第43页 / 共310页

[1] "Le radici e corrispondenze," their roots (i.e. foundations)

and correspondencies or relations with other states-a common

meaning of "correspondence" and "correspondency" in the sixteenth

and seventeenth centuries.

Concerning these two methods of rising to be a prince by ability

or fortune, I wish to adduce two examples within our own

recollection, and these are Francesco Sforza[2] and Cesare

Borgia. Francesco, by proper means and with great ability, from

being a private person rose to be Duke of Milan, and that which

he had acquired with a thousand anxieties he kept with little

trouble. On the other hand, Cesare Borgia, called by the people

Duke Valentino, acquired his state during the ascendancy of his

father, and on its decline he lost it, notwithstanding that he

had taken every measure and done all that ought to be done by a

wise and able man to fix firmly his roots in the states which the

arms and fortunes of others had bestowed on him.