Florentine republicanism · political realism · 1469–1527

Niccolò Machiavelli

See politics as it is, not as it is imagined.

Florence · Sant’Andrea in Percussina

Portraits: artistic interpretations

Reading guides

A thread to guide your reading.

Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.

Follow effectual truth, appearances and fortune through the central chapters of The Prince and test how far its advice reaches.

Examine how the Discourses turn civic conflict, mixed government and popular judgement into conditions of liberty.

Read The Art of War as a political argument linking military discipline, citizen soldiers and the stability of a state.