Then and Now [antikvár]

1 Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose. Biagio Buonaccorsi had had a busy day. He was tired, but, being a man of methodical habit, before going to bed made a note in his diary. It was brief : 'The City sent a man to Imola to the Duke.' Perhaps because he thought it of no importance he did not mention the man's name : it was Machiavelli. The Duke was Caesar Borgia. It had been not only a busy day, but a long one, for Biagio had set forth from his house at dawn. With him on a stout pony went his nephew, Piero Giacomini, whom Machiavelli had consented to take with him. It happened to be Piero's eighteenth birthday, 6 October 1502, and so was a fitting day for him to go out int^o the world for the first time. He was a well set-up youth, tall for his age and of an agreeable aspect. Under his uncle's guidance, for his mother was a widow, he had received a good education ; he could write a good hand and turn a comely phrase, not only in Italian, but in Latin. On the advice of Machiavelli, who passionately admired the ancient Romans, he had acquired more than a cursory knowledge of their history. Machiavelli cherished the conviction that men are always the same and have the same passions, so that when circumstances are similar the same causes must lead to the same effects; and thus, by bearing in mind how the Romans coped with a given situation, men of a later day might conduct themselves with prudence and efficiency. It was the wish of both Biagio and his sister that Piero should enter the government service in which Biagio held a modest post under his friend Machiavelli, The mission on which Machiavelli was now going