Discovering 'true Machiavelli'
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Maria Giovanna Fadiga Mercuri, left, the wife of Italian Ambassador to Korea Sergio Mercuri, speaks during a guided tour to the “Machiavelli, Renaissance Man” exhibition at the National Libary in Seocho-dong, Seoul, last Tuesday. Over 25 wives of foreign ambassadors joined the tour. / Korea Times
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Maria Giovanna Fadiga Mercuri, the wife of Italian Ambassador to Korea Sergio Mercuri, said that Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was often quoted out of the context and incomplete information probably generated misconceptions of the Italian thinker.
“Machiavelli had never been a politician. He was a diplomat, and as you know a diplomat is not a politician,” she said during an interview with The Korea Times at the National Library in Seocho-dong, Seoul, Tuesday.
“His book ‘The Prince’ is slanted more toward the philosophical side than political one. We, Italians, consider him as a writer.”
Fadiga Mercuri, also a professor of humanity studies at an Italian university, made the remarks when asked if she has seen any discrepancies in the interpretations of Machiavelli and his book between Koreans and Italians.
Machiavell’s book “The Prince” is considered as a must-read for politicians, as well as aspiring politicians, in Korea.
The Italian thinker is often described as a self-serving, result-driven man because he was often quoted by some Koreans as arguing that the ends will justify the means, and therefore politicians are allowed to use any means if they help them achieve their goals.
Fadiga Mercuri hinted that such a misleading interpretation of Machiavelli is probably caused by an incomplete understanding of the Renaissance man and the social and political setting in which he lived.
“In fact, Machiavelli stressed the ethical side and he encourages his readers to follow their free will, which is a great achievement, considering the days he lived in. As a humanist, I think he is truly a Renaissance man because he stressed the freedom of thinking, which is the essence of the Renaissance in that human beings, not God, came to the fore.”
She noted that Machiavelli wrote his masterpiece “The Prince” during the darkest period of his life. “When he worked on the book, he was exiled and lost all his fortune. And he pulled together the great work,” Fadiga Mercuri said.
Fadiga Mercuri took the initiative to organize an exhibition featuring Machiavelli through tens of items related to the Italian thinker, to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the establishment of Korea-Italy relations, as well as the 500th anniversary of the completion of “The Prince.”
The items on display include Machiavelli’s handwritten letter to his son in 1527, an assessment report on Germany in 1502 and his portrait.
Fadiga Mercuri said that Machiavelli had a significant impact on thinkers and political scientists across all cultures.
She said the ambitious project to move historic Machiavelli items required her and her husband to go through heavy bureaucracy in Italy. The wife of the Italian ambassador said seeking cooperation from the authorities in Florence and Rome, who held those exhibits, was particularly difficult.
“We began to have an exhibition like this in December last year and then started it right away. The most difficult part was to conceive the exhibit and match my conception with reality.”
Fadiga Mercuri pointed to the replica of the map drawn by Italian monk Fra Mauro around 1450 on the wall of the Digital Library to indicate the difficulties of having the Machiavelli collection in Korea.
“The original in Venice cannot be moved for the exhibition here. So an Italian artisan replicated the original map for us,” she said.
On Tuesday, Fadiga Mercuri provided a guided tour of the Machiavelli exhibition to over 25 wives of foreign ambassadors based in Seoul.
Maria Ligaya Fujita, the spouse of Brazilian ambassador to Korea, said that the exhibition showed her and her colleagues how encompassing Machiavelli was. “There is no doubt that he was a truly Renaissance man,” she said.