Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher and historian of the Italian Renaissance, best known for the political treatise The Prince, written around 1513 and published in 1532, five years after his death, which has led many to call him the father of modern political philosophy and political science. He served for years as a senior official of the Florentine Republic with diplomatic and military responsibilities, was expelled and exiled when the Medici retook power in 1512, and turned to political writing thereafter. The Prince argued that rulers must sometimes act unscrupulously for the good of the state, and it has been read ever since both as a manual for tyranny and, through works such as the Discourses on Livy, as a foundation of modern republicanism.