History of Italy
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Ancient history
Prehistoric Italy
Etruscan civilization (12th–6th c. BC)
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Italy in the Middle Ages
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Maritime Republics and Italian city-states
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Italian Renaissance (14th–16th c.)
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Italy Portal v t e

The Italian city-states were a political phenomenon of small independent states mostly in the central and northern Italian peninsula between the 10th and 15th centuries.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire urban settlements in Italy generally enjoyed a greater continuity than in the rest of western Europe. Many of these towns were survivors of earlier Etruscan and Roman towns which had existed within the Roman Empire. The republican institutions of Rome had also survived. Some feudal lords existed with a servile labour force and huge tracts of land, but by the 11th century, many cities, including Venice, Milan, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, Cremona and others, had become large trading metropolises, able to conquer independence from their formal sovereigns.

Early Italian city-states[link]

The first Italian city-states appeared in northern Italy as a result of a struggle to gain independence from the German Holy Roman Empire.^[1] The Lombard League was an alliance formed around 1167, which at its apex included most of the cities of northern Italy including, among others, Milan, Piacenza, Cremona, Mantua, Crema, Bergamo, Brescia, Bologna, Padua, Treviso, Vicenza, Venice, Verona, Lodi, Reggio Emilia and Parma, though its membership changed through time. Other city-states were associated to these "commune" cities, like Genoa, Turin and, in the Adriatic, Ragusa.

In central Italy there were the city-states of Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Siena and Ancona, while south of Rome and the Papal States there were the city-states of Salerno, Amalfi, Bari, Naples and Trani which in 1130 were united in the newly-created Norman Kingdom of Sicily.^[2]

Around 1100, Genoa and Venice emerged as independent Maritime republics. For Genoa — nominally — the Holy Roman Emperor was overlord and the Bishop of Genoa was president of the city; however, actual power was wielded by a number of consuls annually elected by popular assembly. Pisa and Amalfi also emerged as maritime republics: trade, shipbuilding and banking helped support their powerful navies in the Mediterranean in those medieval centuries.^[3]

Difference from northern Europe[link]

Between the 12th and 13th centuries, Italy was vastly different from feudal Europe north of the Alps. The Peninsula was a melange of political and cultural elements rather than a unified state. Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel have argued that geography determined the history of the region, other scholars however emphasize the absence of central political structures. The very mountainous nature of Italy's landscape was a barrier to effective inter-city communication. The Po plain however, was an exception: it was the only large contiguous area, and most city states that fell to invasion were located there. Those that survived the longest were in the more rugged regions, such as Florence or Venice, which was protected by its lagoon. The rugged terrain of the Alps prevented the German Princes from attacking Northern Italy, safeguarding the country from German political control. Largely for these reasons, no strong monarchies emerged as they did in the rest of Europe; instead there emerged the independent city-state.

While those Roman, urban, republican sensibilities persisted, there were many movements and changes afoot. Italy first felt the changes in Europe from the 11th to the 13th centuries. Typically there was:

• a rise in population―the population doubled in this period (the demographic explosion)
• an emergence of huge cities (Venice, Florence and Milan had over 100,000 inhabitants by the 13th century in addition to many others such as Genoa, Bologna and Verona, which had over 50,000 inhabitants)
• the rebuilding of the great cathedrals
• substantial migration from country to city (in Italy the rate of urbanization reached 20%, making it the most urbanized society in the world at that time)
• an agrarian revolution
• the development of commerce

In recent writing on the city states, American scholar Rodney Stark emphasizes that they married responsive government, Christianity and the birth of capitalism.^[4] He argues that these states were mostly republics unlike the great European monarchies of France and Spain with absolute power vested in rulers who could and did stifle commerce. Keeping both direct Church control and imperial power at arms length the independent city republics prospered through commerce based on early capitalist principles ultimately creating the conditions for the artistic and intellectual changes produced by the Renaissance.

Cambridge University historian and political philosopher Quentin Skinner^[5] has pointed out how Otto of Freising, a German bishop who visited central Italy during the 12th century, commented that Italian towns had appeared to have exited from Feudalism, so that their society was based on merchants and commerce. Even northern cities and states were also notable for their merchant Republics, especially the Republic of Venice.^[6] Compared to absolutist monarchies or other more centrally controlled states the Italian communes and commercial republics enjoyed relative political freedom conducive to academic and artistic advancement. Geographically, and because of trade, Italian cities such as Venice became international trading and banking hubs and intellectual crossroads.

Harvard historian Niall Ferguson^[7] points out that Florence and Venice, as well as several other Italian city-states, played a crucial innovative role in world financial developments, devising the main instruments and practices of banking and the emergence of new forms of social and economic organization.

Income[link]

It is estimated that the per capita income of northern Italy nearly tripled from the 11th century to the 15th century. This was a highly mobile, demographically expanding society, fueled by the rapidly expanding Renaissance commerce.

In the 1300s, just as the Italian Renaissance was beginning, Italy was the economic capital of Western Europe: the Italian States were the top manufacturers of finished woolen products. However, with the Bubonic Plague in the 1400s, the birth of the English woolen industry and general warfare in Italy, Italy temporarily lost its economic advantage. However, by the late 1400s Italy was again in control of trade along the Mediterranean Sea. It found a new niche in luxury items like ceramics, glassware, lace and silk.

However, Italy would never regain its strong hold on textiles. And though it was the birthplace of banking, by the 1500s German and Dutch banks began taking away business. Discovery of the Americas in the late 1500s as well as new trade routes to Africa and India (which made Portugal a leading trading power) brought about the decline in Italian economic power.^[8]

Literacy and numeracy[link]

By the 13th century, northern and central Italy had become the most literate society in the world. More than one third of male population could read in the vernacular (an unprecedented rate since the decline of the Western Roman Empire), as could a small but significant proportion of women.

The Italian city states were also highly numerate, given the importance of the new forms of bookkeeping that were essential to the trading and mercantile basis of society. Some of the most widely circulating books, such as the Liber Abaci by Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa, included applications of mathematics and arithmetic to business practice^[9] or were business manuals based on sophisticated numeracy and literacy.

Indeed Luca Pacioli helped create the Banking system of the Italian city-states with his "double-entry bookkeeping"^[10]: his 27-page treatise on bookkeeping contained the first known published work on that topic, and is said to have laid the foundation for double-entry bookkeeping (of Genoese merchants) as it is practiced today.^[11]

Communes[link]

During the 11th century in northern Italy a new political and social structure emerged ― the city-state or commune. The civic culture which arose from this urbs was remarkable. In some places where communes arose (e.g. Britain and France), they were absorbed by the monarchical state as it emerged. They survived in northern and central Italy as in a handful of other regions throughout Europe to become independent and powerful city-states. In Italy the breakaway from their feudal overlords occurred in the late 12th century and 13th century, during the Investiture Controversy between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor: Milan led the Lombard cities against the Holy Roman Emperors and defeated them, gaining independence (battles of Legnano, 1176, and Parma, 1248; see Lombard League).

Similar town revolts led to the foundation of city-states throughout medieval Europe, such as in Russia (Novgorod Republic, 12th century), in Flanders (Battle of Golden Spurs, 14th century) in Switzerland (the towns of the Old Swiss Confederacy, 14th century), in Germany (see the Hanseatic League, 14th-15th century), and in Prussia (Thirteen Years' War, 15th century).

Some Italian city-states became great military powers very early on. Venice and Genoa acquired vast naval empires in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. During the Fourth Crusade (1204), Venice conquered a quarter of the Byzantine Empire.

Italy in 1494, after the Peace of Lodi

The Maritime Republics were one of the mainproducts of this new civic and social culture based on commerce and exchange of knowledge with other areas of the world outside western Europe. The Republic of Ragusa and the Republic of Venice, for example, had important trade communications with the Muslim and Hindu world and this helped the initial development of the Italian Renaissance.

By the late 12th century, a new and remarkable society had emerged in Northern Italy; rich, mobile, expanding, with a mixed aristocracy and urban abitante (burgher) class, interested in urban institutions and republican government. But many of the new city-states also housed violent factions based on family, confraternity and brotherhood, who undermined their cohesion (see Guelphs and Ghibellines).

Princely states[link]

By 1300, most of these republics had become princely states dominated by a Signore. The exceptions were Venice, Florence, Lucca, and a few others, which remained republics in the face of an increasingly monarchic Europe. In many cases by 1400 the Signori were able to found a stable dynasty over their dominated city (or group of regional cities), obtaining also a nobility title of sovereignty by their formal superior, for example in 1395 Gian Galeazzo Visconti bought for 100,000 gold florins the title of Duke of Milan from the emperor Wenceslaus.

Regional states[link]

During 14th century and 15th century the most powerful of these cities (Milan, Venice, Florence) were able to conquer the other weaker city-states, creating regional states. The 1454 Peace of Lodi ended their struggle for the hegemony in Italy and started a policy of balance of power (see Italian Renaissance).

At the beginning of 16th century, apart some minor city-states like Lucca or San Marino, only the republican Venice was able to preserve her independence and to match the European monarchies of France and Spain and the Ottoman Empire (see Italian Wars).

Notes[link]

1. ^ (Italian) Italian "Comuni"
2. ^ Franco Cardini & Marina Montesano. Storia Medievale. Le Monnier Università. Florence, 2006
3. ^ G. Benvenuti Le Repubbliche Marinare. Amalfi, Pisa, Genova, Venezia. Newton & Compton editori, Roma 1989.
4. ^ Stark, Rodney, The Victory of Reason, New York, Random House, 2005
5. ^ Skinner, Quentin, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol I: The Renaissance; vol II: The Age of Reformation, Cambridge University Press, p. 69
6. ^ Martin, J. and Romano, D., Venice Reconsidered, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 2000
7. ^ Ferguson, Niall, The Ascent of Money: The Financial History of the World. Penguin, 2008
8. ^ Matthews and Platt. The Western Humanities. Volume I: "Beginnings through the Renaissance". Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing Co., 1992
9. ^ Stark, Rodney, The Victory of Reason. Random House, New York: 2005
10. ^ Carruthers, Bruce G., & Espeland, Wendy Nelson, Accounting for Rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the Rhetoric of Economic Rationality, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 97, No. 1, July 1991, pp. 37
11. ^ vSangster, Alan: "The printing of Pacioli's Summa in 1494: how many copies were printed?" (Accounting Historians Journal, John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, June 2007)

See also[link]

• History of Italy
• Medieval commune
• Repubbliche Marinare
• Guelphs and Ghibellines
• Italian Renaissance

References and sources[link]

• "Background to the Italian Renaissance", Washington State University
• "The Rise of the Italian City-States"
• "Italy's City-States", End of Europe's Middle Ages, University of Calgary
• "City-states in Italy", Mr. Dowling
• "City-states in Italy", Web Gallery of Art

Niccolò Machiavelli

Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito
Born	(1469-05-03)3 May 1469 Florence
Died	21 June 1527(1527-06-21) (aged 58) Florence
Era	Renaissance Italy
School	Renaissance philosophy, realism, Classical republicanism
Main interests	Politics (and Political Philosophy), military theory, history
Influenced by Xenophon, Plutarch, Tacitus, Polybius, Cicero, Sallust, Livy,
Influenced Political Realism, Bacon, Hobbes, Harrington, Rousseau, Vico, Edward Gibbon, David Hume, John Adams, Cuoco, Nietzsche, Pareto, Gramsci, Althusser
Signature

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (Italian pronunciation: [nikkoˌlɔ makjaˈvɛlli], 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was an Italian historian, diplomat, philosopher, humanist and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. A founder of modern political science,^[1] he was a diplomat, political philosopher, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is renowned in the Italian language. He was Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. He wrote his masterpiece, The Prince after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility in Florence, and is respectively interpreted by many as a satire of these powers.

Life[link]

Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy, the first son and third child of attorney, Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli, and his wife, Bartolomea di Stefano Nelli.^[2] The Machiavelli family are believed to be descended from the old marquesses of Tuscany and to have produced thirteen Florentine Gonfalonieres of Justice,^[3] one of the offices of a group of nine citizens selected by drawing lots every two months, who formed the government, or Signoria. Machiavelli, like many people of Florence, was however not a full citizen of Florence, due to the nature of Florentine citizenship in that time, even under the republican regime.^[4]

Statue at the Uffizi

Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era—popes waged acquisitive wars against Italian city-states, and people and cities might fall from power at any time. Along with the pope and the major cities like Venice and Florence, foreign powers such as France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and even Switzerland battled for regional influence and control. Political-military alliances continually changed, featuring condottieri (mercenary leaders) who changed sides without warning, and short lived governments rising and falling.^[5]

Machiavelli was taught grammar, rhetoric, and Latin, and became a prolific writer. It is thought that he did not learn Greek, even though Florence was at the time one of the centers of Greek scholarship in Europe. In 1494, Florence restored the republic — expelling the Medici family, who had ruled Florence for some sixty years. In June 1498, shortly after the execution of Savonarola, Machiavelli, at the age of 29, was elected as head of the second chancery. In July 1498, he was also made the secretary of the Dieci di Libertà e Pace. He was in a diplomatic council responsible for negotiation and military affairs. Between 1499 and 1512 he carried out several diplomatic missions: to the court of Louis XII in France; to the court of Ferdinand II of Aragón, in Spain; in Germany; and to the Papacy in Rome, in the Italian states. Moreover, from 1502 to 1503 he witnessed the brutal reality of the state-building methods of Cesare Borgia (1475–1507) and his father Pope Alexander VI, who were then engaged in the process of trying to bring a large part of central Italy under their possession. The pretext of defending Church interests was used as a partial justification by the Borgias.

