Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian Renaissance political philosopher and statesman and secretary of the Florentine republic

Niccolo 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).

From the age of 29, when he was placed durante charge of the republic of Florence’s foreign affairs per subject territories, Machiavelli held verso series of governmental posts. Among his tasks were esatto establish a militia, undertake diplomatic and military missions, oversee fortifications, and write an official history of the republic.

Niccolo 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 rete di emittenti, The Prince (Il Signore), brought him a reputation as an atheist and an immoral cynic.

Early life and political career

From the 13th century onward, Machiavelli’s family was wealthy and prominent, holding on occasion Florence’s most important offices. His father, Bernardo, per dily’s poorest members. Barred from public office per 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 verso library per which Niccolo must have read, but little is known of Niccolo’s education and early life con Florence, at that time a thriving centre of philosophy and verso brilliant showcase of the arts. He attended lectures by Marcello Virgilio Adriani, who chaired the Indagine Fiorentino. He learned Latin well and probably knew some Greek, and he seems puro have acquired the typical humanist education that was expected of officials of the Florentine Chancery.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Con a letter preciso verso friend durante 1498, Machiavelli writes of listening esatto the sermons of Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), a Dominican friar who moved onesto Florence mediante 1482 and durante the 1490s attracted a accoglienza 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 per 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 durante the public square. Several days later, emerging from obscurity at the age of 29, Machiavelli became head of the second chancery (cancelleria), per post that placed him per charge of recensioni hitch the republic’s foreign affairs in subject territories. How so young verso man could be entrusted with so high an office remains per mystery, particularly because Machiavelli apparently never served an apprenticeship sopra the chancery. He held the post until 1512, having gained the confidence of Piero Soderini (1452–1522), the gonfalonier (chief magistrate) for life mediante Florence from 1502.

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 puro the trapu of France; esatto Cesare Borgia (–1507), the cri of Pope Alexander VI (reigned 1492–1503); to Pope Julius II (reigned 1503–13), Alexander’s successor; sicuro the breviligne of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (reigned 1493–1519); and esatto Pisa (1509 and 1511).

Mediante 1503, one year after his missions preciso Cesare Borgia, Machiavelli wrote per short sistema, Del maniera di trattare i sudditi della Val di Chiana ribellati ( On the Way puro Deal with the Rebel Subjects of the Valdichiana). Anticipating his later Discourses on Livy, per commentary on the ancient Roman historian, sopra this rete di emittenti he contrasts the errors of Florence with the wisdom of the Romans and declares that in dealing with rebellious peoples one must either benefit them or eliminate them. Machiavelli also was per witness to the bloody vengeance taken by Cesare on his mutinous captains at the town of Sinigaglia (ous account. Durante much of his early writings, Machiavelli argues that “one should not offend verso prince and later put faith con him.”