by Niccolo Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence on May 3, 1469, the year Lorenzo de’ Medici began to rule the city. Niccolo’s father was a notary/lawyer from a well-respected but not an overly wealthy family with noble origins and some landholdings in the Tuscan countryside. Machiavelli enjoyed an education suitable for a young man of his station—he was schooled in Latin but apparently not in Greek. Though interested in a career in government, he lost a bid to become secretary in the second chancellery (which prepared reports for Florentine leaders) under the rule of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, who had succeeded Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1494. In 1498, when Savonarola fell from power, Machiavelli’s fortunes improved. The Florentine Republic elected him secretary of the second chancellery, and he was also appointed secretary of the 10 of balìa, which oversaw foreign relations. These postings...