Book One

[...merchants] who practice banking argentaria; the business of money-changing and credit which was the backbone of Florentine wealth: those who, by exporting the goods we produce and importing foreign ones, render the people both well-supplied with all things and wealthy with
3 great sums of money. There will be those who make garments from various wools, and those who dye the finished cloth with various colors, so that we might use them not only to repel the force of cold and heat, but also to achieve a certain elegance and dignity. I pass over those of a more menial sort and those who are like mercenaries—whose labor we buy
3 rather than their skill—I pass over the weavers, fullers Workers who cleaned and thickened cloth, belt-makers, and the stitchers of clothes and shoes, and many others of that kind. And lest I must descend into the delicacies of the marketplace, I omit the gardeners, fish-curers, bakers, cooks, sausage-makers, butchers, and fishermen: those whom Gnatho A famous "parasite" or sycophant character from the Roman playwright Terence's comedy The Eunuch from Terence boasts he served whether their fortunes were safe or ruined.

Therefore, since the one whose judgment determines who should be granted citizenship will have admired the talent and craftsmanship of those I first listed, and considered the work and labor of these latter ones necessary, he will surely admit them all. He will encourage each one to diligently perform the business they have already professed.

Among these, if your "wise man" should be present—idle and yawning—and if he remains hidden alone in his own library, never departing, mixing with no one,
3 greeting no one, and offering no service either privately or publicly: what shall we say his role is in the republic? What "contribution" original: "symbolum"; literally a token or a share of a meal, here meaning one's civic duty or "buy-in" to society does he bring to human life? Where shall we place him? Where shall we direct him? Will there be anyone who thinks he should be counted among the number of men? Surely not; rather, everyone will be indignant at him, as if he were a lazy drone original: "fucus"; a male bee that does no work but eats the honey coming for the honey of others.

"I enjoy peace," he says, "and through the highest leisure ocium; in this context, the productive leisure used for study, though Lorenzo is using it disparagingly here, I contemplate the force of nature and strive to find the truth in all things."

Blessed you are, indeed! But beware lest you seem to have forgotten your own nature—you who serve yourself alone in such a way that you have absolutely no regard for the rest. But come now, allow me with your good grace to ask what I desire to know. If you were to board a fleet about to go against enemies with the intention that you would neither sit at the helm as a pilot, nor pull the oar as a rower, nor—running through the decks—give orders to those who must handle the rigging or the sails, nor obey the one who does give orders; and finally, if you were not to stand ready with arms to fight the enemy, but only brought your weight to the ship and occupied a place in idleness where someone else’s service might have been useful: if, I say, you boarded the ship with such a plan that you wished to help it neither with work nor with counsel, would not those in charge of the ships consider you useless and worthy of being thrown headlong into the sea? And perhaps, if they were a little more severe, they would throw you in.

Or do you think the republic perhaps has less need of those who take hold of it than a ship does—especially since most heavy and constant dangers always threaten it from every side? It is constantly sought after either by the ambition and greed of many princes and peoples through arms and deceptions, or it is shaken by the factionalism of seditious citizens. Does anyone ignore that the republic [is like] a living being?