Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician and author. The son of a civil lawyer, Machiavelli’s knowledge of public life was gained from a sometimes precarious existence in politically unstable Florence. He served as Second Chancellor, 1498–1512, and was despatched on missions to France, Germany and throughout Italy. After a brief period of imprisonment and the restoration of Medici rule, Machiavelli embarked on a literary career.
Machiavelli’s major work, The Prince, written in 1513 and published in 1531, was intended to provide guidance for the ruler of a future united Italy, and drew heavily upon his first-hand observations of the statecraft of Cesare Borgia and the power politics that dominated his period. His ‘scientific method’ portrayed politics in strictly realistic terms and highlighted the use by the political leaders of cunning, cruelty and manipulation. This emphasis, and attacks upon him that led to his excommunication, meant that the term ‘Machiavellian’ subsequently came to mean scheming and duplicitous. His Discourses, written in 1513–17 and published in 1531, provides a fuller account of Machiavelli’s republicanism, but commentators have disagreed about whether it should be considered as an elaboration of or a departure from the ideas outlined in The Prince.
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