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Niccolò Machiavelli
1 book in the library
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was a Florentine diplomat who ran the republic's second chancery for fourteen years and watched, at close range, how power was actually taken and kept. When the Medici returned in 1512 he was dismissed, accused of conspiracy, tortured on the rack and exiled to a small farm outside the city, and it was there, out of work and writing to get back in, that he produced The Prince. It circulated in manuscript and was printed five years after his death. He also wrote the Discourses on Livy, a history of Florence and a comedy, Mandragola, still performed.