to con-quer a territory, rule it and continue togovern it amid tbe treacberous politics ofRenaissance Italy, tben Borgia's rutblesslack of moral concern was the only waybe could succeed. All this Maehiavelliwould later set down in The Prince.whose amorality would inspire indignantoutrage across Europe and beyond.

As for Borgia bimseif. tbe truly aston-isbing extent of bis ambitions only gradu-ally emerged after bis death. His planbad been to establish bis own princedom

Above Intrigue and collusion in RenaissanceItaly, from Ghirlandaio's fresco The Visitation.

in the Romagna. Backed by tbe diplo-matic machinations of his powerfulfatber be would tben take Florence andeventually unite tbe whole of Italy underbis power. To give Machiavelli his due heprobably realised tbis earlier than most;be too wisbed to see a united Italy thaiwould achieve a power it had not seensince the collapse of tbe Roman Empireover a millennium before. Yet evenMachiavelli did not suspect tbe full enor-mity of what Borgia had planned with hisfatber. Upon tbc deatb of Alexander VI anew pope would be elected hy tbe col-lege of cardinals. Tbere Is some evidencethat Borgia planned to dispense witb this

Above Leonardo's 1502 sketch for a row of four mortars firing into a fortified courtyard. Cesare Borgiahired Leonardo as a pioneer of military technology, titling him 'femily architect and general engineer'.

centuries-old tradition for voting in StPeter's successor to tbe rule of Cbristen-dom. Instead, be intended to seize thepapacy, declare bimseif pope and turnthis office into a secular bereditary insti-tution ruled by tbe House of Borgia. AsMacbiavelli bad seen, tbe key to Borgia'ssuccess lay in bis astonishing ability tooutwit his enemies by means of treacherybeyond wildest imagination.

Ironically, when Borgia's luck finallyran out, it was be wbo would fall victimto otbers, betrayed by Pius III, tbe Popewho succeeded his father, and tben bybis ally and protector tbe Viceroy ofNaples. Shipped in irons to Spain, heretoo be would be dogged by bad luck.Despite escaping from bis castle prison,tbe once migbty Cesare Borgia wouldsuffer an ignominious end in a minormilitary skirmisb far removed from Romein obscure rural Spain, all his grandambitions unachieved.

Paul Scrathern is author of The Medici:Godfathers ofthe Renaissance (Pimlico, 2004).His new book The Artjst, the Philosopher and theWarrior: Leonardo, MachiovelH and Borgia -a Fateful Collusion was published last month byJonathan Cape.

I- u r t h e r Ii e a cl i n gNiccolo Machiavelli, The ChiefWorks andOthers (North Carolina UP 1965); NiccoloMachiavelli, The Historical. Political andDiplomaticWritings (Kessinger. 2007);Leonardo da Vinci, The Literary Works ofLeonardo daVinci (Phaidon, 1977).

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