Between 1503 and 1506 Machiavelli was responsible for the Florentine militia, including the City’s defense. He distrusted mercenaries (a distrust he explained in his official reports and then later in his theoretical works), preferring a politically invested citizen-militia - a philosophy that bore fruit. His command of Florentine citizen-soldiers defeated Pisa in 1509. However, in August 1512 the Medici, helped by Pope Julius II, used Spanish troops to defeat the Florentines at Prato. Piero Soderini resigned as Florentine head of state and left in exile. The Florentine city-state and the Republic were dissolved. Machiavelli was deprived of office in 1512 by the Medici. In 1513 he was accused of conspiracy, arrested, and imprisoned for a time. Despite torture ("with the rope", where the prisoner is hanged from his bound wrists, from the back, forcing the arms to bear the body's weight, thus dislocating the shoulders), he denied involvement and was released. Machiavelli then retired to his estate at Sant'Andrea in Percussina (near San Casciano in Val di Pesa), and devoted himself to study and to the writing of the political treatises that earned his intellectual place in the development of political philosophy and political conduct.^[6] Despairing of the opportunity to remain directly involved in political matters, after a time Machiavelli began to participate in intellectual groups in Florence and wrote several plays that (unlike his works on politics/political theory) were both popular and widely known in his lifetime. Still politics remained his main passion and to satisfy interest he maintained a well-known correspondence with better politically connected friends, attempting to become involved once again in political life.^[7]

Machiavelli's cenotaph in the Santa Croce Church in Florence

In a letter to Francesco Vettori, he described his exile:

When evening comes, I go back home, and go to my study. On the threshold, I take off my work clothes, covered in mud and filth, and I put on the clothes an ambassador would wear. Decently dressed, I enter the ancient courts of rulers who have long since died. There, I am warmly welcomed, and I feed on the only food I find nourishing and was born to savor. I am not ashamed to talk to them and ask them to explain their actions and they, out of kindness, answer me. Four hours go by without my feeling any anxiety. I forget every worry. I am no longer afraid of poverty or frightened of death. I live entirely through them.^[8]

Machiavelli died in 1527 at the age of 58. He was buried at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. An epitaph honoring him is inscribed on his monument. The Latin legend reads: TANTO NOMINI NULLUM PAR ELOGIUM ("so great a name (has) no adequate praise" or "no eulogy (would be appropriate to) such a great name").

Works[link]

[edit] The Prince

Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici to whom the final version of the Prince was dedicated.

Machiavelli’s best-known book, "Il Principe," contains a number of maxims concerning politics, but rather than the more traditional subject of a hereditary prince, it concentrates on the possibility of a "new prince." To retain power, the hereditary prince must carefully maintain the socio-political institutions to which the people are accustomed; whereas a new prince has the more difficult task in ruling, since he must first stabilize his new-found power in order to build an enduring political structure. He believed that social benefits of stability and security could be achieved in the face of moral corruption. Aside from that, Machiavelli believed that public and private morality had to be separate in order to rule. To do this required that the prince be concerned not only with reputation but that he be also willing to act immorally. As a political scientist, Machiavelli emphasizes the occasional need for the methodical exercise of brute force, deceit, and so on.

Scholars often note that Machiavelli glorifies instrumentality in statebuilding - an approach embodied by the saying that "the ends justify the means." Violence may be necessary for the successful transfer of power and introduction of new legal institutions. Force may be used to eliminate political rivals, to coerce resistant populations, and to purge previous rulers who will inevitably attempt to regain their power. Machiavelli has become infamous for this political advice, ensuring that he would be remembered in history as an adjective, "Machiavellian."

Notwithstanding some mitigating themes, the Catholic Church banned The Prince, registering it to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and humanists also viewed the book negatively — among them, Erasmus of Rotterdam. As a treatise, its primary intellectual contribution to the history of political thought is the fundamental break between political Realism and political Idealism — thus, The Prince is a manual to acquiring and keeping political power. In contrast with Plato and Aristotle, Machiavelli insisted that an imaginary ideal society is not the model for a prince to orient himself by.

Concerning the differences and similarities in Machiavelli's advice to ruthless and tyrannical princes in The Prince and his more republican exhortations in Discourses on Livy, many have concluded that The Prince although written in the form of advice for a monarchical prince, contains arguments for the superiority of republican regimes, similar to those found in the Discourses. In the 18th century the work was even called a satire, for example by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.^{[citation needed]} More recently, commentators such as Leo Strauss and Harvey Mansfield have agreed that the Prince can be read as having a deliberate comical irony.^{[citation needed]} Other commentators have not seen the irony as deliberate comedy, but most commentators agree that the Prince is in any case republican to some extent.^{[citation needed]}

Antonio Gramsci argued that Machiavelli's audience for this work was not even the ruling class but the common people because the rulers already knew these methods through their education.

[edit] Discourses on Livy

The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy (Discorsi) nominally discuss a classical history of early Ancient Rome. Machiavelli presents it as a series of lessons on how a republic should be started and structured. It is a larger work than the Prince, and it more openly explains the advantages of republics. It includes early versions of the concept of checks and balances, and asserts the superiority of a republic over a principality. It became one of the central texts of republicanism.^[9]

From The Discourses:

• “In fact, when there is combined under the same constitution a prince, a nobility, and the power of the people, then these three powers will watch and keep each other reciprocally in check.” Book I, Chapter II
• “Doubtless these means [of attaining power] are cruel and destructive of all civilized life, and neither Christian, nor even human, and should be avoided by every one. In fact, the life of a private citizen would be preferable to that of a king at the expense of the ruin of so many human beings.” Bk I, Ch XXVI
• “Now, in a well-ordered republic, it should never be necessary to resort to extra-constitutional measures. . . . ” Bk I, Ch XXXIV
• “. . . the governments of the people are better than those of princes.” Book I, Chapter LVIII
• “. . . if we compare the faults of a people with those of princes, as well as their respective good qualities, we shall find the people vastly superior in all that is good and glorious”. Book I, Chapter LVIII
• “For government consists mainly in so keeping your subjects that they shall be neither able, nor disposed to injure you. . . . ” Bk II, Ch XXIII
• “. . . no prince is ever benefited by making himself hated.” Book III, Chapter XIX
• “Let not princes complain of the faults committed by the people subjected to their authority, for they result entirely from their own negligence or bad example.” Bk III, Ch XXIX ^[10]

Other political and historical works[link]

Peter Withorne’s 1573 translation of the Art of War

• Discorso sopra le cose di Pisa (1499)
• Del modo di trattare i popoli della Valdichiana ribellati (1502)
• Del modo tenuto dal duca Valentino nell’ ammazzare Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, etc. (1502) — A Description of the Methods Adopted by the Duke Valentino when Murdering Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, the Signor Pagolo, and the Duke di Gravina Orsini
• Discorso sopra la provisione del danaro (1502) — A discourse about the provision of money.
• Ritracto delle cose della Magna (1508–1512) - Portrait of the affairs of Germany.
• Dell’Arte della Guerra (1519–1520) — The Art of War, high military science.
• Discorso sopra il riformare lo stato di Firenze (1520) — A discourse about the reforming of Florence.
• Sommario delle cose della citta di Lucca (1520) — A summary of the affairs of the city of Lucca.
• The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca (1520) — Vita di Castruccio Castracani da Lucca, a short biography.
• Istorie Florentine (1520–1525) — Florentine Histories, an eight-volume history book of the city-state, Florence, commissioned by Giulio di Giuliano de’ Medici, later Pope Clement VII.

Fictional works[link]

Besides being a statesman and political scientist, Machiavelli also translated classical works, and was a dramaturge (Clizia, Mandragola), a poet (Sonetti, Canzoni, Ottave, Canti carnascialeschi), and a novelist (Belfagor arcidiavolo).

Some of his other work:

• Decennale primo (1506), a poem in terza rima.
• Decennale secondo (1509), a poem.
• Ritratti delle cose di Francia (1510) — Portrait of the affairs of France.
• Andria or The Woman of Andros (1517), a Classical comedy, translated from Terence.
• Mandragola (1518) — The Mandrake, a five-act prose comedy, with a verse prologue.
• Clizia (1525), a prose comedy.
• Belfagor arcidiavolo (1515), a novel.
• Asino d’oro (1517) — The Golden Ass is a terza rima poem, a new version of the Classic work by Apuleius.
• Frammenti storici (1525) — Fragments of stories.

Other works[link]

Della lingua (1514), a dialogue about the language is also normally considered to be by Machiavelli.

Machiavelli's literary executor, Giuliano de'Ricci, also reported having seen that Machiavelli, his grandfather, made a comedy in the style of Aristophanes which included living Florentines as characters, and to be titled Le Maschere. It has been suggested that due to such things as this and his style of writing to his superiors generally, there was very likely some animosity to Machiavelli even before the return of the Medici.^[11]

Originality[link]

Commentators have taken very different approaches to Machiavelli, and not always agreed. Major discussion has tended to be especially about two issues, first how unified and philosophical his work is, and secondly concerning how innovative or traditional it is.^[12]

Coherence[link]

There is some disagreement concerning how best to describe the unifying themes, if there are any, that can be found in Machiavelli's works, especially in the two major political works, The Prince and Discourses. Some commentators have described him as inconsistent, and perhaps as not even putting a high priority in consistency.^[12] Others such as Hans Baron have argued that his ideas must have changed dramatically over time. Some have argued that his conclusions are best understood as a product of his times, experiences and education. Others, such as Leo Strauss and Harvey Mansfield, have argued strongly that there is a very strong and deliberate consistency and distinctness, even arguing that this extends to all of Machiavelli's works including his comedies and letters.^[12]

Influences[link]

Commentators such as Leo Strauss have gone so far as to name Machiavelli as the deliberate originator of modernity itself. Others have argued that Machiavelli is only a particularly interesting example of trends which were happening around him. In any case Machiavelli presented himself at various times as someone reminding Italians of the old virtues of the Romans and Greeks, and other times as someone promoting a completely new approach to politics.^[12]

That Machiavelli had a wide range of influences is in itself not controversial. Their relative importance is however a subject of on-going discussion. It is possible to summarize some of the main influences emphasized by different commentators.

1. The Mirror of Princes genre. Gilbert (1938) summarized the similarities between The Prince and the genre it obviously imitates, the so-called "Mirror of Princes" style. This was a classically influenced genre, with models at least as far back as Xenophon and Isocrates, that was still quite popular during Machiavelli's life. While Gilbert emphasizes the similarities however, he agrees with all other commentators that Machiavelli was particularly novel in the way he used this genre, even when compared to his contemporaries such as Baldassare Castiglione and Erasmus. One of the major innovations Gilbert noted was that Machiavelli focused upon the "deliberate purpose of dealing with a new ruler who will need to establish himself in defiance of custom". Normally, these types of works were addressed only to hereditary princes.

2. Classical republicanism. Commentators such as Quentin Skinner and J.G.A. Pocock, in the so-called "Cambridge School" of interpretation have been able to show that some of the republican themes in Machiavelli's political works, particularly the Discourses on Livy, can be found in medieval Italian literature which was influenced by classical authors such as Sallust.

Xenophon, author of the Cyropedia.

3. Classical political philosophy: Xenophon, Plato and Aristotle. The Socratic school of classical political philosophy, especially Aristotle, had become a major influence upon European political thinking in the late Middle Ages. It existed both in the catholicised form presented by Thomas Aquinas, and in the more controversial "Averroist" form of authors like Marsilius of Padua. Machiavelli was critical of catholic political thinking and may have been influenced by Averroism. But he cites Plato and Aristotle very infrequently and apparently did not approve of them. Leo Strauss argued that the strong influence of Xenophon, a student of Socrates more known as an historian, rhetorician and soldier, was a major source of Socratic ideas for Machiavelli, sometimes not in line with Aristotle. While interest in Plato was increasing in Florence during Machiavelli's lifetime he also does not show particular interest in him, but was indirectly influenced by his readings of authors such as Polybius, Plutarch and Cicero.

The major difference between Machiavelli and the Socratics, according to Strauss, is Machiavelli's materialism and therefore his rejection of both a teleological view of nature, and of the view that philosophy is higher than politics. Aimed-for things which the Socratics argued would tend to happen by nature, Machiavelli said would happen by chance.^[13]

4. Classical materialism. Strauss argued that Machiavelli may have seen himself as influenced by some ideas from classical materialists such as Democritus, Epicurus and Lucretius. Strauss however sees this also as a sign of major innovation in Machiavelli, because classical materialists did not share the Socratic regard for political life, while Machiavelli clearly did.^[13]

5. Thucydides. Some scholars note the similarity between Machiavellian and the Greek historian Thucydides, since both emphasized power politics.^[14][15] Strauss argued that Machiavelli may indeed have been influenced by pre-Socratic philosophers, but he felt it was a new combination:-

...contemporary readers are reminded by Machiavelli’s teaching of Thucydides; they find in both authors the same “realism,” i.e., the same denial of the power of the gods or of justice and the same sensitivity to harsh necessity and elusive chance. Yet Thucydides never calls in question the intrinsic superiority of nobility to base­ness, a superiority that shines forth particularly when the noble is destroyed by the base. Therefore Thucydides’ History arouses in the reader a sadness which is never aroused by Machiavelli’s books. In Machiavelli we find comedies, parodies, and satires but nothing reminding of tragedy. One half of humanity remains outside of his thought. There is no tragedy in Machiavelli because he has no sense of the sacredness of “the common.” — Strauss (1958, p. 292)

Beliefs[link]

Amongst commentators, there are a few consistently made proposals concerning what was most new in Machiavelli's work.

Empiricism and realism versus idealism[link]

Machiavelli is sometimes seen as the prototype of a modern empirical scientist, building generalizations from experience and historical facts, and emphasizing the uselessness of theorizing with the imagination.^[12]

He emancipated politics from theology and moral philosophy. He undertook to describe simply what rulers actually did and thus anticipated what was later called the scientific spirit in which questions of good and bad are ignored, and the observer attempts to discover only what really happens.

—Joshua Kaplan, 2005^[16]

Machiavelli felt that his early schooling along the lines of a traditional classical education was essentially useless for the purpose of understanding politics.^[16] Nevertheless, he advocated intensive study of the past, particularly regarding the founding of a city, which he felt was a key to understanding its later development.^[16] Moreover, he studied the way people lived and aimed to inform leaders how they should rule and even how they themselves should live. For example, Machiavelli denies that living virtuously necessarily leads to happiness. And Machiavelli viewed misery as one of the vices that enables a prince to rule.^[17] Machiavelli stated that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.^[16][18] In much of Machiavelli's work, it seems that the ruler must adopt unsavory policies for the sake of the continuance of his regime.

A related and more controversial proposal often made is that he described how to do things in politics in a way which seemed neutral concerning who used the advice - tyrants or good rulers.^[12]

That Machiavelli strove for realism is not doubted, but for four centuries scholars have debated how best to describe his morality. The Prince made the word "Machiavellian" a byword for deceit, despotism, and political manipulation. That Machiavelli himself was not evil and indeed intended good, is on the other hand generally accepted.

