Machiavelli Drafts The Prince

1513

Exiled from Florence and tortured on suspicion of conspiracy, Niccolo Machiavelli retired to his farmhouse at Sant' Andrea and, at night, changed into courtly robes to converse with the ancients. In a few months he produced a short, icy handbook on how rulers should seize and keep power. His letter describing evenings in courtly dress after days with woodcutters is one of the most human documents of the Italian Renaissance.