Pagina 149 di 310

[1] Giovanni Bentivogli, born in Bologna 1438, died at Milan

1508. He ruled Bologna from 1462 to 1506. Machiavelli's strong

condemnation of conspiracies may get its edge from his own very

recent experience (February 1513), when he had been arrested and

tortured for his alleged complicity in the Boscoli conspiracy.

For this reason I consider that a prince ought to reckon

conspiracies of little account when his people hold him in

esteem; but when it is hostile to him, and bears hatred towards

him, he ought to fear everything and everybody. And well-ordered

states and wise princes have taken every care not to drive the

nobles to desperation, and to keep the people satisfied and

contented, for this is one of the most important objects a prince

can have.