Leo Strauss, an American political philosopher, declared himself more inclined toward the traditional view that Machiavelli was self-consciously a "teacher of evil," (even if he was not himself evil) since he counsels the princes to avoid the values of justice, mercy, temperance, wisdom, and love of their people in preference to the use of cruelty, violence, fear, and deception.^[19] Italian anti-fascist philosopher Benedetto Croce (1925) concludes Machiavelli is simply a "realist" or "pragmatist" who accurately states that moral values in reality do not greatly affect the decisions that political leaders make.^[20] German philosopher Ernst Cassirer (1946) held that Machiavelli simply adopts the stance of a political scientist—a Galileo of politics—in distinguishing between the "facts" of political life and the "values" of moral judgment.^[21]

Fortune[link]

Machiavelli is generally seen as being critical of Christianity as it existed in his time, specifically its effect upon politics, and also everyday life. In his opinion, Christianity, along with teleological Aristotelianism that the church had come to accept, allowed practical decisions to be guided too much by imaginary ideals and encouraged people to lazily leave events up to providence or, as he would put it, chance, luck or fortune. While Christianity sees modesty as a virtue and pride as sinful, Machiavelli took a more classical position, seeing ambition, spiritedness, and the pursuit of glory as good and natural things, and part of the virtue and prudence that good princes should have. Therefore, while it was traditional to say that leaders should have virtues, especially prudence, Machiavelli's use of the words virtù and prudenza was unusual for his time, implying a spirited and immodest ambition. Famously, Machiavelli argued that virtue and prudence can help a man control more of his future, in the place of allowing fortune to do so.

Najemy (1993) has argued that this same approach can be found in Machiavelli's approach to love and desire, as seen in his comedies and correspondence. Najemy shows how Machiavelli's friend Vettori argued against Machiavelli and cited a more traditional understanding of fortune.

On the other hand, humanism in Machiavelli's time meant that classical pre-Christian ideas about virtue and prudence, including the possibility of trying to control one's future, were not unique to him. But humanists did not go so far as to promote the extra glory of deliberately aiming to establish a new state, in defiance of traditions and laws.

While Machiavelli's approach had classical precedents, it has been argued that it did more than just bring back old ideas, and that Machiavelli was not a typical humanist. Strauss (1958) argues that the way Machiavelli combines classical ideas is new. While Xenophon and Plato also described realistic politics, and were closer to Machiavelli than Aristotle was, they, like Aristotle, also saw Philosophy as something higher than politics. Machiavelli was apparently a materialist who objected to explanations involving formal and final causation, or teleology.

Machiavelli's promotion of ambition amongst leaders while denying any higher standard meant that he encouraged risk taking, and innovation, most famously the founding of new modes and orders. His advice to prince was therefore certainly not limited to discussing how to maintain a state. It has been argued that Machiavelli's promotion of innovation led directly to the argument for progress as an aim of politics and civilization. But while a belief that humanity can control its own future, control nature, and "progress" has been long lasting, Machiavelli's followers, starting with his own friend Guicciardini, have tended to prefer peaceful progress through economic development, and not warlike progress. As Harvey Mansfield (1995, p. 74) wrote: "In attempting other, more regular and scientific modes of overcoming fortune, Machiavelli's successors formalized and emasculated his notion of virtue."

Machiavelli however, along with some of his classical predecessors, saw ambition and spiritedness, and therefore war, as inevitable and part of human nature.

Strauss concludes his 1958 Thoughts on Machiavelli by proposing that this promotion of progress leads directly to the modern arms race. Strauss argued that the unavoidable nature of such arms races, which have existed before modern times and led to the collapse of peaceful civilizations, provides us with both an explanation of what is most truly dangerous in Machiavelli's innovations, but also the way in which the aims of his apparently immoral innovation can be understood.

Religion[link]

Machiavelli explains repeatedly that religion is man-made, and that the value of religion lies in its contribution to social order and the rules of morality must be dispensed if security required it. In The Prince, the Discourses, and in the Life of Castruccio Castracani, he describes "prophets," as he calls them, like Moses, Romulus, Cyrus the Great, and Theseus (he treats pagan and Christian patriarchs in the same way) as the greatest of new princes, the glorious and brutal founders of the most novel innovations in politics, and men whom Machiavelli assures us have always used a large amount of armed force and murder against their own people. He estimated that these sects last from 1666 to 3000 years each time, which, as pointed out by Leo Strauss, would mean that Christianity became due to start finishing about 150 years after Machiavelli.^[22] Machiavelli's concern with Christianity as a sect was that it makes men weak and inactive, delivering politics into the hands of cruel and wicked men without a fight.

While fear of God can be replaced by fear of the prince, if there is a strong enough prince, Machiavelli felt that having a religion is in any case especially essential to keeping a republic in order. For Machiavelli, a truly great prince can never be conventionally religious himself, but he should make his people religious if he can. According to Strauss (1958, pp. 226–227) he was not the first person to ever explain religion in this way, but his description of religion was novel because of the way he integrated this into his general account of princes.

Machiavelli's judgment that democracies need religion for practical political reasons was widespread amongst modern proponents of republics until approximately the time of the French revolution. This therefore represents a point of disagreement between himself and late modernity.^[23]

The positive side to factional and individual vice[link]

Despite the classical precedents, which Machiavelli was not the only one to promote in his time, Machiavelli's realism and willingness to argue that good ends justify bad things, is seen as a critical stimulus towards some of the most important theories of modern politics.

Firstly, particularly in the Discourses on Livy, Machiavelli is unusual in the positive side he sometimes seems to describe in factionalism in republics. For example quite early in the Discourses, (in Book I, chapter 4), a chapter title announces that the disunion of the plebs and senate in Rome "kept Rome free." That a community has different components whose interests must be balanced in any good regime is an idea with classical precedents, but Machiavelli's particularly extreme presentation is seen as a critical step towards the later political ideas of both a division of powers or checks and balances, ideas which lay behind the US constitution (and most modern constitutions).

Similarly, the modern economic argument for capitalism, and most modern forms of economics, was often stated in the form of "public virtue from private vices." Also in this case, even though there are classical precedents, Machiavelli's insistence on being both realistic and ambitious, not only admitting that vice exists but being willing to risk encouraging it, is a critical step on the path to this insight.

Mansfield however argues that Machiavelli's own aims have not been shared by those influenced by him. Machiavelli argued against seeing mere peace and economic growth as worthy aims on their own, if they would lead to what Mansfield calls the "taming of the prince."^[24]

[edit] Machiavellian

Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, The Prince, written in 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death. Although he privately circulated The Prince among friends, the only theoretical work to be printed in his lifetime was The Art of War, about military science. Since the 16th century, generations of politicians remain attracted and repelled by its apparently neutral acceptance, or even positive encouragement, of the immorality of powerful men, described especially in The Prince but also in his other works.

His works are sometimes even said to have contributed to the modern negative connotations of the words politics and politician,^[25] and it is sometimes thought that it is because of him that Old Nick became an English term for the Devil^[26] and the adjective Machiavellian became a pejorative term describing someone who aims to deceive and manipulate others for personal advantage. Machiavellianism also remains a popular term used in speeches and journalism; while in psychology, it denotes a personality type.

While Machiavellianism is notable in the works of Machiavelli, Machiavelli's works are complex and he is generally agreed to have been more than just "Machiavellian" himself. For example, J.G.A. Pocock (1975) saw him as a major source of the republicanism that spread throughout England and North America in the 17th and 18th centuries and Leo Strauss (1958), whose view of Machiavelli is quite different in many ways, agreed about Machiavelli's influence on republicanism and argued that even though Machiavelli was a teacher of evil he had a nobility of spirit that led him to advocate ignoble actions. Whatever his intentions, which are still debated today, he has become associated with any proposal where "the end justifies the means". For example Leo Strauss (1958, p. 297) wrote:

Machiavelli is the only political thinker whose name has come into common use for designating a kind of politics, which exists and will continue to exist independently of his influence, a politics guided exclusively by considerations of expediency, which uses all means, fair or foul, iron or poison, for achieving its ends - its end being the aggrandizement of one's country or fatherland - but also using the fatherland in the service of the self-aggrandizement of the politician or statesman or one's party.

Impact[link]

To quote Robert Bireley:^[27]

...there were in circulation approximately fifteen editions of the Prince and nineteen of the Discourses and French translations of each before they were placed on the Index of Paul IV in 1559, a measure which nearly stopped publication in Catholic areas except in France. Three principal writers took the field against Machiavelli between the publication of his works and their condemnation in 1559 and again by the Tridentine Index in 1564. These were the English cardinal Reginald Pole and the Portuguese bishop Jeronymo Osorio, both of whom lived for many years in Italy, and the Italian humanist and later bishop, Ambrogio Caterino Politi.

Machiavelli's ideas had a profound impact on political leaders throughout the modern west, helped by the new technology of the printing press. During the first generations after Machiavelli, his main influence was in non-Republican governments. Pole reported that the Prince was spoken of highly by Thomas Cromwell in England and had influenced Henry VIII in his turn towards Protestantism, and in his tactics, for example during the Pilgrimage of Grace.^[28] A copy was also possessed by the Catholic king and emperor Charles V.^[29] In France, after an initially mixed reaction, Machiavelli came to be associated with Catherine de' Medici and the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. As Bireley (1990:17) reports, in the 16th century, Catholic writers "associated Machiavelli with the Protestants, whereas Protestant authors saw him as Italian and Catholic". In fact, he was apparently influencing both Catholic and Protestant kings.^[30]

One of the most important early works dedicated to criticism of Machiavelli, especially The Prince, was that of the Huguenot, Innocent Gentillet, whose work commonly referred to as Discourse against Machiavelli or Anti Machiavel was published in Geneva in 1576.^[31] He accused Machiavelli of being an atheist and accused politicians of his time by saying that his works were the "Koran of the courtiers", that "he is of no reputation in the court of France which hath not Machiavel's writings at the fingers ends".^[32] Another theme of Gentillet was more in the spirit of Machiavelli himself: he questioned the effectiveness of immoral strategies (just as Machiavelli had himself done, despite also explaining how they could sometimes work). This became the theme of much future political discourse in Europe during the 17th century. This includes the Catholic Counter Reformation writers summarised by Bireley: Giovanni Botero, Justus Lipsius, Carlo Scribani, Adam Contzen, Pedro de Ribadeneira, and Diego Saavedra Fajardo.^[33] These authors criticized Machiavelli, but also followed him in many ways. They accepted the need for a prince to be concerned with reputation, and even a need for cunning and deceit, but compared to Machiavelli, and like later modernist writers, they emphasized economic progress much more than the riskier ventures of war. These authors tended to cite Tacitus as their source for realist political advice, rather than Machiavelli, and this pretense came to be known as "Tacitism".^[34] "Black tacitism" was in support of princely rule, but "red tacitism" arguing the case for republics, more in the original spirit of Machiavelli himself, became increasingly important.

Francis Bacon argued the case for what would become modern science which would be based more upon real experience and experimentation, free from assumptions about metaphysics, and aimed at increasing control of nature. He named Machiavelli as a predecessor.

Modern materialist philosophy developed in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, starting in the generations after Machiavelli. This philosophy tended to be republican, more in the original spirit of Machiavellian, but as with the Catholic authors Machiavelli's realism and encouragement of using innovation to try to control one's own fortune were more accepted than his emphasis upon war and politics. Not only was innovative economics and politics a result, but also modern science, leading some commentators to say that the 18th century Enlightenment involved a "humanitarian" moderating of Machiavellianism.^[35]

The importance of Machiavelli's influence is notable in many important figures in this endeavor, for example Bodin,^[36] Francis Bacon,^[37] Algernon Sidney,^[38] Harrington, John Milton,^[39] Spinoza,^[40] Rousseau, Hume,^[41] Edward Gibbon, and Adam Smith. Although he was not always mentioned by name as an inspiration, due to his controversy, he is also thought to have been an influence for other major philosophers, such as Montaigne,^[42] Descartes,^[43] Hobbes, Locke^[44] and Montesquieu.^[45]

In the seventeenth century it was in England that Machiavelli's ideas were most substantially developed and adapted, and that republicanism came once more to life; and out of seventeenth-century English republicanism there were to emerge in the next century not only a theme of English political and historical reflection - of the writings of the Bolingbroke circle and of Gibbon and of early parliamentary radicals - but a stimulus to the Enlightenment in Scotland, on the Continent, and in America.^[46]

Scholars have argued that Machiavelli was a major indirect and direct influence upon the political thinking of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson followed Machiavelli's republicanism when they opposed what they saw as the emerging aristocracy that they feared Alexander Hamilton was creating with the Federalist Party.^[47] Hamilton learned from Machiavelli about the importance of foreign policy for domestic policy, but may have broken from him regarding how rapacious a republic needed to be in order to survive^[48][49] (George Washington was probably less influenced by Machiavelli^[50]). However, the Founding Father who perhaps most studied and valued Machiavelli as a political philosopher was John Adams, who profusely commented on the Italian's thought in his work, A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America.^[51]

In his Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States, John Adams praised Machiavelli, with Algernon Sidney and Montesquieu, as a philosophic defender of mixed government. For Adams, Machiavelli restored empirical reason to politics, while his analysis of factions was commendable. Adams likewise agreed with the Florentine that human nature was immutable and driven by passions. He also accepted Machiavelli's belief that all societies were subject to cyclical periods of growth and decay. For Adams, Machiavelli lacked only a clear understanding of the institutions necessary for good government.^[51]

20th century[link]

The 20th century Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci drew great inspiration from Machiavelli's writings on ethics, morals, and how they relate to the State and revolution in his writings on Passive Revolution, and how a society can be manipulated by controlling popular notions of morality.^[52] Machiavelli's writings and life also influenced rapper Tupac Shakur, who after being released from prison used the alias Makavelli to record a new album, entitled The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. He is also put as an immortal character in the series The immortal Nicolas Flamel. He is the partner of the English immortal, John Dee, who seeks to control the world.

