206 - 5

Love (Machiavelli)

Affection or attachment toward another person. In the discussion of rulers, love is connected to the traditional expectation that a prince should be loving, generous, and kind. Machiavelli questions whether these qualities are sufficient for political survival.

Translation (Machiavelli)

Expressing a text’s meaning in another language. The lecture emphasizes that translation involves choices about wording and grammar that can preserve or alter important features of an author’s argument.

Buonconte da Montefeltro (Dante)

A soldier whose soul Dante encounters in Purgatory after his death in battle. His repentance at the moment of death and invocation of Mary allow his soul to be saved.

Fear (Machiavelli)

The feeling of being threatened by danger or punishment. Connects fear to the serious dangers surrounding a prince and the consequences of appearing weak or excessively forgiving.

Patria (Machiavelli)

The homeland or particular community to which someone feels deep belonging and loyalty. The professor emphasizes Machiavelli’s attachment to Florence rather than simply treating his loyalty as attachment to a unified Italy.

Virtù (Machiavelli)

The strength, intelligence, courage, and practical ability needed to act effectively in political circumstances. It differs from conventional moral virtue because effective rule may require actions that are not ordinarily considered good.

Fortuna (Machiavelli)

Luck or unpredictable circumstances outside full human control—the part of human affairs that happens to people rather than being determined by their own actions.

River (Machiavelli)

A metaphor comparing Fortuna to a river that can flood destructively. People cannot eliminate the river’s force, but they can build protections before the flood arrives.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita (Dante)

Midway in the journey of our life,” the opening phrase of Dante’s poem. The professor emphasizes the movement from the collective “our life” to the individual “I found myself.”

Glory (Machiavelli)

Great honour or achievement, connected in the lecture to the glory of the patria, especially Florence. Political power serves this objective rather than being the final goal itself.

Wheel of Fortune (Machiavelli)

A medieval symbol of changing fortune that raises people to success and brings them down again, without their controlling the wheel’s movement.

Organ Stop

A mechanism controlling the sound of a pipe organ, used in a comparison between predictable mechanical operation and human choices.