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Machiavelli wrote The Prince not as a dreamer describing how rulers ought to behave, but as a man who had seen power from the inside-and had lost it.
Driven into exile after years of public service in Florence, he set down his sharpest observations on politics, ambition, and human nature with disarming clarity.
This is not a book about cruelty for its own sake, nor a manual for tyrants. It is a study of how authority is gained, how it is kept, and why it so often slips away. Machiavelli cuts through idealism and convention, refusing to look away from the temptations, fears, and calculations that shape real decisions.
More than five centuries later, The Prince still challenges readers to ask uncomfortable questions: What does it mean to lead? Where is the line between wisdom and manipulation-and who decides?
Info autore
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Niccolò Machiavelli was born at Florence on 3rd May 1469. He was the second son of Bernardo di Nicolo Machiavelli, a lawyer of some repute, and of Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli, his wife. Both parents were members of the old Florentine nobility. His life falls naturally into three periods, each of which singularly enough constitutes a distinct and important era in the history of Florence. His youth was concurrent with the greatness of Florence as an Italian power under the guidance of Lorenzo de' Medici, Il Magnifico. The downfall of the Medici in Florence occurred in 1494, in which year Machiavelli entered the public service. During his official career Florence was free under the government of a Republic, which lasted until 1512, when the Medici returned to power, and Machiavelli lost his office. The Medici again ruled Florence from 1512 until 1527, when they were once more driven out. This was the period of Machiavelli's literary activity and increasing influence; but he died, within a few weeks of the expulsion of the Medici, on 22nd June 1527, in his fifty-eighth year, without having regained office.
Herbert Butterfield, 1908 edition of The Prince