Revival of interest in the comedies[link]

In the 20th century there was also renewed interest in Machiavelli's La Mandragola (1518), which received numerous stagings, including several in New York, at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1976 and the Riverside Shakespeare Company in 1979, as a musical comedy by Peer Raben in Munich's antiteater in 1971, and at London's National Theatre in 1984.^[53]

See also[link]

	Italy portal
	Biography portal

• Francesco Guicciardini
• Francesco Vettori
• Mayberry Machiavelli
• Republicanism
• Italian Renaissance

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

Biographies[link]

• Baron, Hans. "Machiavelli: The Republican Citizen and the Author of 'the Prince'", English Historical Review Vol. 76, No. 299 (Apr., 1961), pp. 217–253 in JSTOR
• Burd, L. A., "Florence (II): Machiavelli" in Cambridge Modern History (1902), vol. I, ch. vi. pp 190–218 online Google edition
• Capponi, Niccolò. An Unlikely Prince: The Life and Times of Machiavelli (Da Capo Press; 2010) 334 pages
• Godman, Peter (1998), From Poliziano to Machaivelli: Florentine Humanism in the High Renaissance, Princeton University Press 
• de Grazia, Sebastian (1989), Machiavelli in Hell , highly favorable intellectual biography; won the Pulitzer Prize; excerpt and text search
• Hale, J. R. Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy (1961) online edition
• Hulliung, Mark. Citizen Machiavelli (1983)
• Ridolfi, Roberto. The Life of Niccolò Machiavelli (1963), a standard scholarly biography
• Schevill, Ferdinand. Six Historians (1956), pp. 61–91
• Skinner, Quentin. Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction (2000) online edition
• Unger, Miles J. 'Machiavelli: A Biography' (Simon & Schuster 2011) a lively, authoritative account of Machiavelli's life and work.
• Villari, Pasquale. The Life and Times of Niccolò Machiavelli (2 vol 1892), good older biography; online Google edition vol 1; online Google edition vol 2
• Viroli, Maurizio (2000), Niccolò's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli, Farrar, Straus & Giroux  excerpt and text search
• Viroli, Maurizio. Machiavelli (1998) online edition, good place to start

Political thought[link]

• Anglo, Sydney, Machiavelli - the First Century: Studies in Enthusiasm, Hostility, and Irrelevance, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-926776-6, ISBN 978-0-19-926776-7
• Baron, Hans. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny (2 vol 1955), highly influential, deep study of civic humanism (republicanism); 700 pp. excerpts and text search; ACLS E-books; also vol 2 in ACLS E-books
• Baron, Hans. In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism (2 vols. 1988).
• Baron, Hans (1961), "Machiavelli: the Republican Citizen and Author of The Prince", English Historical Review lxxvi (76): 217–253, DOI:10.1093/ehr/LXXVI.CCXCIX.217.  in JSTOR
• Bireley, Robert (1990), The Counter Reformation Prince 
• Black, Robert (1999), "Machiavelli, servant of the Florentine republic", in Bock, Gisela; Skinner, Quentin; Viroli, Maurizio, Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge University Press 
• Bock, Gisela; Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli, ed. (1990), Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge University Press  excerpt and text search
• Chabod, FedericoMachiavelli & the Renaissance (1958) online edition; online from ACLS E-Books
• Donskis, Leonidas, Ed. (2011) Niccolò Machiavelli: History, Power, and Virtue. Rodopi, ISBN 978-90-420-3277-4, E-ISBN 978-90-420-3278-1
• Fischer, Markus. "Machiavelli's Political Psychology," The Review of Politics, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 789–829 in JSTOR
• Fischer, Markus (2000), Well-ordered License: On the Unity of Machiavelli's Thought, Lexington Book 
• Guarini, Elena (1999), "Machiavelli and the crisis of the Italian republics", in Bock, Gisela; Skinner, Quentin; Viroli, Maurizio, Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge University Press 
• Gilbert, Allan (1938), Machiavelli's Prince and Its Forerunners, Duke University Press 
• Gilbert, Felix. Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Italy (2nd ed. 1984) online from ACLS-E-books
• Gilbert, Felix. "Machiavelli: The Renaissance of the Art of War," in Edward Mead Earle, ed. The Makers of Modern Strategy (1944)
• Jensen, De Lamar, ed. Machiavelli: Cynic, Patriot, or Political Scientist? (1960) essays by scholars online edition
• Kennington, Richard (2004), On Modern Origins, Lexington Books 
• Mansfield, Harvey C. "Machiavelli's Political Science," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 75, No. 2 (Jun., 1981), pp. 293–305 in JSTOR
• Mansfield, Harvey (1993), Taming the Prince, The Johns Hopkins University Press 
• Mansfield, Harvey (1995), "Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress", in Melzer; Weinberger; Zinman, History and the Idea of Progress, Cornell University Press 
• Mansfield, Harvey C. Machiavelli's Virtue (1996), 371pp
• Mansfield, Harvey C. Machiavelli's New Modes and Orders: A Study of the Discourses on Livy (2001) excerpt and text search
• Roger Masters (1996), Machiavelli, Leonardo and the Science of Power, University of Notre Dame Press, ISBN 0-268-01433-7  See also NYT book review.
• Roger Masters (1998), Fortune is a River: Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli's Magnificent Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-452-28090-7  Also available in Chinese (ISBN 9789572026113), Japanese (ISBN 9784022597588), German (ISBN 9783471794029), Portuguese (ISBN 9788571104969), and Korean (ISBN 9788984070059). See also NYT book review.
• Mattingly, Garrett (Autumn 1958), "Machiavelli's Prince: Political Science or Political Satire?", The American Scholar (27): 482–491. 
• Najemy, John (1993), Between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of 1513-1515, Princeton University Press 
• Najemy, John M. (1996), "Baron's Machiavelli and Renaissance Republicanism", American Historical Review (The American Historical Review, Vol. 101, No. 1) 101 (1): 119–129, DOI:10.2307/2169227, JSTOR 2169227.  Fulltext in Jstor.
• Parel, A. J. "The Question of Machiavelli's Modernity," The Review of Politics, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), pp. 320–339 in JSTOR
• Parel, Anthony (1972), "Introduction: Machiavelli's Method and His Interpreters", The Political Calculus: Essays on Machiavelli's Philosophy, Toronto, pp. 3–28 
• Pocock, J.G.A. (1975), The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, Princeton  new ed. 2003), a highly influential study of Discourses and its vast influence; excerpt and text search; also online 1975 edition
• Pocock, J. G. A. "The Machiavellian Moment Revisited: a Study in History and Ideology.: Journal of Modern History 1981 53(1): 49-72. Fulltext: in Jstor.
• Rahe, Paul A. (2006), Machiavelli's Liberal Republican Legacy, Cambridge University Press, ASIN 0521851874  Excerpt, reviews and Text search shows Machiavelli's Discourses had a major impact on shaping conservative thought.
• Rahe, Paul (1992), Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution  online edition
• Schaefer, David (1990), The Political Philosophy of Montaigne, Cornell University Press .
• Scott, John T. and Vickie B. Sullivan, "Patricide and the Plot of the Prince: Cesare Borgia and Machiavelli's Italy." American Political Science Review 1994 88(4): 887-900. Issn: 0003-0554 in Jstor
• Skinner, Quentin. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, v. I, The Renaissance, (1978)
• Soll, Jacob (2005), Publishing The Prince: History, Reading and the Birth of Political Criticism, University of Michigan Press 
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Niccolò Machiavelli (2005) online edition
• Strauss, Leo (1987), "Niccolò Machiavelli", in Strauss, Leo; Cropsey, Joseph, History of Political Philosophy (3rd ed.), University of Chicago Press 
• Strauss, Leo (1958), Thoughts on Machiavelli, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-77702-2 
• Sullivan, Vickie B., ed. (2000), The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli: Essays on the Literary Works, Yale U. Press 
• Sullivan, Vickie B. (1996), Machiavelli's Three Romes: Religion, Human Liberty, and Politics Reformed, Northern Illinois University Press 
• von Vacano, Diego, "The Art of Power: Machiavelli, Nietzsche and the Making of Aesthetic Political Theory," Lanham MD: Lexington: 2007.
• Thompson, C. Bradley (1995), "John Adams's Machiavellian Moment", The Review of Politics 57 (3): 389–417, DOI:10.1017/S0034670500019689 . Also in Rahe (2006).
• Whelan, Frederick G. (2004), Hume and Machiavelli: Political Realism and Liberal Thought, Lexington 
• Worden, Blair (1999), "Milton's republicanism and the tyanny of heaven", in Bock, Gisela; Skinner, Quentin; Viroli, Maurizio, Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge University Press 

Italian studies[link]

• Barbuto, Marcelo (2005), “Questa oblivione delle cose. Reflexiones sobre la cosmología de Maquiavelo (1469-1527),” Revista Daimon, 34, Universidad de Murcia, pp. 34–52.
• Barbuto, Marcelo (2008), “Discorsi, I, XII, 12-14. La Chiesa romana di fronte alla republica cristiana”, Filosofia Politica, 1, Il Mulino, Bologna, pp. 99–116.
• Barbuto, Marcelo (2008) “Lettere non tanto chiare”, La Cultura, Rivista di Filosofia, Letteratura e Storia, 2, pp. 331–8.
• Giuseppe Leone, "Silone e Machiavelli. Una scuola...che non crea prìncipi", pref. di Vittoriano Esposito, Centro Studi Ignazio Silone, Pescina, 2003.
• Martelli, Mario (2004), “Tracce d`una preistoria dell`Arte della Guerra di Niccolò Machiavelli”, Interpres, XXIII, pp. 256–8.
• Martelli, Mario (2004), “La Mandragola e il suo prologo”, Interpres, XXIII, pp. 106–42.
• Martelli, Mario (2003), “Per la definizione della nozione di principe civile”, Interpres, XXII.
• Martelli, Mario (2001), “I dettagli della filologia”, Interpres XX, pp. 212–71.
• Martelli, Mario (1999a), “Note su Machiavelli”, Interpres XVIII, pp. 91–145.
• Martelli, Mario (1999b), Saggio sul Principe, Salerno Editrice, Roma.
• Martelli, Mario (1999c), “Machiavelli e Savonarola: valutazione politica e valutazione religiosa”, Girolamo Savonarola. L´uomo e il frate". Atti del xxxv Convegno storico internazionale (Todi, II-14 ottobre 1998), CISAM, Spoleto, pp. 139–53.
• Martelli, Mario (1998a), Machiavelli e gli storici antichi, osservazioni su alcuni luoghi dei discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, Quaderni di Filologia e critica, 13, Salerno Editrice, Roma.
• Martelli, Mario (1998b), “Machiavelli politico amante poeta”, Interpres XVII, pp. 211–56.
• Martelli, Mario (1998c), “Machiavelli e Savonarola”, Savonarola. Democrazia, tirannide, profezia, a cura di G.C. Garfagnini, Florencia, Sismel-Edizioni del Galluzo, pp. 67–89.
• Martelli, Mario (1998d), “Machiavelli e Frontino. Nota sulle foti letterarie dell´Arte della guerra”, Regards sur la Renaissance italienne. Mélanges de Littérature offerts à Paul Larivaille, Université de Paris X-Nanterre, Paris, pp. 115–25.
• Martelli, Mario and Bausi, Francesco (1997), “Politica, storia e letteratura: Machiavelli e Guicciardini”, Storia della letteratura italiana, E. Malato (ed.), vol. IV. Il primo Cinquecento, Salerno Editrice, Roma, pp. 251–320.
• Martelli, Mario (1993), “Il buon geometra di questo mondo”, in N.M. Tutte le opere, Sansoni editore, Milano, pp. xi-xlvii.
• Martelli, Mario (1985–1986), “Schede sulla cultura di Machiavelli”, Interpres VI, pp. 283–330.
• Martelli, Mario (1982) “La logica provvidenzialistica e il capitolo XXVI del Principe”, Interpres IV, pp. 262–384.
• Martelli, Mario (1974), “L´altro Niccolò di Bernardo Machiavelli”, Rinascimento, XIV, pp. 39–100.
• Martelli, Mario (1971), “Preistoria (medicea) di Machiavelli”, Studi di Filologia Italiana, XXIX, pp. 377–405.
• Sasso, Gennaro (1993), Machiavelli: storia del suo pensiero politico, II vol., Bologna, Il Mulino,
• Sasso, Gennaro (1987-997) Machiavelli e gli antichi e altri saggi, 4 vols., Milano, R. Ricciardi

Editions[link]

Collections[link]

• Gilbert, Allan H. ed. Machiavelli: The Chief Works and Others, (3 vol. 1965), the standard scholarly edition
• Bondanella, Peter, and Mark Musa, eds. The Portable Machiavelli (1979)
• Penman, Bruce. The Prince and Other Political Writings, (1981)
• Wootton, David, ed. (1994), Selected political writings of Niccolò Machiavelli, Indianapolis: Hackett Pubs.  excerpt and text search

The Prince[link]

• Machiavelli, Niccolò (1961), The Prince, London: Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-044915-0 . Translated by George Bull
• Machiavelli, Niccolò (2006), El Principe/The Prince: Comentado Por Napoleon Bonaparte / Commentaries by Napoleon Buonaparte, Mestas Ediciones . Translated into Spanish by Marina Massa-Carrara
• Machiavelli, Niccolò (1985), The Prince, University of Chicago Press . Translated by Harvey Mansfield
• Machiavelli, Niccolò (1995), The Prince, Everyman . Translated and Edited by Stephen J. Milner. Introduction, Notes and other critical apparatus by J.M. Dent.
• The Prince ed. by Peter Bondanella (1998) 101pp online edition
• The Prince ed. by Rufus Goodwin and Benjamin Martinez (2003) excerpt and text search
• The Prince (2007) excerpt and text search
• Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince, (1908 edition tr by W. K. Marriott) Gutenberg edition
• Marriott, W. K. (2008), The Prince, Red and Black Publishers  ISBN 978-0-934941-00-3
• Il principe (2006) ed. by Mario Martelli and Nicoletta Marcelli, Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Niccolò Machiavelli, Salerno Editrice, Roma.

The Discourses on Livy[link]

• Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (2001), ed. by Francesco Bausi, Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Niccolò Machiavelli, II vol. Salerno Editrice, Roma.
• The Discourses, online 1772 edition
• The Discourses, tr. with introduction and notes by L. J. Walker (2 vol 1950).
• Machiavelli, Niccolò (1531). The Discourses. Translated by Leslie J. Walker, S.J, revisions by Brian Richardson (2003). London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044428-9
• The Discourses, edited with an introduction by Bernard Crick (1970).

The Art of War[link]

• The Seven Books on the Art of War online 1772 edition
• The Art of War ed. by Christopher Lynch (2003)
• The Art of War online 1775 edition
• The Art of War, Niccolò Machiavelli. Da Capo press edition, 2001, with introduction by Neal Wood.

Florentine Histories[link]

• History of Florence online 1901 edition
• Reform of Florence online 1772 edition
• Machiavelli, Niccolò (1988), Florentine Histories, Princeton University Press . Translation by Laura F Banfield and Harvey Mansfield.

Correspondence[link]

• Epistolario privado. Las cartas que nos desvelan el pensamiento y la personalidad de uno de los intelectuales más importantes del Renacimiento, Juan Manuel Forte (edición y traducción), Madrid, La Esfera de los Libros, 2007, 435 págs, ISBN 978-84-9734-661-0
• The Private Correspondence of Nicollo Machiavelli, ed. by Orestes Ferrara; (1929) online edition
• Machiavelli, Niccolò (1996), Machiavelli and his friends: Their personal correspondence, Northern Illinois University Press . Translated and edited by James B. Atkinson and David Sices.
• Also see Najemy (1993).

