Machiavelli

Commissioned by the Medici, Machiavelli also wrote the Florentine Histories, the history of the city.

* Niccolò Machiavelli and other Florentines preferred the version spoken by ordinary people in their own times.

To improve the well-being of her subjects she studied architecture, agriculture, and industry, and followed the principles that Niccolò Machiavelli had set forth for rulers in his book The Prince.

He also had a scheme for diverting the flow of the Arno River, a project on which Niccolò Machiavelli also worked.

* Il Principe ( 1974 ) ( text by Niccolò Machiavelli ) for 2 mixed choruses, 8 winds, 3 horns, tuba, bass guitar, piano

* 1469 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and author ( d. 1527 )

* Machiavelli wrote in 1518 a play Mandragola ( The Mandrake ) in which the plot revolves around the use of a mandrake potion as a ploy to bed a woman.

The work is often compared to the later works of Machiavelli.

Believing that people were motivated by self-interest, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513 as advice for the city of Florence, Italy.

Machiavelli recommended that leaders use fear — but not hatred — to maintain control.

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (, 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527 ) was an Italian historian, diplomat, philosopher, humanist and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance.

Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy, the first son and third child of attorney, Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli, and his wife, Bartolomea di Stefano Nelli.

The Machiavelli family are believed to be descended from the old marquesses of Tuscany and to have produced thirteen Florentine Gonfalonieres of Justice, one of the offices of a group of nine citizens selected by drawing lots every two months, who formed the government, or Signoria.

Machiavelli, like many people of Florence, was however not a full citizen of Florence, due to the nature of Florentine citizenship in that time, even under the republican regime.

Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era — popes waged acquisitive wars against Italian city-states, and people and cities might fall from power at any time.

Machiavelli was taught grammar, rhetoric, and Latin, and became a prolific writer.

In June 1498, shortly after the execution of Savonarola, Machiavelli, at the age of 29, was elected as head of the second chancery.

Between 1503 and 1506 Machiavelli was responsible for the Florentine militia, including the City's defense.

Machiavelli was deprived of office in 1512 by the Medici.

Machiavelli then retired to his estate at Sant ' Andrea in Percussina ( near San Casciano in Val di Pesa ), and devoted himself to study and to the writing of the political treatises that earned his intellectual place in the development of political philosophy and political conduct.

Despairing of the opportunity to remain directly involved in political matters, after a time Machiavelli began to participate in intellectual groups in Florence and wrote several plays that ( unlike his works on political theory ) were both popular and widely known in his lifetime.

Machiavelli died in 1527 at the age of 58.

Aside from that, Machiavelli believed that public and private morality had to be understood as two different things in order to rule well.

As a political scientist, Machiavelli emphasizes the occasional need for the methodical exercise of brute force, deceit, and so on.