The Prince

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) served the Florentine republic for fourteen years as a senior official and diplomat, meeting kings, popes and the ruthless Cesare Borgia. When the Medici family returned to power in 1512 he lost his post, was imprisoned and tortured, and retired to his small farm outside Florence.

There, in the evenings, he put on his best clothes to read the ancient historians, and wrote The Prince, his Discourses on Livy and the comedy The Mandrake. His frank description of how power really works made his name a byword for cunning, but he was also a passionate defender of republics.