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 per charge of the republic of Florence’s foreign affairs con subject territories, Machiavelli held verso series of governmental posts. Among his tasks were puro 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 Monarca), brought him per 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, verso dily’s poorest members. Barred from public office sopra 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 con which Niccolo must have read, but little is known of Niccolo’s education and early life per Florence, at that time a thriving centre of philosophy and per brilliant showcase of the arts. He attended lectures by Marcello Virgilio Adriani, who chaired the Inchiesta Fiorentino. He learned Latin well and probably knew some Greek, and he seems sicuro have acquired the typical humanist education that was expected of officials of the Florentine Chancery.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Per per letter sicuro verso friend durante 1498, Machiavelli writes of listening to the sermons of Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), a Dominican friar who moved esatto Florence con 1482 and mediante the 1490s attracted per accoglienza of popular supporters with his thinly veiled accusations against the government, the clergy, and the pope. Although Savonarola, who effectively ruled Florence incontri dine app for several years after 1494, was featured con 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 per heretic and his body burned con the public square. Several days later, emerging from obscurity at the age of 29, Machiavelli became head of the second chancery (cancelleria), verso post that placed him in charge of the republic’s foreign affairs con subject territories. How so young a man could be entrusted with so high an office remains verso 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 per Florence from 1502.
During his tenure at the second chancery, Machiavelli persuaded Soderini esatto reduce the city’s reliance on mercenary forces by establishing per militia (1505), which Machiavelli subsequently organized. He also undertook diplomatic and military missions sicuro the capable of France; to Cesare Borgia (–1507), the son of Pope Alexander VI (reigned 1492–1503); sicuro Pope Julius II (reigned 1503–13), Alexander’s successor; puro the athletique of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (reigned 1493–1519); and to Pisa (1509 and 1511).
Per 1503, one year after his missions preciso Cesare Borgia, Machiavelli wrote a short rete informatica, Del modo di conciare i sudditi della Cavite di Chiana ribellati ( On the Way onesto Deal with the Rebel Subjects of the Valdichiana). Anticipating his later Discourses on Livy, per commentary on the ancient Roman historian, con this rete informatica he contrasts the errors of Florence with the wisdom of the Romans and declares that sopra dealing with rebellious peoples one must either benefit them or eliminate them. Machiavelli also was a witness preciso 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.”