A complex and fascinating story; a biography that closely connects publics history and private experience. “Machiavelli’s political thought and writing fascinated me, but most of all I was attracted by his way of laughing at life and at men.”

On the 500th anniversary of The Prince, this new edition recounts in greater detail Machiavelli’s training in Medicean Florence at the end of the 1400s.
It describes his role as Secretary of the Florentine Republic, when he was unbendingly severe towards government officials and, at the same time, consistently preoccupied by the security of nations; it identifies significant details of his relationship with the lower-ranking officials; recreates the circumstances leading to his dismissal by the new Medici regime; discusses the question of whether Machiavelli became a supporter of the Medici after 1512; provides a new interpretation of The Prince; clarifies the significance of his republicanism; and, finally, proposes a new analysis of the last weeks of his life, the circumstances of his death, and of his heavily-debated deathbed confession and dream. Scientifically speaking much more comprehensive and up-to-date, the new edition (which is around 50 pages longer than the original), has maintained all the fluidity of Viroli’s narrative that was such a crucial factor in its success.