Philosopher · Early modern period · Italy

Niccolò Machiavelli

1469–1527

Florentine diplomat and author of The Prince and the Discourses on Livy. Effectual truth over imagined republics; republican institutions in the Discourses.

Facts

Born: 3 May 1469, Florence.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Niccolò Machiavelli
Died: 21 June 1527, Florence.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Niccolò Machiavelli
The Prince: Written 1513 after dismissal and torture; published 1532.; Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Niccolò Machiavelli

The record

After the Medici returned, Machiavelli lost office, was tortured on a false conspiracy charge, and retired to Sant'Andrea in Percussina. There he wrote The Prince: go to the effectual truth of politics rather than imagined states; a prince must learn how not to be good when necessity requires it.

The Discourses argue for republican liberty, mixed institutions and civic virtue, still under a hard view of human self-interest. He did not write the slogan 'the ends justify the means'; that is a later compression of Chapter 18.

A filing page records the books and the circumstances. It is not a manual for crime.

Images

Farm study at dusk with candle, ink pot and maps of Italian city-states — exile and analysis, not a crowned conqueror.

Connected

Links in both directions: what this page points to, and what points here.

CountryItaly

Articles

Desk pieces that belong with this record.

2026-10-06Niccolò MachiavelliNiccolò Machiavelli confronts a fundamental political problem that theorists and idealists still attempt to avoid: what happens when the world refuses to behave according to our highest moral ideals?Read

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