ABSTRACT
Of Niccolo Machiavelli's life before his appointment to the Florentine chancery in 1498 we are extremely ignorant. A little is known of his education, chiefly from the diaries kept by his father, Bernardo, for the period 1474-1487. Otherwise not much has been added to our knowledge of his early years since Villari remarked prophetically that they would 'perhaps always... remain involved in obscurity'.! It is not surprising, given the scant sources for his first twenty-eight years, that historians seeking to explain the origins of Machiavelli's ideas have dwelt on those sections of his biography for which evidence is plentiful: his practical experiences in politics as a diplomat and administrator after the fall of Savonarola; his period in the political wilderness after the Spanish restoration of Medici power in 1512; his close contacts with the humanist circle of Cosimo Rucellai and the Orti Oricellari; his tardy rehabilitation into public life by Clement Vll. The only general exception to this understandable reluctance to treat Machiavelli's early life has been a widespread readiness to assert the influence of the humanist milieu in which
young Niccolo was raised.2 There is in fact - paternal diaries notwithstanding - little hard evidence of the actual nature of his studies; but from what is known of fifteenth-century Florence in general, and of Bernardo's tastes and station in particular, it is possible to surmise with some confidence the sort of schooling that Machiavelli received. In contrast, besides some conjecture regarding the likelihood of Machiavelli's continuing his studies at university under Marcello Adriani, the period between 1487 and 1498 is largely ignored. Yet there is a danger inherent in neglecting Machiavelli's 'lost years'. While it is pointless to speculate on what he was doing for most of his twenties, there can be no doubt from what he wrote later in his life that the events of the 1490s, prior to his elevation to government office, played a pivotal part in shaping his political outlook, and that an examination of his response to the French invasion of 1494 in particular is especially important to understanding his thinking.
