Niccolò Machiavelli (3 May 1469 - 21 June 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, political theorist, historian, and playwright whose writings on power, statecraft, and political realism have shaped political thought from the Renaissance to the present day. He is best known for The Prince (Il Principe), a short treatise on political leadership written around 1513 and published posthumously in 1532, and for the Discourses on Livy (Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio), a longer work examining republican government. His name has given rise to the adjective “Machiavellian,” commonly used to describe cunning, amoral, or ruthless political behavior, though scholars debate whether this characterization accurately reflects his thought.

Machiavelli was born in Florence on 3 May 1469 to a family of modest means with a history of civic service. He entered Florentine public life in 1498, the same year Girolamo Savonarola was executed, and served as Second Chancellor of the Florentine Republic and secretary to the Ten of War - a magistracy overseeing military and diplomatic affairs - until 1512. In that capacity he conducted numerous diplomatic missions, including visits to the court of Cesare Borgia, King Louis XII of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. When the Medici family was restored to power in Florence in 1512, Machiavelli was dismissed, briefly imprisoned and tortured on suspicion of conspiracy, and subsequently exiled to his family estate at Sant'Andrea in Percussina. It was during this enforced retirement that he produced most of his major works. He was partially rehabilitated before his death in 1527, shortly after the Medici were again expelled from Florence following the Sack of Rome. A fuller account of his life and historical context is at Machiavelli - History.

The Prince addresses the acquisition, maintenance, and use of political power, drawing on historical examples from antiquity and Machiavelli's own observation of contemporary rulers. It is notable for its separation of political effectiveness from conventional Christian morality, arguing that a ruler must be willing to act against virtue when circumstances require. The Discourses on Livy is a more extensive work examining the political institutions and civic virtues that enabled the Roman Republic to achieve greatness, and is often read as evidence that Machiavelli's deeper preference was for republican rather than princely government. His other significant works include The Art of War (Dell'arte della guerra), Florentine Histories (Istorie fiorentine), and several plays, of which Mandragola is the most performed. The relationship between The Prince and the Discourses - and whether they represent a consistent or contradictory political philosophy - is itself a subject of scholarly debate.

Machiavelli has been interpreted in substantially different and sometimes irreconcilable ways across five centuries. Core questions include whether he was a cynical instructor of tyranny, a covert defender of republican liberty, an early theorist of modern secular politics, or a moralist writing within a recognized humanist tradition. The separation of politics from ethics in The Prince - sometimes called “Machiavellian realism” - has been read as a prescriptive endorsement, a descriptive observation, or an ironic exposure of how power actually operates. His relationship to republican thought, civic humanism, and the Italian Renaissance more broadly remains contested. Contemporary political theorists continue to draw on his work across ideological lines. Major interpretive positions are described in the Viewpoints section below.

There is broad scholarly consensus on the basic biographical facts and on the historical significance of Machiavelli's work as foundational to modern political theory. There is no scholarly consensus on the correct interpretation of his political philosophy, the relationship between his works, or his normative intentions. See Machiavelli - Political Theory Consensus for an account of areas of agreement and their limits.

The Machiavellian Realist - Machiavelli is read as the founder of political realism: a thinker who stripped politics of moral pretense and analyzed power as it is rather than as it ought to be. On this reading, The Prince is a straightforward, if unsentimental, guide to effective rule. See Machiavelli - Realist Viewpoint.

The Republican Machiavelli - A significant tradition, associated in part with the Cambridge School of intellectual history, argues that the Discourses represent Machiavelli's true political commitments, and that The Prince must be read in light of his republican values rather than as their contradiction. See Machiavelli - Republican Viewpoint.

The Ironic or Subversive Reading - Some interpreters, including Rousseau and later scholars, have proposed that The Prince was written to expose and warn the public about the methods of tyrants rather than to instruct rulers in their use. See Machiavelli - Ironic Viewpoint.

The Humanist Machiavelli - Another reading situates Machiavelli within the tradition of Renaissance civic humanism, arguing that his concern with virtù, fortune, and civic engagement places him closer to classical republican authors than to later secular or amoral political theory. See Machiavelli - Humanist Viewpoint.

The Moral Critique - From various religious and natural law perspectives, Machiavelli's separation of political action from moral constraint has been condemned as a corruption of political philosophy and a license for tyranny. This critique has been advanced from Catholic, Protestant, and secular natural law traditions. See Machiavelli - Moral Critique Viewpoint.

• Machiavelli - History
• Machiavelli - Debate
• Machiavelli - Political Theory Consensus
• The Prince
• Discourses on Livy
• Political Realism
• Renaissance Humanism
• Florentine Republic
• Cesare Borgia

1. Viroli, Maurizio. Niccolò's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli. Trans. Antony Shugaar. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.
2. Skinner, Quentin. Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
3. Strauss, Leo. Thoughts on Machiavelli. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1958.
4. Mansfield, Harvey C. Machiavelli's Virtue. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
5. De Grazia, Sebastian. Machiavelli in Hell. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
6. Baron, Hans. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955.
7. Pocock, J.G.A. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.
8. Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Trans. Harvey Mansfield. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
9. Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discourses on Livy. Trans. Harvey Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.