Poetry, Comedy, etc[link]

• Machiavelli, Niccolò (1985), Comedies of Machiavelli, University Press of New England  Bilingual edition of The Woman from Andros, The Mandrake, and Clizia, edited by DAvid Sices and James B. Atkinson.
• Hoeges, Dirk. Niccolò Machiavelli. Dichter-Poeta. Mit sämtlichen Gedichten, deutsch/italienisch. Con tutte le poesie, tedesco/italiano, Reihe: Dialoghi/Dialogues: Literatur und Kultur Italiens und Frankreichs, Band 10, Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt/M. u.a. 2006, ISBN 3-631-54669-6.

External links[link]

Find more about Niccolò Machiavelli on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	Source texts from Wikisource

• Machiavelli: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• full text books from the Liberty Fund, a conservative think tank
• Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
• Site containing The Prince, slightly modified for easier reading
• Works by Machiavelli at Project Gutenberg
• Machiavelli at the Marxists Internet Archive, including some of his works
• Works by Niccolò Machiavelli: text, concordances and frequency list
• Machiavelli on the Net, a Machiavelli webliography with a short introduction.
• Works of Machiavelli: Italian and English text
• Machiavelli and Power Politics
• Machiavelli on the Online Library Of Liberty
• Digitized Italian Letter, Machiavelli, Karpeles Manuscript Library
• Machiavelli on diglossa.org library, 5 parallel translations: ru: Г.Муравьева, en: W.K.Marriott, N.H.Thomson, fr: J.-V. Périès, de: G. Regis
• Machiavelli and the Italian City on the BBC's In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg; with Quentin Skinner, Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge; Evelyn Welch, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London; Lisa Jardine, Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary, University of London
• Wight, Martin. Four Seminal Thinkers in International Theory: Machiavelli, Grotius, Kant, and Mazzini (2005), ch. 1 online edition

v t e Niccolò Machiavelli General Machiavellianism · Pope Clement VII · Emperor Maximillian I · Louis XII of France · Francesco Guicciardini · House of Medici · Italian Wars · Republic of Florence · Timeline of Niccolò Machiavelli Works Discourse on Pisa • On the method of dealing with the Rebellious Peoples of Valdichiana • A Description of the Method Used by Duke Valentino in Killing Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, and Others • A discourse about the provision of money • Decennale primo • Ritratti delle cose dell’ Alemagna • Decennale secondo • Ritratti delle cose di Francia • Andria • The Mandrake • Della lingua • Clizia • Belfagor arcidiavolo • The Golden Ass • The Art of War • Discorso sopra il riformare lo stato di Firenze • Sommario delle cose della citta di Lucca • The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca • Florentine Histories • Frammenti storici • The Prince • Discourses on Livy

Italian Wars
The Battle of Pavia by an unknown Flemish artist (oil on panel, 16th century).
Date 1494–1559 Location Southern and Western Europe Result Habsburg victory, Spain becomes the premier European power
Belligerents
France, the Holy Roman Empire, the states of Italy (notably the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, and the Duchy of Ferrara), England, Scotland, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, the Swiss, Saxony, and others

History of Italy
This article is part of a series
Ancient history
Prehistoric Italy
Etruscan civilization (12th–6th c. BC)
Magna Graecia (8th–7th c. BC)
Ancient Rome (8th c. BC–5th c. AD)
Ostrogothic domination (5th–6th c.)
Middle Ages
Italy in the Middle Ages
Byzantine reconquest of Italy (6th–8th c.)
Lombard domination (6th–8th c.)
Italy in the Carolingian Empire and HRE
Islam and Normans in southern Italy
Maritime Republics and Italian city-states
Early modern period
Italian Renaissance (14th–16th c.)
Italian Wars (1494–1559)
Foreign domination (1559–1814)
Italian unification (1815–1861)
Modern history
Monarchy (1861–1945)
Italy in World War I (1914–1918)
Fascism and Colonial Empire (1918–1945)
Italy in World War II (1940–1945)
Republic (1945–present)
Years of lead (1970s–1980s)
Topics
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Italy Portal v t e

The Italian Wars, often referred to as the Great Italian Wars or the Great Wars of Italy and sometimes as the Habsburg–Valois Wars or the Renaissance Wars, were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, most of the major states of Western Europe (France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, and Scotland) as well as the Ottoman Empire. Originally arising from dynastic disputes over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples, the wars rapidly became a general struggle for power and territory among their various participants, and were marked with an increasing number of alliances, counter-alliances, and betrayals.

Prelude[link]

Following the Wars in Lombardy between Venice and Milan, which ended in 1454, Northern Italy had been largely at peace during the reigns of Cosimo de' Medici and Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence, with the notable exception of the War of Ferrara in 1482-1484.

Spain had promised not to interfere with France's adventures in Italy in return for Roussillon and Cerdagne, which were ceded to Spain under the Treaty of Barcelona of 1492.

The wars[link]

Italy in 1494

Italian War of 1494–98[link]

Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice, encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. When Ferdinand I of Naples died in 1494, Charles invaded the peninsula with twenty-five thousand men (including 8,000 Swiss mercenaries), possibly hoping to use Naples as a base for a crusade against the Ottoman Turks.^[1] For several months, French forces moved through Italy virtually unopposed, since the condottieri armies of the Italian city-states were unable to resist them. Their sack of Naples finally provoked a reaction, however, and the League of Venice was formed against them, effectively cutting off Charles's army from France. Despite a tactical victory of French armies against the League at the battle of Fornovo, the formation of the League to his rear forced Charles to withdraw to France, Fornovo itself being merely a successful fighting withdrawal. After initial reverses, most notably the disastrous Battle of Seminara, Ferdinand II of Naples, with the able assistance of the Spanish general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, reduced the French garrison in the Kingdom of Naples. Ludovico, having betrayed the French at Fornovo, retained his throne until 1499, when Charles's successor, Louis XII of France, invaded Lombardy and seized Milan, to which he had a claim in right of his paternal grandmother Valentina Visconti.^[2]

Italian War of 1499–1504[link]

In 1500, Louis, having reached an agreement with Ferdinand II of Aragon to divide Naples, marched south from Milan. By 1502, a combined French and Spanish force had seized control of the kingdom; disagreements about the terms of the partition led to a war between Louis and Ferdinand. By 1503 Louis, having been defeated at the Battle of Cerignola and Battle of Garigliano, was forced to withdraw from Naples, which was left under the control of a Spanish viceroy, General de Córdoba.

War of the League of Cambrai[link]

Meanwhile, Pope Julius II was more concerned with curbing the territorial expansion of the Republic of Venice, and in 1508 formed the League of Cambrai, in which France, the Papacy, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire agreed to restrain the Venetians. Although the League destroyed much of the Venetian army at the Battle of Agnadello in 1509, it failed to capture Padua, and in 1510, Julius, now regarding France as a greater threat, left the League and allied himself with Venice. Following a year of fighting over the Romagna, during which the Veneto-Papal alliance was repeatedly defeated, the Pope proclaimed a Holy League against the French; this rapidly grew to include England, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire.

French forces under Gaston de Foix inflicted an overwhelming defeat on a Spanish army at the Battle of Ravenna in 1512, but Foix was killed during the battle, and the French were forced to withdraw from Italy by an invasion of Milan by the Swiss, who reinstated Maximilian Sforza to the ducal throne. The victorious Holy League fell apart over the subject of dividing the spoils, and in 1513 Venice allied with France, agreeing to partition Lombardy between them.

Louis mounted another invasion of Milan, but was defeated at the battle of Novara, which was quickly followed by a series of Holy League victories against the Venetians at La Motta, the French at Guinegate, and the Scots at Flodden Field. However, the death of Julius left the League without effective leadership, and when Louis' successor Francis I defeated the Swiss at Marignano in 1515, the League collapsed. By the treaties of Noyon and Brussels, the entirety of northern Italy was surrendered to France and Venice.

Italian War of 1521–26[link]

The elevation of Charles of Spain to Holy Roman Emperor, a position that Francis had desired, led to a collapse of relations between France and the Habsburgs and provided Francis I of France with a pretext for starting a general war. The French were outmatched by the Spanish arquebusier tactics, however, and suffered crippling defeats at Bicocca and Sesia against Spanish troops under Fernando de Avalos. With Milan in Imperial hands, Francis personally led a French army into Lombardy in 1525, only to be defeated and captured at the battle of Pavia. With Francis imprisoned in Spain, a series of diplomatic maneuvers centered around his release ensued, including a special French mission sent by Francis' mother Louise of Savoy to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent that would result in an Ottoman ultimatum to Charles—an unprecedented alliance between Christian and Muslim monarchs that would cause a scandal in the Christian world. Suleiman used the opportunity to invade Hungary in the summer of 1526, defeating Charles' allies at the Battle of Mohács; but, despite these efforts, Francis would sign the Treaty of Madrid, surrendering his claims to Italy, Flanders, and Burgundy.

War of the League of Cognac[link]

In 1526, Pope Clement VII, alarmed at the growing power of the Empire, formed the League of Cognac against Charles V, allying himself, the Republic of Venice, Republic of Florence, and a number of smaller Italian states with France. Venice, however, refused to contribute troops; with the withdrawal of French forces from Lombardy, Charles V proceeded to subdue Florence, and, in 1527, sacked Rome itself. Clement was imprisoned by Imperial troops, and offered no further resistance to Charles V. With the conclusion of the Treaty of Cambrai in 1529, which formally removed Francis from the war, the League collapsed; Venice made peace with Charles V, while Florence was placed again under the Medici.

Italian War of 1536–38[link]

The third war between Charles and Francis began with the death of Francesco Maria Sforza, the duke of Milan. When Charles's son Philip inherited the duchy, Francis invaded Italy, capturing Turin, but failed to take Milan. In response, Charles invaded Provence, advancing to Aix-en-Provence, but withdrew to Spain rather than attacking the heavily fortified town of Avignon. The Truce of Nice ended the war, leaving Turin in French hands but effecting no significant changes to the map of Italy.

Italian War of 1542–46[link]

Francis, allying himself with Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire, launched a final invasion of Italy. A Franco-Ottoman fleet under the command of Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa captured the city of Nice in August 1543, and laid siege to the citadel. The defenders were relieved within a month. Commanded by the Count d'Enghien, the French defeated an Imperial army at the Battle of Ceresole in 1544, but failed to penetrate further into Lombardy. Charles V and Henry VIII of England then proceeded to invade northern France, seizing Boulogne and Soissons. A lack of cooperation between the Spanish and English armies, coupled with increasingly aggressive Ottoman attacks, led Charles to abandon these conquests, restoring the status quo once again.

Italian War of 1551–59[link]

In 1551, Henry II of France, who had succeeded Francis to the throne, declared war against Charles with the intent of recapturing Italy and ensuring French, rather than Habsburg, domination of European affairs. An early offensive against Lorraine was successful, but the attempted French invasion of Tuscany in 1553 was defeated at the Battle of Marciano. Charles' abdication in 1556 split the Habsburg empire between Philip II of Spain and Ferdinand I, and shifted the focus of the war to Flanders, where Philip, in conjunction with Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, defeated the French at St. Quentin. England's entry into the war later that year led to the French capture of Calais, and French armies plundered Spanish possessions in the Low Countries; but Henry was nonetheless forced to accept the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, in which he renounced any further claims to Italy.

Aftermath and impact[link]

By the end of the wars in 1559, Habsburg Spain had been established as the premier power of Europe, to the detriment of France. In France, Henry II was fatally wounded in a joust held during the celebrations of the peace. His death led to the accession of his 15-year-old son Francis II, who in turn soon died. The French monarchy was thrown into turmoil, which increased further with the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion in 1562. The states of Italy were reduced to second-rate powers and Milan and Naples were annexed directly to Spain.

The Italian Wars had a number of consequences for the work and workplace of Leonardo da Vinci; his plans for a "Gran Cavallo" horse statue in 1495 were dropped when the seventy tons of bronze intended for the statue were instead cast into weapons to save Milan. Later, following a chance encounter with Francis I after the Battle of Marignano, Leonardo agreed to move to France, where he spent his final years.

Arms and armies[link]

The wars saw the introduction of many significant advances in military technology and tactics, including field artillery, muskets, and combined arms tactics.

Infantry[link]

Infantry underwent profound developments during the Italian Wars, evolving from a primarily pike- and halberd-wielding force to a more flexible arrangement of arquebusiers, pikemen, and other troops. While the early part of the Wars continued to see landsknechts and Swiss mercenaries dominate, the Italian War of 1521 demonstrated the power of massed firearms, leading to their increasingly widespread adoption as the basis of all infantry formations.

Cavalry[link]

Heavy cavalry—the final evolution of the fully armored medieval knight—remained major players on the battlefields of the Italian Wars. Here, the French gendarmes were generally successful against other nations' mounted troops, owing significantly to their excellent horses. The Spanish used the Spanish knight called a Jinete a lot during the Italian Wars, led by Gonzalo de Cordoba.

Artillery[link]

The Italian Wars saw artillery—particularly field artillery—become an indispensable part of any first-rate army. Charles VIII, during his invasion of Italy, brought with him the first truly mobile siege train: culverins and bombards mounted on wheeled carriages, which could be deployed against an enemy stronghold immediately after arrival.

Military leadership[link]

The armies of the Italian Wars were commanded by a wide variety of different leaders, from mercenaries and condottieri to nobles and kings.

Fortification[link]

Much of the fighting during the Italian Wars took place during sieges. Successive invasions forced Italy to adopt increasing levels of fortification, using such new developments as detached bastions, that could withstand sustained artillery fire.

Historiography[link]

The Italian Wars are one of the first major conflicts for which extensive contemporary accounts from people involved in the wars are available, owing largely to the presence of literate—and often extremely well educated—commanders.

Nomenclature[link]

The naming of the component conflicts within the Italian Wars has never been standardized, varying among historians of the period. Some wars may be split or combined differently, causing ordinal numbering systems to be inconsistent among different sources. The wars may be referred to by their dates, or by the monarchs fighting them.

Contemporary accounts[link]

A major contemporary account for the early portion of the Italian Wars is Francesco Guicciardini's Storia d'Italia (History of Italy), written during the conflict, and advantaged by the access Guicciardini had to Papal affairs.

