Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence in 1469, the son of a lawyer, and received a humanist education in Latin. In 1498, after the fall of the preacher Girolamo Savonarola, he became secretary of the Second Chancery of the Florentine Republic, responsible for diplomacy and defense. For fourteen years he traveled on missions to the courts of France, the pope, the Holy Roman Emperor and Cesare Borgia, whose methods he studied closely, and he organized a citizen militia for Florence. When the Medici family returned to power in 1512, he lost his post, and the next year he was accused of conspiracy, imprisoned and tortured, then released. Retiring to his farm near San Casciano, he wrote The Prince (1513), a short book advising rulers how to gain and keep power, which became famous for its frank view that rulers must sometimes act against conventional morality. He also wrote the Discourses on Livy, a study of republics, The Art of War, a History of Florence, and the comic play The Mandrake. He died in Florence in 1527. The adjective 'Machiavellian' later came to mean cunning and unscrupulous.

Niccolò Machiavelli is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Scholars debate whether his writings overturn the Christian understanding of the virtues. Source: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy