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Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise The Prince ( Il Principe ), written around 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death. [6]
- 21 June 1527 (aged 58), Florence, Republic of Florence
- Western philosophy
- Overview
- Early life and political career
- Writings
Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian Renaissance political philosopher and statesman and secretary of the Florentine republic. His most famous work, The Prince (1532), brought him a reputation as an atheist and an immoral cynic.
What did Niccolò Machiavelli write?
Niccolò Machiavelli’s two most important works are Discourses on Livy (1531) and The Prince (1532), both of which were published after his death. He wrote several other works, including Florentine Histories (1532) and The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca (1520).
What was Niccolò Machiavelli’s occupation?
From the age of 29, when he was placed in charge of the republic of Florence’s foreign affairs in subject territories, Machiavelli held a series of governmental posts. Among his tasks were to establish a militia, undertake diplomatic and military missions, oversee fortifications, and write an official history of the republic.
Niccolò Machiavelli (born May 3, 1469, Florence [Italy]—died June 21, 1527, Florence) Italian Renaissance political philosopher and statesman, secretary of the Florentine republic, whose most famous work, The Prince (Il Principe), brought him a reputation as an atheist and an immoral cynic.
From the 13th century onward, Machiavelli’s family was wealthy and prominent, holding on occasion Florence’s most important offices. His father, Bernardo, a doctor of laws, was nevertheless among the family’s poorest members. Barred from public office in Florence as an insolvent debtor, Bernardo lived frugally, administering his small landed property near the city and supplementing his meagre income from it with earnings from the restricted and almost clandestine exercise of his profession.
Bernardo kept a library in which Niccolò must have read, but little is known of Niccolò’s education and early life in Florence, at that time a thriving centre of philosophy and a brilliant showcase of the arts. He attended lectures by Marcello Virgilio Adriani, who chaired the Studio Fiorentino. He learned Latin well and probably knew some Greek, and he seems to have acquired the typical humanist education that was expected of officials of the Florentine Chancery.
In a letter to a friend in 1498, Machiavelli writes of listening to the sermons of Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), a Dominican friar who moved to Florence in 1482 and in the 1490s attracted a party of popular supporters with his thinly veiled accusations against the government, the clergy, and the pope. Although Savonarola, who effectively ruled Florence for several years after 1494, was featured in The Prince (1513) as an example of an “unarmed prophet” who must fail, Machiavelli was impressed with his learning and rhetorical skill. On May 24, 1498, Savonarola was hanged as a heretic and his body burned in the public square. Several days later, emerging from obscurity at the age of 29, Machiavelli became head of the second chancery (cancelleria), a post that placed him in charge of the republic’s foreign affairs in subject territories. How so young a man could be entrusted with so high an office remains a mystery, particularly because Machiavelli apparently never served an apprenticeship in the chancery. He held the post until 1512, having gained the confidence of Piero Soderini (1452–1522), the gonfalonier (chief magistrate) for life in Florence from 1502.
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During his tenure at the second chancery, Machiavelli persuaded Soderini to reduce the city’s reliance on mercenary forces by establishing a militia (1505), which Machiavelli subsequently organized. He also undertook diplomatic and military missions to the court of France; to Cesare Borgia (1475/76–1507), the son of Pope Alexander VI (reigned 1492–1503); to Pope Julius II (reigned 1503–13), Alexander’s successor; to the court of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (reigned 1493–1519); and to Pisa (1509 and 1511).
In office Machiavelli wrote a number of short political discourses and poems (the Decennali) on Florentine history. It was while he was out of office and in exile, however, that the “Florentine Secretary,” as Machiavelli came to be called, wrote the works of political philosophy for which he is remembered. In his most noted letter (December 10, 1513), he described one of his days—in the morning walking in the woods, in the afternoon drinking and gambling with friends at the inn, and in the evening reading and reflecting in his study, where, he says, “I feed on the food that alone is mine and that I was born for.” In the same letter, Machiavelli remarks that he has just composed a little work on princes—a “whimsy”—and thus lightly introduces arguably the most famous book on politics ever written, the work that was to give the name Machiavellian to the teaching of worldly success through scheming deceit.
About the same time that Machiavelli wrote The Prince (1513), he was also writing a very different book, Discourses on Livy (or, more precisely, Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy [Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio]). Both books were first published only after Machiavelli’s death, the Discourses on Livy in 1531 and The Prince in 1532. They are distinguished from his other works by the fact that in the dedicatory letter to each he says that it contains everything he knows. The dedication of the Discourses on Livy presents the work to two of Machiavelli’s friends, who he says are not princes but deserve to be, and criticizes the sort of begging letter he appears to have written in dedicating The Prince. The two works differ also in substance and manner. Whereas The Prince is mostly concerned with princes—particularly new princes—and is short, easy to read, and, according to many, dangerously wicked, the Discourses on Livy is a “reasoning” that is long, difficult, and full of advice on how to preserve republics. Every thoughtful treatment of Machiavelli has had to come to terms with the differences between his two most important works.
- Harvey Mansfield
Sep 13, 2005 · Machiavelli presents to his readers a vision of political rule allegedly purged of extraneous moralizing influences and fully aware of the foundations of politics in the effective exercise of power. The methods for achieving obedience are varied and depend heavily upon the foresight that the prince exercises.
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Apr 2, 2014 · Learn about the life and works of Niccolò Machiavelli, the Italian diplomat and author of The Prince, a handbook for unscrupulous politicians. Find out his early life, diplomatic career, political views, quotes and facts.
Mar 23, 2018 · Learn about Niccolo Machiavelli, the 16th-century Italian political thinker who wrote The Prince, a guide to power based on his observations of the Italian city-states. Explore his controversial views on morality, fortune and virtù, and his impact on history and literature.
Feb 2, 2019 · Learn about the life and works of Niccolò Machiavelli, one of the most influential political theorists of Western philosophy, who wrote The Prince and The Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius. Explore his political and historical treatises, his literary texts, and his views on virtue, fortune, and the republican form of government.
A comprehensive overview of the life and political philosophy of Machiavelli, a 16th century Florentine thinker known for his works on politics, virtue, fortune, nature, history, and more. Learn about his life, his influence, his philosophical themes, his corpus, and his possible influences from Renaissance humanism, Platonism, Aristotelianism, and other sources.
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