Citations[link]

References[link]

• Arfaioli, Maurizio. The Black Bands of Giovanni: Infantry and Diplomacy During the Italian Wars (1526–1528). Pisa: Pisa University Press, Edizioni Plus, 2005. ISBN 88-8492-231-3.
• Arnold, Thomas F. The Renaissance at War. Smithsonian History of Warfare, edited by John Keegan. New York: Smithsonian Books / Collins, 2006. ISBN 0-06-089195-5.
• Baumgartner, Frederic J. Louis XII. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. ISBN 0-312-12072-9.
• Black, Jeremy. "Dynasty Forged by Fire." MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History 18, no. 3 (Spring 2006): 34–43. ISSN 1040-5992.
• ———. European Warfare, 1494–1660. Warfare and History, edited by Jeremy Black. London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-27532-6.
• Blockmans, Wim. Emperor Charles V, 1500–1558. Translated by Isola van den Hoven-Vardon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-340-73110-9.
• Guicciardini, Francesco. The History of Italy. Translated by Sydney Alexander. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-691-00800-0.
• Hackett, Francis. Francis the First. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1937.
• Hall, Bert S. Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8018-5531-4.
• Knecht, Robert J. Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-521-57885-X.
• Konstam, Angus. Pavia 1525: The Climax of the Italian Wars. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996. ISBN 1-85532-504-7.
• Norwich, John Julius. A History of Venice. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. ISBN 0-679-72197-5.
• Oman, Charles. A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century. London: Methuen & Co., 1937.
• Phillips, Charles and Alan Axelrod. Encyclopedia of Wars. 3 vols. New York: Facts on File, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-2851-6.
• Taylor, Frederick Lewis. The Art of War in Italy, 1494–1529. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1973. ISBN 0-8371-5025-6.

Further reading[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Italian Wars

Italian Wars portal

• Boot, Max. War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History: 1500 to Today. New York: Gotham Books, 2006. ISBN 1-59240-222-4.
• Du Bellay, Martin, Sieur de Langey. Mémoires de Martin et Guillaume du Bellay. Edited by V. L. Bourrilly and F. Vindry. 4 volumes. Paris: Société de l'histoire de France, 1908–19.
• Giovio, Paolo. Pauli Iovii Opera. Volume 3, part 1, Historiarum sui temporis. Edited by D. Visconti. Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1957.
• Lot, Ferdinand. Recherches sur les effectifs des armées françaises des guerres d'Italie aux guerres de religion, 1494–1562. Paris: École Pratique des Hautes Études, 1962.
• Monluc, Blaise de. Commentaires. Edited by P. Courteault. 3 volumes. Paris: 1911–25. Translated by Charles Cotton as The Commentaries of Messire Blaize de Montluc (London: A. Clark, 1674).
• ———. Military Memoirs: Blaise de Monluc, The Habsburg-Valois Wars, and the French Wars of Religion. Edited by Ian Roy. London: Longmans, 1971.
• Saulx, Gaspard de, Seigneur de Tavanes. Mémoires de très noble et très illustre Gaspard de Saulx, seigneur de Tavanes, Mareschal de France, admiral des mers de Levant, Gouverneur de Provence, conseiller du Roy, et capitaine de cent hommes d'armes. Château de Lugny: Fourny, 1653.

Billy Joel
Billy Joel at the 2009 premiere of the Metropolitan Opera.
Background information
Birth name	William Martin Joel[1]
Also known as	Bill Martin
Born	(1949-05-09) May 9, 1949 (age 63) The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States
Origin	Hicksville, New York, United States
Genres	Rock, pop, soft rock, classical
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, pianist
Instruments	Vocals, piano, guitar, harmonica, keyboard, accordion, organ, melodica, clavinet, percussion, harpsichord
Years active	1964–present
Labels	Columbia, Family Productions, Sony Classical
Associated acts	The Echoes, The Hassles, Attila, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John
Website	www.billyjoel.com
Notable instruments
Steinway piano[2]

William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man," in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA.^[3]

Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide.^[4] He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006), and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame (2009). In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, with Billy Joel positioned at No. 23. With the exception of the 2007 songs "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah," Joel stopped recording pop/rock material after 1993's River of Dreams, but he continued to tour extensively until 2010.^[5]

Early life[link]

Joel was born in the Bronx^[1] and raised in Hicksville, New York. His father, Howard (born Helmuth), was born in Germany, the son of German merchant and manufacturer Karl Amson Joel, who, after the advent of the Nazi regime, emigrated to Switzerland and later to the United States. Billy Joel's mother, Rosalind Nyman, was born in England to Philip and Rebecca Nyman. Both Joel's parents were Jewish. They divorced in 1960, and his father moved to Vienna, Austria. Billy has a sister, Judith Joel, and a half-brother, Alexander Joel, who is an acclaimed classical conductor in Europe and currently chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig.^[6]

Joel's father was an accomplished classical pianist. Billy reluctantly began piano lessons at an early age, at his mother's insistence; his teachers included the noted American pianist Morton Estrin^[7] and musician/songwriter Timothy Ford. His interest in music, rather than sports, was a source of teasing and bullying in his early years. (He has said in interviews that his piano instructor also taught ballet. Her name was Frances Neiman, and she was a Juilliard trained musician. She gave both classic piano and ballet lessons in the studio attached to the rear of her house, leading neighborhood bullies to mistakenly think he was learning to dance.)^{[citation needed]} As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so that he would be able to defend himself. He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time, winning twenty-two bouts, but abandoned the sport shortly after having his nose broken in his twenty-fourth boxing match.^[8]

Joel attended Hicksville High School with the class of 1967. However, he did not graduate. At the time, he was helping his single mother make ends meet by playing at a piano bar, and this interfered with his school attendance.^[9] After his senior year, he still was short of the total number of credits he needed to graduate. Rather than attend summer school, Joel decided to quit high school without a diploma in order to begin a career in music. Joel recounted, "I told them, 'To hell with it. If I'm not going to Columbia University, I'm going to Columbia Records and you don't need a high school diploma over there'."^[10] Columbia did, in fact, become the label that eventually signed him. In 1992, he submitted essays to the school board and was awarded his diploma at Hicksville High's annual graduation ceremony, 25 years after he had left.^[11]

Music career[link]

Early career[link]

Upon seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Joel decided to pursue a full-time musical career, and set about finding a local Long Island band to join. Eventually he founded the Echoes, a group that specialized in British Invasion covers. The Echoes became a popular New York attraction, which convinced him to leave high school to become a professional musician. He began playing for the Echoes when he was 14 years old.^[12]

Joel began playing recording sessions with the Echoes in 1965, when he was 16 years old. Joel played piano on several recordings produced by Shadow Morton, including (as claimed by Joel, but denied by songwriter Ellie Greenwich) the Shangri-Las' Leader of the Pack,^[13] as well as several records released through Kama Sutra Productions. During this time, the Echoes started to play numerous late-night shows.

Later, in 1965, the Echoes changed their name to the Emeralds and then to the Lost Souls. For two years, Joel played sessions and performed with the Lost Souls. In 1967, he left that band to join the Hassles, a Long Island band that had signed a contract with United Artists Records. Over the next year and a half, they released The Hassles in 1967, Hour of the Wolf in 1968, and four singles, all of which failed commercially. Following The Hassles' demise in 1969, he formed the duo Attila with Hassles drummer Jon Small. Attila released their eponymous debut album in July 1970, and disbanded the following October. The reason for the group's break-up has been attributed to Joel's affair with Small's wife, Elizabeth, whom Joel eventually married.^[14]

[edit] Cold Spring Harbor

Joel signed his first solo record contract with Artie Ripp's Family Productions, and subsequently recorded his first solo album. Cold Spring Harbor (a reference to the Long Island town of the same name), was released in 1971. However, Ripp mastered and released the album at the wrong speed, resulting in Joel's voice sounding a semitone too high. In addition, the onerous terms of Ripp's Family Productions contract also guaranteed Joel very little money from the sales of his albums.

Popular cuts such as "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now" were originally released on this album, although they did not gain much attention until released as live performances in 1981 on Songs in the Attic. Since then, they have become favorite concert numbers. Cold Spring Harbor gained a second chance on the charts in 1984, when Columbia reissued the album after slowing it down to the correct speed. The album reached #158 in the US and #95 in the UK nearly a year later.

Joel gigged locally in New York City in the fall of 1971 and moved out to Los Angeles early in 1972, adopting the stage name Bill Martin.^[15] While in California he did a six month gig in The Executive Room piano bar on Wilshire Boulevard. It was there he composed his signature hit "Piano Man" about the various patrons of the lounge. Subsequently he toured with his band members (Rhys Clark on drums, Al Hertzberg on guitar, and Larry Russell on bass) until the end of June 1972 throughout the US and Puerto Rico, opening for headliners such as J. Geils Band, The Beach Boys and Taj Mahal. At the Mar y sol festival in Puerto Rico, he electrified the crowd and got a big boost for his career.^[16]

In addition Philadelphia radio station WMMR-FM started playing a concert recording of Joel performing his "Captain Jack," which became an underground hit on the East Coast. Herb Gordon, an executive of Columbia Records, heard Joel's music and made his company aware of Joel's talent. Joel signed a recording contract with Columbia in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles. He lived there for three years (and has since declared that those three years were a big mistake),^[17] returning to New York City in 1975.

Early Columbia years: 1973–1976[link]

Joel's experiences in Los Angeles connected him with record company executives, who bought out his contract with Ripp under the condition that the Family Productions logo be displayed alongside the Columbia logo for the next ten albums, and Family Productions would receive a 25-cent royalty on every Joel album sold. The president of CBS/Columbia Records at the time, Walter Yetnikoff, bought back the rights to Joel's songs from Artie Ripp in the late 1970s, giving the rights to the songs back to Joel as a birthday gift.^[18][19] However, Yetnikoff notes in the documentary film The Last Play at Shea that he ultimately had to threaten Ripp in order to finalize the deal for the song rights. So, although Ripp continued to make money on Joel's albums, Joel at least had ownership of his songs through the help of the president of his new record label.

The stand-out track from his first album for Columbia Records, Piano Man, was the title track, which, despite only making it to #25 on the Billboard Hot 100, stands as Joel's signature song (he ends nearly all of his concerts with it).

Joel's touring band changed as well in 1973. Don Evans replaced Al Hertzberg on guitar, and Patrick McDonald took over the bass position previously held by Larry Russell, and was then replaced in late 1974 by Doug Stegmeyer, who remained with Joel until 1989. Rhys Clark returned as drummer, Tom Whitehorse on banjo and pedal steel and then Johnny Almond on sax and keyboards rounded out the band. Joel's infectious spirit and talent galvanized the band into a tight performing unit, touring the U.S. and Canada extensively and appearing on the popular music shows of the day. Joel's songwriting was now attracting more attention; Helen Reddy recorded "You're My Home" (from Piano Man) in 1974.

Joel remained in Los Angeles to write Streetlife Serenade, his second album on the Columbia label. It was around this time that Jon Troy, an old friend from the New York neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, acted as Joel's manager although he would soon be replaced by Joel's wife Elizabeth.^[20] References to both suburbia and the inner city pepper the album.

The stand-out track on the album is "The Entertainer", a #34 hit in the U.S. which picks up thematically where "Piano Man" left off. Joel was upset that "Piano Man" had been significantly edited down to make it more radio-friendly, and in "The Entertainer," he refers to the edit with sarcastic lines such as "If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05", alluding to shortening of singles for radio play, as compared with the longer versions that appear on albums. Although Streetlife Serenade is often considered one of Joel's weaker albums (Joel has confirmed his distaste for the album), it nevertheless contains some notable tracks, including the title track, "Los Angelenos" and the instrumental "Root Beer Rag", which was a staple of his live set in the 1970s and was resurrected frequently in 2007 and 2008. Streetlife Serenade also marks the beginning of a more confident vocal style on Joel's part.

In late 1975, he played piano and organ on several tracks on Bo Diddley's The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll all-star album.

Disenchanted with the L.A. music scene, Joel returned to New York in 1976. There he recorded Turnstiles, for which he used his own hand-picked musicians in the studio for the first time, and also adopted a more hands-on role. Songs were initially recorded at Caribou Ranch with members of Elton John's band, and produced by famed Chicago producer James William Guercio, but Joel was dissatisfied with the results. The songs were re-recorded in New York, and Joel took over, producing the album himself.

The minor hit "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" echoed the Phil Spector sound, and was covered by Ronnie Spector (in a 2008 radio interview, Joel said he does not perform "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" in his live shows anymore because it is in too high a key and "shreds" his vocal cords.) The album also featured the song "New York State of Mind", a bluesy, jazzy epic that has become one of Joel's signature songs, and which was later covered by fellow Columbia labelmates Barbra Streisand, on her 1977 Streisand Superman album, and as a duet with Tony Bennett, on his 2001 Playing with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues album. Other songs on the album include "Summer, Highland Falls", "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" and "Say Goodbye to Hollywood", which became a Top 40 hit in 1981 in a live version. Songs such as the powerful "Prelude/Angry Young Man" have become a mainstay of his concerts.

[edit] The Stranger and 52nd Street

For The Stranger, Columbia Records teamed Joel with producer Phil Ramone. The album was released in September 1977, and yielded four Top-25 hits on the Billboard charts in the US: "Just the Way You Are" (#3), "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" (#17), "Only the Good Die Young" (#24), and "She's Always a Woman" (#17). Album sales exceeded Columbia's previous top-selling album, Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water,^[21] and was certified multi-platinum. His first-ever Top Ten album, it reached #2 on the charts. Ramone subsequently produced every Billy Joel studio release up to Storm Front, initially released in 1989. The Stranger also featured "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", an album-oriented rock classic, which has become one of his best-known songs.

The Stranger netted Joel Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, for "Just the Way You Are", which was written as a gift to his wife Elizabeth. He received a late night phone call to his hotel room in Paris (he was on tour) in February 1979, letting him know he had won in both categories.^[22]

Joel faced high expectations on his next album. 52nd Street was named after the famous street of the same name which hosted many of the world's premier jazz venues and performers throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Fans purchased over seven million copies on the strength of the hits "My Life" (#3), "Big Shot" (#14), and "Honesty" (#24). This helped 52nd Street become Joel's first #1 album. "My Life" eventually became the theme song for a new US television sitcom, Bosom Buddies, which featured actor Tom Hanks in one of his earliest roles. The album won Grammys for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male and Album of the Year. 52nd Street was the first album to be released on compact disc when it went on sale alongside Sony's CD player CDP-101 on October 1, 1982, in Japan.^[23]

Despite the publicity photos and album cover showing Joel holding a trumpet, he does not play the instrument on the album, though two tracks on the album do feature some well-known jazz trumpeters. Freddie Hubbard plays two solos on "Zanzibar" and Jon Faddis joins Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker in the horn section for "Half a Mile Away".

