Florentine History (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

By Niccolò Machiavelli and John Lotherington

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.  In Florentine History Machiavelli wrote about his native city, which he loved with a passion -- more than his soul, he said -- and by which he was exasperated. He was not just the famously cold, ironic analyst of ruthless power politics, evident in much of his most famous work, The Prince; he had a fervent sense of the common good and how that might be achieved in a republic. For him, Florence had the potential to be one of the greatest of republics, a match for ancient Rome itself, but that potential had never been fulfilled. In the Florentine History Machiavelli explores why not and in the process reveals the dynamic and danger of republican politics -- his thinking here, as in all his works, resonating powerfully for us today. The Florentine History is a series of eight essays (known as 'books') on the city and its Italian context during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. They do not follow all the rules of what we see today as professional historical writing -- Machiavelli could be as cavalier with the facts as an unscrupulous modern journalist -- but they are the fruit of one of the most original minds ever to have been brought to bear on politics.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Mar 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781411468030

Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli was born on 3 May 1469 in Florence during the city-state's peak of greatness under the Medici family. In 1494, the year the Medici were exiled, Machiavelli entered Florentine public service. In 1498 he was appointed Chancellor and Secretary to the Second Chancery. Serving as a diplomat for the republic, Machiavelli was an emissary to some of the most distinguished people of the age. When the Medici were returned to Florence in 1512, Machiavelli was forced into retirement. In the years that followed he devoted himself to literature, producing not only his most famous work, The Prince, but also the Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius (First Decade here means First Ten Books), his Art of War and The History of Florence. In 1527 the Medici were once again expelled from Florence, but before Machiavelli was able once again to secure political office in the city he died on 22 June 1527.