An open library of thought
See politics as it is, not as it is imagined.
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
These records present The Prince, the Discourses on Livy and The Art of War. The Florentine Histories, the comedies, the poems, the diplomatic dispatches and the private letters, including the letter to Vettori of 10 December 1513, are not yet indexed; this is a selection, not a complete bibliography.
011513
Drafted in 1513 at Sant’Andrea in Percussina, after his dismissal and imprisonment, as Machiavelli reported in a letter to Francesco Vettori. Dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici, it circulated in manuscript and was printed only in 1532, five years after his death.
021513–1519
Composed between about 1513 and 1519, the work grew out of discussions in the Orti Oricellari gardens and is dedicated to Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai. Its dating relative to The Prince is debated; it was printed in 1531.
031521
Printed in Florence in 1521 and dedicated to Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi, it is the only one of Machiavelli’s major political prose works published during his lifetime. It reflects his experience organizing the Florentine militia after 1506.