In 1979, Joel traveled to Havana, Cuba, to participate in the historic Havana Jam festival that took place between March 2–4, alongside Rita Coolidge, Kris Kristofferson; Stephen Stills, the CBS Jazz All-Stars, the Trio of Doom, Fania All-Stars, Billy Swan, Bonnie Bramlett, Mike Finnegan, Weather Report, plus an array of Cuban artists such as Irakere, Pacho Alonso, Tata Güines and Orquesta Aragón.^[24] His performance is captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos's documentary Havana Jam '79.

Early 1980s[link]

The success of his piano-driven ballads like "Just the Way You Are," "She's Always a Woman" and "Honesty" never sat well with Joel, as many critics were quick to slap the "balladeer" tag on him. With Glass Houses, he attacked the new wave popularity with aplomb and delivered several harder-edged songs custom made for the live shows in arenas and stadiums he was by then playing almost exclusively. The front cover showed Joel's real-life modern glass house. The album spent 6 weeks at #1 on the Billboard chart and yielded such hits as "You May Be Right" (used as the theme song, covered by Southside Johnny, for the CBS mid-1990s sitcom Dave's World) (#7, May 1980), "Close To The Borderline" (B-side of the "You May Be Right" single), "Don't Ask Me Why" (#19, September 1980), "Sometimes a Fantasy" (#36, November 1980) and "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me", which became Joel's first Billboard #1 song (for two weeks) in July 1980. "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" spent 11 weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and was the 7th biggest hit of 1980 according to American Top 40. Glass Houses won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male. It would also win the American Music Award for Favorite Album, Pop/Rock category. The album's closing song, "Through The Long Night", (B-side of the "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me" single) was a lullaby that featured Joel harmonizing with himself in a song he says was inspired by The Beatles' "Yes It Is."^[16]

His next release, Songs in the Attic, was composed of live performances of less well-known songs from the beginning of his career. It was recorded during larger US arenas and intimate night club shows in June and July 1980. This release introduced many fans, who discovered Joel when The Stranger became a smash in 1977, to many of his earlier compositions. The album reached #8 on the Billboard chart and produced two hit singles: "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" (#17), and "She's Got a Way" (#23). It sold over 3 million copies. Though not as successful as some of his previous albums, the album was still considered a success by Joel.^[16]

The next wave of Joel's career commenced with the recording of The Nylon Curtain. Joel's songwriting on this album, which is considered his most audacious and ambitious by many critics,^[who?], and cited by Joel himself to the present day as his favorite of his works,^{[citation needed]} was heavily influenced by the Beatles.

Work began on The Nylon Curtain in the fall of 1981. Joel was involved in a serious motorcycle accident on Long Island on April 15, 1982, which delayed the completion of the album a few weeks. He embarked on a brief tour in support of the album, during which his first video special, Live from Long Island, was recorded at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on December 30, 1982. It was originally broadcast on HBO in 1983 before it became available on VHS.^[25]

The Nylon Curtain went to #7 on the charts, partially due to heavy airplay on MTV for the videos to the singles "Allentown" and "Pressure". "Allentown" spent six weeks at a peak position of #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it one of the most-played radio songs of 1982, pushing it into 1983's year-end Top 70, and making it the most successful song from The Nylon Curtain album, besting "Pressure". which peaked at #20 (where it resided for three weeks) and "Goodnight Saigon" which reached #56 on U.S. charts.^[26]

[edit] Christie Brinkley, An Innocent Man, and The Bridge

The album An Innocent Man was compiled as a tribute to the rock and roll music of the 1950s and 1960s, and also resulted in Joel's second Billboard #1 hit, "Tell Her About It", which was the first single off the album in the summer of 1983. The album itself reached #4 on the charts and #2 in UK. It also boasted 6 top-30 singles, the most of any album in Joel's catalog. At the time that the album came, WCBS-FM began playing "The Longest Time" both in regular rotation and on the Doo Wop Shop. Many fans wanted this to be the next single released in the fall, but that October, "Uptown Girl", Joel's next big hit from An Innocent Man, would be released. According to numerous interviews with Joel, this song was initially written about his relationship with his then-girlfriend Elle Macpherson, but it ended up also becoming about his soon-to-be wife Christie Brinkley (both women being two of the most famous supermodels of the 1980s).^[27][28] The song became a worldwide hit upon its release, #3 in the U.S. and Joel's sole #1 in the United Kingdom. Also, the James Brown-inspired song "Easy Money" would be featured in the 1983 Rodney Dangerfield film of the same name.^[29]

In December the title song, "An Innocent Man", would be released as a single and would peak at #10 in the U.S. and #8 in the UK, early in 1984. That March, "The Longest Time" would finally be released as a single, peaking at #14 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. That summer, "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" would be released and hit #27 while "Keeping the Faith" would peak at #18 in January 1985. In the video for "Keeping the Faith", Christie Brinkley also plays the "redhead girl in a Chevrolet". An Innocent Man was also nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy, but lost to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Joel would participate in the USA For Africa We Are The World project in 1985, capping off a series of successful singles for Joel.

Following the success of An Innocent Man, Joel had been approached to release an album of his most successful singles. This was not the first time this topic had come up, but Joel had initially considered "Greatest Hits" albums as marking the end of one's career. This time, he agreed, and Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2 was released as a 4-sided album and 2-CD set, with the songs in sequence of when they were released. The new songs "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "The Night Is Still Young" were recorded and released as singles to support the album; both reached the top 40, peaking at #9 and #34, respectively.

Billy Joel live on November 7, 2006

Greatest Hits was highly successful and has since been certified double diamond by the RIAA for over 11.5 million copies (23 million units) sold. To date it is tied for the third best selling album in American music history according to the RIAA.

Coinciding with the Greatest Hits album release, Joel released a 2-volume Video Album that was a compilation of the promotional videos he had recorded from 1977 to the present time. Along with videos for the new singles off the Greatest Hits album, Joel also recorded a video for his first hit, "Piano Man", for this project.

Though it broke into the Top Ten, The Bridge was not a success in relation to some of Joel's other albums, but it yielded the hits "A Matter of Trust" and "Modern Woman" from the film Ruthless People, a dark comedy from the directors of Airplane! (both #10). In a departure from his "piano man" persona, Joel is shown in its video playing a Les Paul-autographed Gibson guitar. The ballad "This is the Time" also charted, peaking at #18, and has been a favorite on the prom circuit ever since. The reason "Modern Woman" has been left off many of Joel's compilation sets (the exception appears to be My Lives) is that he has since said in interviews he does not care for the song.^{[citation needed]}

On November 18, 1986, an extended version of the song "Big Man On Mulberry Street" was used on a Season 3 episode of Moonlighting. The episode itself was also titled "Big Man on Mulberry Street." In a dream sequence, Maddie Hayes envisions David Addison with his ex-wife. An extra horn solo was added to the song.

The Bridge was also Joel's last album to carry the Family Productions logo, finally severing his ties with Artie Ripp. Joel has also stated in many interviews, most recently in a 2008 interview in Performing Songwriter magazine, that he does not think The Bridge is a good album.

Shortly after The Bridge tour ended in late 1987, Joel completed voice work on Disney's Oliver & Company, released in 1988, a loose adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. Joel brought both his acting and musical talents to the film as Dodger. For the film, Joel recorded a song titled "Why Should I Worry?" Critics were generally positive toward the film, and pointed to Joel's acting contribution as one of its highlights, despite it being his first acting job. In interviews, Joel explained that he took the job due to his love of Disney cartoons as a child.

Trip to the Soviet Union[link]

In October 1986, Joel and his handlers started planning a trip to the Soviet Union. He became one of the first American rock acts to play there since the Berlin Wall went up, a fact not lost on history buff Joel.^[30] There were live performances at indoor arenas in Moscow, Leningrad and Tbilisi. Joel and his family (including young daughter Alexa) and his full touring band made the trip in August 1987. The entourage was filmed for television and video to offset the cost of the trip, and the concerts were simulcast on radio around the world.

Most of that audience took a long while to warm up to Joel's energetic show, something that never had happened in other countries he had performed in. According to Joel, each time the fans were hit with the bright lights, anybody who seemed to be enjoying themselves froze. In addition, people who were "overreacting" were removed by security.^[31]

The album КОНЦЕРТ (Russian for "Concert") was released in October 1987. Singer Peter Hewlitt was brought in to hit the high notes on his most vocally challenging songs, like "An Innocent Man." Joel also did versions of The Beatles' classic "Back in the U.S.S.R." and Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'". It has been estimated that Joel lost more than $1 million of his own money on the trip and concerts, but he has said the goodwill he was shown there was well worth it.^[16]

[edit] Storm Front and River of Dreams

The release of the album Storm Front coincided with major changes in Joel's career and inaugurated a period of serious upheaval in his business affairs. In August 1989, just before the album was released, Joel fired his manager (and former brother-in-law) Frank Weber after an audit revealed major discrepancies in Weber's accounting. Joel subsequently sued Weber for $90 million, claiming fraud and breach of fiduciary duty and in January 1990 he was awarded $2 million in a partial judgement against Weber; in April, the court dismissed a $30 million countersuit filed by Weber.^[32]

The first single for the album "We Didn't Start the Fire", was released in September 1989 and it became Joel's third and most recent US #1 hit, spending two weeks at the top; it was also Billboard's second-last #1 single of the 1980s. Storm Front was released in October, and it eventually became Joel's first #1 album since Glass Houses, nine years earlier. Storm Front was Joel's first album since Turnstiles to be recorded without Phil Ramone as producer. For this album, he wanted a new sound, and worked with Mick Jones of Foreigner fame. Joel also revamped his backing band, firing everyone, save drummer Liberty DeVitto, guitarist David Brown, and saxophone player Mark Rivera, and bringing in new faces, including talented multi-instrumentalist Crystal Taliefero. Storm Front's second single, "I Go to Extremes" made it to #6 in early 1990. The album was also notable for its song "Leningrad", written after Joel met a clown in the Soviet city of that name during his tour in 1987, and "The Downeaster Alexa", written to underscore the plight of fishermen on Long Island who are barely able to make ends meet. Another well-known single from the album is the ballad "And So It Goes" (#37 in late 1990). The song was originally written in 1983, around the time Joel was writing songs for An Innocent Man; but "And So It Goes" did not fit that album's retro theme, so it was held back until Storm Front. Joel said in a 1996 Masterclass session in Pittsburgh that Storm Front was a turbulent album and that "And So It Goes," as the last song on the album, portrayed the calm and tranquility that often follows a violent thunderstorm.

In the summer of 1992, Joel filed another $90 million lawsuit against his former lawyer Allen Grubman, alleging a wide range of offenses including fraud, breach of fiduciary responsibility, malpractice and breach of contract^[33] but the case was eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.^[34]

Joel started work on River of Dreams in 1992 and finished the album in early 1993. Its cover art was a colorful painting by Christie Brinkley that was a series of scenes from each of the songs on the album. The eponymous first single was the last top 10 hit Joel has penned to date, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 & ranking at #21 on Billboard's 1993 year-end Hot 100 chart. In addition to the title track, the album includes the hits "All About Soul" (with Color Me Badd on backing vocals) and "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)", written for his daughter, Alexa. A radio remix version of "All About Soul" can be found on The Essential Billy Joel (2001), and a demo version appears on My Lives (2005). The song "The Great Wall of China" was written about his ex-manager Frank Weber and was a regular in the setlist for Joel's 2006 tour. "2000 Years" was prominent in the millennium concert at Madison Square Garden, December 31, 1999, and "Famous Last Words" closed the book on Joel's pop songwriting for more than a decade.

1994–2007[link]

On August 25, 1994, Joel and second wife Christie Brinkley divorced. On December 31, 1999, Joel performed at New York's Madison Square Garden. At the time, Joel said that it would be his last concert. The concert (dubbed The Night of the 2000 Years) ran for close to four hours and was later released as 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert.

1997's "To Make You Feel My Love" and "Hey Girl" both charted from Joel's Greatest Hits Volume III album. Joel wrote and recorded the song "Shameless" that was later covered by Garth Brooks and reached number 1 on Billboard's country charts. Joel performed with Brooks during his Central Park concert in 1997 with an estimated 980,000 people in attendance, the largest audience to attend a U.S. concert.^{[citation needed]} To add on to his achievements Joel was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

In 2001, Joel released Fantasies & Delusions, a collection of classical piano pieces. All were composed by Joel and performed by Richard Joo. Joel often uses bits of these songs as interludes in live performances, and some of them are part of the score for the hit show Movin' Out. The album topped the classical charts at #1. Joel performed "New York State of Mind" live on September 21, 2001, as part of the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert, and on October 20, 2001, along with "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)", at the Concert for New York City in Madison Square Garden. That night, he also performed "Your Song" with Elton John.

In 2005, Columbia released a box set, My Lives, which is largely a compilation of demos, b-sides, live/alternate versions and even a few Top 40 hits. The compilation also includes the Umixit software, in which people can remix "Zanzibar", "Only the Good Die Young", "Keepin' The Faith", and live versions of "I Go to Extremes" and "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" with their PC. Also, a DVD of a show from the River of Dreams tour is included.

On January 7, 2006, Joel began a tour across the United States. Having not written, or at least released, any new songs in 13 years, he featured a sampling of songs from throughout his career, including major hits as well as obscure tunes like "Zanzibar" and "All for Leyna". His tour included an unprecedented 12 sold-out concerts over several months at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The singer's stint of 12 shows at Madison Square Garden broke a previous record set by New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen, who played 10 sold-out shows at the same arena. The record earned Joel the first retired number (12) in the arena owned by a non-athlete. This honor has also been given to Joel at the Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia) (formerly the Wachovia Center) in Philadelphia where a banner in the colors of the Philadelphia Flyers is hung honoring Joel's 46 Philadelphia sold-out shows. He also had a banner raised in his honor for being the highest grossing act in the history of the Times Union Center (formerly the Knickerbocker Arena and Pepsi Arena) in Albany, New York. This honor was given to him as part of the April 17, 2007, show he did there. On June 13, 2006, Columbia released 12 Gardens Live, a double album containing 32 live recordings from a collection of the 12 different shows at Madison Square Garden during Joel's 2006 tour.

