The History of Florence: And The Affairs of Italy - Paperback

by Niccolo Machiavelli (Author)

Thank you for checking out this book by Theophania Publishing. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you soon. We have thousands of titles available, and we invite you to search for us by name, contact us via our website, or download our most recent catalogues. Pope Leo X commissioned Machiavelli to write a history of Florence in 1520. In 1525, Machiavelli presented Pope Clement VII with eight books comprising the origin of Florence up to 1492, which was as much a tracing of the Medici family line as it was a political history. Niccolo Machiavelli is also known for his other works, The Art of War, The Prince, and Discourse on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy, being a history of Rome.

Author Biography

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 - 21 June 1527) was an Italian philosopher/writer, and is considered one of the main founders of modern political science. He was a diplomat, political philosopher, musician, and a playwright, but foremost, he was a civil servant of the Florentine Republic. In June of 1498, after the ouster and execution of Girolamo Savonarola, the Great Council elected Machiavelli as Secretary to the second Chancery of the Republic of Florence. Like Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli is considered a good example of the Renaissance Man. He is most famous for a short political treatise, The Prince, written in 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. Although he privately circulated The Prince among friends, the only work he published in his lifetime was The Art of War, about high-military science. Since the sixteenth century, generations of politicians remain attracted and repelled by the cynical approach to power posited in The Prince and his other works. Whatever his personal intentions, which are still debated today, his surname yielded the modern political word Machiavellianism-the use of cunning and deceitful tactics in politics.