20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

166 Radu Raisaadvisers. His “domestics”, id est those persons who serve the prince, haveto be “truth lovers, hard working, friends of justice, vigilants, hating thebribes, modests, easy to content”. 4In his novel, “Filoteou parerga”, Mavrocordat has a chapter “On mercyand ruthlessness, ” 5 alluding to the chapter “On cruelty and mercy or is itbetter to be loved than to be feared or better to be feared than to be loved”from “The Prince”. Machiavelli said that the ideal is to be both loved andfeared, but, if it is impossible to have both at the same time, it was better tobe feared than to be loved. Nonetheless, if a prince cannot win his subjects’love, it still is good for him to avoid their hatred. Nicolae Mavrocordatmeditated on Machiavelli’s ideas. As the first foreign prince of Wallachia,directly appointed by the sultan, he couldn’t hope to be loved by his subjects(both noblemen and commoners). By his measures, Nicolae Mavrocordataspired to avoid his subjects’ hatred. Although aware he was not loved,he didn’t want to be feared, thinking that violence and oppression fromthe prince were very dangerous. At the same time, he tried to demonstratethat his grandmother was a descendant of Stephen the Great (1457-1504),the most glorious of the Romanian princes ever. He suggested to his sonto win the love of the locals. To be moderate. To follow the middle coursebetween the boyards and the peasants, not easily believing the peasants’complaints and not allowing the boyards to oppress the peasants. Not togrant privileges and tax exemptions, because they diminish the incomes ofthe state and of the prince.Nicolae Mavrocordat’s notes comprise quotations from commentatorsof Machiavelli: Fr. Bacon, Boccalini, Ammirato, Morhof. This clearlyshows that Mavrocordat confronted his opinions with those of professionalsof the political science and art.One of Mavrocordat’s notes on Machiavelli underlines the differencesbetween the manner of life of a prince and the manner of life of anordinary person. The prince reproduces a statement of Verulamius Baconus(Latinized name of the great philosopher Francis Bacon, Baron [of]Verulam) according to which Machiavelli “wrote what people use to doand not what people should do”. This was expected, because “the attemptto better the vicious suppose the knowledge of human evil”, says Fr. Bacon.Nicolae Mavrocordat quotes Boccalini şi Ammirato as in “Machiavelli isa wicked master of politics”, who casts his venom even in the most simple4Mavrocordat, N. 1890, Sfătuirile domnului Neculai Mavrocordat cătră fiul săuConstantin, Arhiva ştiinţifică şi literară, II, Iaşi, 376.5Mavrocordatos, N. 1989, Les loisirs de Philothee, Les Presses de l’ Universite deMontreal, Athenes, Montreal, 1.