Joel visited the United Kingdom and Ireland for the first time in many years as part of the European leg of his 2006 tour. On July 31, 2006, he performed a free concert in Rome, with the Colosseum as the backdrop. Organizers estimated 500,000 people turned out for the concert, which was opened by Bryan Adams.^{[citation needed]}

Joel toured South Africa, Australia, Japan, and Hawaii in late 2006, and subsequently toured the Southeastern United States in February and March 2007 before hitting the Midwest in the spring of 2007. On January 3 of that year, news was leaked to the New York Post that Billy had recorded a new song with lyrics—this being the first new song with lyrics he'd written in almost 14 years.^[35] The song, titled "All My Life", was Joel's newest single (with second track "You're My Home", live from Madison Square Garden 2006 tour) and was released into stores on February 27, 2007.^[36] On February 4, Joel sang the national anthem for Super Bowl XLI, becoming the first to sing the national anthem twice at a Super Bowl. and on April 17, 2007, Joel was honored in Albany, New York, for his ninth concert at the Times Union Center. He is now holding the highest box office attendance of any artist to play at the arena. A banner was raised in his honor marking this achievement.

On December 1, 2007, Joel premiered his new song "Christmas in Fallujah."^[37] The song was performed by Cass Dillon, a new Long Island based musician, as Joel felt it should be sung by someone in a soldier's age range. The track was dedicated to servicemen based in Iraq. Joel wrote it in September 2007 after reading numerous letters sent to him from American soldiers in Iraq. "Christmas in Fallujah" is only the second pop/rock song released by Joel since 1993's River of Dreams. Proceeds from the song benefitted the Homes For Our Troops foundation.

2008–present[link]

On January 26, 2008, Joel performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra celebrating the 151st anniversary of the Academy of Music. Joel premiered his new classical piece titled, "Waltz No. 2 (Steinway Hall)". He also played many of his less well-known pieces with full orchestral backing, including the rarely performed Nylon Curtain songs "Scandinavian Skies" and "Where's the Orchestra?".

On March 10, 2008, Joel inducted his friend John Mellencamp into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. During his induction speech, Joel said the following to Mellencamp:

Joel's staying power as a touring act continues to the present day. He sold out 10 concerts at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut from May to July 2008. Mohegan Sun honored him with a banner displaying his name and the number 10 to hang in the arena. On June 19, 2008, he played a concert at the grand re-opening of Caesars Windsor (formerly Casino Windsor) in Windsor, Ontario, Canada to an invite-only crowd for Casino VIPs. His mood was light, and joke-filled, even introducing himself as "Billy Joel's dad" and stating "you guys overpaid to see a fat bald guy." He also admitted that Canadian folk-pop musician Gordon Lightfoot was the musical inspiration for "She's Always A Woman".^[38]

On July 16, 2008, and July 18, 2008, Joel played the final concerts at Shea Stadium before its demolition. His guests included Tony Bennett, Don Henley, John Mayer, John Mellencamp, Steven Tyler, Roger Daltrey, Garth Brooks, and Paul McCartney. McCartney ended the show with a reference to his own performance there with the Beatles in 1965, the first major stadium concert of the rock and roll industry.^[39] The concerts were featured in the 2010 documentary film Last Play at Shea. The film was released on DVD on February 8, 2011. The CD and DVD of the show, Live at Shea Stadium were released on March 8, 2011.

On December 11, 2008, Joel recorded his own rendition of "Christmas in Fallujah" during a concert at Acer Arena in Sydney and released it as a live single in Australia only. It is the only official release of Joel performing "Christmas in Fallujah", as Cass Dillon sang on the 2007 studio recording and the handful of times the song was played live in 2007. Joel sang the song throughout his December 2008 tour of Australia.

On May 19, 2009, Joel's former drummer, Liberty DeVitto, filed a lawsuit in NYC claiming Joel and Sony Music owed DeVitto over 10 years of royalty payments. DeVitto has never been given songwriting credit on any of Joel's songs, but he claims that he helped write some of them.^[40] In April 2010, it was announced that Joel and DeVitto amicably resolved the lawsuit.^[41]

2011 re-releases[link]

2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Joel's first album, Cold Spring Harbor. According to Billy Joel's website, in commemoration of this anniversary, "Columbia/Legacy Recordings will celebrate the occasion with a definitive reissue project of newly restored and expanded Legacy editions of the complete Billy Joel catalog, newly curated collections of rarities from the vaults, previously unavailable studio tracks and live performances, home video releases and more."^[42] The album Piano Man was re-released in a 2-disc Legacy edition in November 2011.^[42]

Face-to-Face tours[link]

Beginning in 1994, Joel toured extensively with Elton John on a series of "Face to Face" tours, making them the longest running and most successful concert tandem in pop music history.^[43] During these shows, the two have played their own songs, each other's songs and performed duets. They grossed over US $46 million in just 24 dates in their sold out^[44] 2003 tour. Joel and John resumed the Face to Face tour in March 2009^[44] and it ended again, at least for the time being, in March 2010 in Albany, NY at the Times Union Center. In February 2010, Joel denied rumors in the trade press that he canceled a summer 2010 leg of the tour, claiming there were never any dates booked and that he intended to take the year off.^[45] Joel told Rolling Stone magazine: "We’ll probably pick it up again. It’s always fun playing with him."

Other ventures[link]

In 1996, Joel merged his long-held love of boating^[46] with his desire for a second career. He formed, with Long Island boating businessman Peter Needham, the Long Island Boat Company.^[47]

In November 2010, Joel opened a shop on Oyster Bay, Long Island to manufacture custom-made, retro-styled motorcycles and accessories.^[48]

On March 22, 2011, Joel, as part of a fund raising event for impoverished children in the United States, performed with some of today's top teen artists, such as Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and Rebecca Black. He performed "Summer Highland Falls" with Justin Bieber as a cameo.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011, Joel announced that he was releasing an autobiography that he had written with Fred Schruers, titled The Book of Joel: A Memoir. The book was originally going to be released in June 2011, but in March 2011 Joel decided against publishing the book and officially cancelled his deal with HarperCollins. Rolling Stone noted, "HarperCollins acquired the book project for $3 million in 2008. [However,] Joel is expected to return his advance on that sum to the publisher."^[49] According to Billboard, "the HarperCollins book was billed as an 'emotional ride' that would detail the music legend's failed marriage to Christie Brinkley, as well as his battles with substance abuse."^[50] In explaining his decision to cancel the book's release, Joel stated, "It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I'm not all that interested in talking about the past, and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music."^[51]

Personal life[link]

Joel performing in 2007 in Florida.

Marriages, relationships, and family[link]

Joel married his business manager, Elizabeth Weber Small, on September 5, 1973. She was the former wife of his music partner, Jon Small, in the short-lived duo Attila. They divorced on July 20, 1982.

Joel mentioned in a television interview on the UK's Channel Five that he had dated Elle Macpherson in the 1980s prior to his marriage to Christie Brinkley. Joel has also said that the songs "This Night" and "And So It Goes" were written about his relationship with Macpherson.^[52]

Joel married Christie Brinkley on March 23, 1985. Their daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, was born December 29, 1985.^[53][54] Alexa was given the middle name of Ray after Ray Charles, one of Joel's musical idols.^[55] Joel and Brinkley divorced on August 25, 1994, although the couple remain friendly.

On October 2, 2004, Joel married 23-year-old Katie Lee. At the time of the wedding, Joel was 55. Joel's daughter, Alexa Ray, then 18, served as maid-of-honor. Joel's second wife, Christie Brinkley, attended the union and gave the couple her blessing. Lee works as a restaurant correspondent for the PBS show, George Hirsch: Living it Up!. In 2006, Katie Lee hosted Bravo's Top Chef. She did not return for a second season, instead going on tour with her husband. She then began writing a weekly column in Hamptons magazine, and became a field correspondent for the entertainment television show Extra. On June 17, 2009, both confirmed that they had split after five years of marriage.^[56]

Depression[link]

Joel battled depression for many years. In 1970, a career downturn and personal problems aggravated his condition. He left a suicide note (which inspired the lyrics to "Tomorrow Is Today") and attempted to commit suicide by drinking furniture polish, saying later, "I drank furniture polish. It looked tastier than bleach."^[16] His drummer assistant, Jon Small, rushed him to the hospital. Joel checked into Meadowbrook Hospital, where he was put on suicide watch and received treatment for depression.^[57] Joel later recorded "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" as a message to help prevent teen suicide.

Substance abuse treatment[link]

In 2002, Joel entered Silver Hill Hospital, a substance abuse and psychiatric center in New Canaan, Connecticut. In March 2005, he checked into the Betty Ford Center,^[58] where he spent 30 days for the treatment of alcohol-related problems.^[59]

Politics[link]

Although Joel has donated money to Democratic candidates running for office,^[60] he has never publicly affiliated himself with the Democratic Party. Although he isn't known for publicly endorsing political candidates, he did play a benefit with Bruce Springsteen to raise money for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008.^[61] He has also played at benefit concerts that have helped raise funds for political causes. However, Joel has said about musicians endorsing political candidates, "People who pay for your tickets, I don't think they want to hear who you're going to vote for and how you think they should vote."^[62]

Religion[link]

Joel was born to non-observant Jewish parents and considers himself a cultural Jew.

During a 2010 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Joel referred to himself as an atheist.^[64]

Discography[link]

Band[link]

Further information: Billy Joel Band

Awards and achievements[link]

Billy Joel receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Syracuse University, May 14, 2006

Despite having never graduated from high school because of a missed exam,^[65] Joel has been presented with multiple honorary doctorates:

• Doctor of Humane Letters from Fairfield University (1991)
• Doctor of Music from Berklee College of Music (1993)
• Doctor of Humane Letters from Hofstra University (1997)
• Doctor of Music from Southampton College (2000)
• Doctor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University (2006)^[66]
• Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music (2008)

His high school diploma was finally awarded 25 years after he left high school by the school board.

Joel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio in 1999. Joel was on the site selection committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame board. Seven members of the committee voted for San Francisco and seven voted for Cleveland, Ohio, this was a tied vote so Billy Joel was the tie breaking vote, which gave Cleveland the hall in 1986.

Joel was also named MusiCares Person of the Year for 2002,^[67] an award given each year at the same time as the Grammy Awards. At the dinner honoring Joel, various artists performed versions of his songs including Nelly Furtado, Stevie Wonder, Jon Bon Jovi, Diana Krall, Rob Thomas and Natalie Cole. He was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006. In 2005, Joel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Joel has banners in the rafters of the Times Union Center, Nassau Coliseum, Madison Square Garden, Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT, Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, and Hartford Civic Center in Hartford. (Joel is erroneously cited as the first artist to perform a concert at Yankee Stadium in New York City; The Isley Brothers first performed there in 1969, and the Latin supergroup, The Fania All-Stars played and recorded live albums at the stadium during the 1970s.)

He has also sponsored the Billy Joel Visiting Composer Series at Syracuse University.^[68]

Joel is the only performing artist to have played both Yankee and Shea Stadiums, as well as Giants Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

On December 12, 2011 Joel became the first non classical musician honored with a portrait in Steinway Hall.^[69]

Media performances[link]

• Has released multiple tour videos and compilation albums
• Has been featured in multiple television documentaries and specials
• The Midnight Special (1975) (Television) (Sang "Travelin' Prayer" and "The Ballad of Billy the Kid")
• The Mike Douglas Show (1976) (Television)
• Saturday Night Live in 1978, 1981, 1989, 1993
• The Old Grey Whistle Test (1978) (London, England) (Television)
• Musikladen (1978) (German television concert)
• 20/20 (1980) (Television)
• Multiple appearances on MTV
• Today (June 1984) Introduces music video for "The Longest Time."
• Late Night with David Letterman in 1986 and 1989, Late Show with David Letterman in 1993 (first musical guest on the show^{[citation needed]})
• Oliver & Company (1988) (Provided both the voice and singing voice for the character Dodger in the Disney full-length animated feature.)
• Sesame Street (1988) (Sang "Just the Way You Are" to Oscar the Grouch, and "The Alphabet Song" with the kids)
• During the 1994 Grammy Award Show, Joel extended his performance of "The River of Dreams" by stopping the song partway through, looking at the celebrity audience with a grin while pretending to check his watch and saying, "valuable advertising time going by...dollars...dollars...dollars..." which was met with laughter from the audience. He then resumed playing the song.
• The Rosie O'Donnell Show (1997) (Television)
• Behind the Music (1997) (Television)
• VH1 Storytellers (1997) and VH1 Video Time Line (1998)
• 60 Minutes (April 26, 1998) Interviewed by Steve Kroft.
• Inside the Actor's Studio (1999) (Bravo Network)
• Mad About You: "Murray at the Dog Show" (1999) (NBC Television) (Appeared as himself; wrote the music for the song "Lullabye For You" which was featured in the episode. Paul Reiser wrote the lyrics.)
• Piano Grand! A Smithsonian Celebration (2000) (Joel served as host and performer; aired on PBS; released on DVD)
• Performed the national anthem at multiple sporting events, and was the first to sing it at two Super Bowls^{[citation needed]}
• America: A Tribute To Heroes and The Concert for New York City (2001)
• Movin' Out (2002), is a musical based on twenty-four Billy Joel songs which was a smash hit on Broadway from 2002 to 2005 (last Broadway show was on December 11, 2005). Joel was composer, lyricist, and orchestrator and won a Tony Award for Best Orchestrations. The musical is really a dance performance choreographed by famed choreographer Twyla Tharp, with Joel's songs sung by Michael Cavanaugh.
• The 2003 Tony Awards (Television) (Performed "New York State of Mind")
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2005) (Television) (Performed "Miami 2017" and "Only the Good Die Young")
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien (2005) (NBC) (Performed "Everybody Loves You Now" and "Vienna")
• The Today Show in 2005 and 2006
• The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch (2006) (CNBC)
• American Chopper (2006) ("The Billy Joel Bike") (Television, DVD)
• The Oprah Winfrey Show (March 24, 2008) (Appeared with wife, Katie, and performed "Only the Good Die Young")
• The South Bank Show (July 13, 2008) (Joel discussed his career)
• The Howard Stern Show (November 16, 2010) (Sirius XM) (Interview and musical performance)

See also[link]

	Book: Billy Joel
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• List of best-selling music artists

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Billy Joel

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Billy Joel

• Billy Joel – Official Website
• Billy Joel at the Internet Movie Database
• Billy Joel at Allmusic
• Billy Joel discography at Discogs
• Billy Joel's channel on YouTube
• Billy Joel at Rolling Stone.com
• Billy Joel discography at MusicBrainz
• History of Live Performances by Billy Joel
• Interview at TonyAwards.com