Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469–1527) was an Italian diplomat, philosopher, historian, and writer from Florence. He is best known for The Prince, a pragmatic treatise on political power and statecraft, and for the Discourses on Livy, which analyze republican governance and civic virtue. Machiavelli served as a diplomat and official in the Florentine Republic and wrote both political theory and historical works that have had a lasting influence on political thought.