Mabuse See GOSSAERT, JAN
Machaut, Guillaume de (c. 1300–c. 1377) French
composer and poet
Probably born in Reims, Machaut entered the service of
John of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia, in around 1323,
and was his secretary until the king’s death at Crécy
(1346). Machaut was given canonries by Pope John XXII
at Verdun, Arras, and Reims in the 1330s, and after the
king of Bohemia’s death, he was patronized by, among oth-
ers, the king of Navarre, the duke of Berry, and the future
King Charles V. Machaut’s autobiographical poem “Voir
dit” gives some insight into his compositional methods.
He is generally regarded as the most important figure of
the French ARS NOVAand was highly revered by his con-
temporaries. He wrote little sacred music, but notable
among it is his Messe de Notre Dame, one of the earliest
polyphonic settings of the Ordinary of the Mass. His sec-
ular output consists of around 20 motets and well over
100 pieces in song forms (lais, virelais, rondeaux, and bal-
lades). The lais and virelais are for one voice in the trou-
badour tradition, but the rondeaux and ballades are
polyphonic, based on isorhythmic tenor lines. Here
Machaut is at his most innovatory, using syncopation and
musical rhyme to great effect.
Machiavelli, Niccolò (1469–1527) Italian political
theorist and dramatist
From 1498, after the fall of SAVONAROLA, Machiavelli
served in the republican administration of his native Flo-
rence, in the chancery and as secretary (1498–1512) to the
TEN OF WAR, the body concerned with diplomacy and war-
fare. He acquired a thorough knowledge of political affairs
and traveled extensively in legations to various courts,
meeting such leaders as LOUIS XIIof France, Pope JULIUS II,
Emperor MAXIMILIAN I, and Cesare BORGIA. With the re-
turn to power of the Medici in 1512, Machiavelli was
forced to retire from public life because of his association
with the republican government; he was also suspected of
involvement in a plot against the Medici in 1513. Apart
from insignificant and temporary appointments, he de-
voted the rest of his life to his writings, living at Sant’ An-
drea in Percussina, several miles from Florence.
Two of Machiavelli’s works were published in his life-
time: La mandragola (The Mandrake Root; 1518), an in-
stant success still acknowledged as one of the most
brilliant of Italian comedies, and the treatise Dell’arte della
guerra (The Art of War; 1519–20), set in the intellectual
gatherings of the ORTI ORICELLARI. It was there that he read
a version of his first major commentary on government,
Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (Discourses on the
First Decade of Livy; 1531), written about 1517. His other
works include a history of Florence (written 1520–25),
the comedy Clizia (written c. 1524), and his political mas-
terpiece, Il principe (THE PRINCE). Dell’arte della guerra and
Istorie fiorentine were translated into English in 1560 and
1595 respectively, but by that time Machiavelli’s name had
undeservedly become a byword for godlessness, cynicism,
and treachery, exemplified in the prologue to MARLOWE’s
The Jew of Malta in which the ghost of “Machevill” is made
to say, among other scandalous sentiments: “I count Reli-
gion but a childish Toy, And hold there is no sinne but Ig-
norance.”
Despite the opprobrium loaded on the author, Henry
Nevile’s edition of Machiavelli’s Works (1675) was twice
reprinted before the end of the 17th century (1680, 1694).M
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