Machiavelli, Niccolo di Bernardo dei, born of an ancient burgher family at Florence, in 1469, and a pupil of the celebrated scholar, Marcello Virgilio, was employed in public affairs from a very early age, and may be regarded as the literary representative of the political life of the important period to which he belongs. The years of his early manhood were passed amid the political troubles occasioned by the French invasion under Charles VIII. (1493), when the Medici fled from Florence, and the republic was proclaimed, and a new constitution formed under the influence of the great reformer, Savonarola. Machiavelli's first appearance in public life was in the year of his famous contemporary's fall from power, and execution. He was elected in June 1498 to a subordinate secretaryship in the department of 'Il veci di Balia'—i.e. the Ten chosen to direct the military and diplomatic affairs of the republican government. He was promoted in July of the same year to the chief-secretaryship under this same commission. This position, which, though honourable, was subordinate, he occupied until the fall of the republic in 1512. His immediate superior in office was Marcello Virgilio Adriani, a celebrated humanist, whose companionship is supposed to have stimulated in Machiavelli the enthusiasm for the study of the classics. It seems proved, however, that Machiavelli did not know Greek, and cannot be classed among the erudite of that cultured age. Machiavelli's duties were almost entirely diplomatic; he was employed in a great variety of missions, the instructions and correspondence connected with which may almost be said to contain the secret political history of Italy during his time. The culminating point of his reputation as a diplomatist was his mission to the great master of treachery and dissimulation, Caesar Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, commonly called 'Il Valentino,' in 1502, of which an account is preserved in fifty-two letters written during the course of the negotiation, unsurpassed in dramatic interest by any series of state-papers. In the complicated external relations which Florence had now assumed, Machiavelli is found in communication with all the great foreign powers, as he had hitherto been with the Italian principalities. Between 1500-11 he formed part of important missions, once to the German emperor Maximilian, and four times to France. His despatches during these journeys, and his treatises on the 'Affairs of France and Germany,' are full of a far-reaching insight into the causes and effects of the various characteristics he had seen and studied. The most important part which Machiavelli took in public affairs was his spirited attempt to raise a trained body of citizens able, without the aid of treacherous mercenaries, to defend their liberty against foreign invasion.
The sincere patriotism which ennobles his writings and his life filled him with forebodings for the fate of his country, and especially of his beloved native town, and inspired him to teach with fervour the only mode of reviving her ancient dignity and independence. On the restoration of the Medici in 1512, Machiavelli was involved in the downfall of his patron, the Gonfaloniere Soderini. He was arrested on a charge of conspiracy in 1513.
On being put to the torture, he disclaimed all knowledge of the alleged conspiracy; but, although pardoned, in virtue of the amnesty ordered by Leo X., he was obliged for several years to withdraw from public life, during which period he devoted himself to literature. It was not till the death of the young Lorenzo de' Medici, in 1519, that Machiavelli began to recover favour. He was commissioned in that year by Leo X. to draw up his report on a reform of the state of Florence; and in 1521 and the following years he was officially employed in various diplomatic services and as historiographer. After the disastrous defeat of the French at Pavia (1525), Italy lay helpless before the advancing forces of the Emperor Charles V., whose ferocious soldiery, though nominally allies, sacked the rich and defenceless Italian towns in their power. Machiavelli used his failing energies, undermined by chronic disease, to rouse his fellow-citizens in their own defence, and in negotiations to avert from Florence the invading army on its way to Rome. In May 1527, on receiving the news of the sack of Rome and imprisonment of Pope Clement VII. (Giulio de' Medici), the Florentines again drove out the Medici rulers and proclaimed the republic. But Machiavelli found that he was to be allowed no part in the popular movement for liberty and for defence against the foreigner; his patriotism was doubted, and he was suspected of favouring the Medici. This bitter disappointment, added to his already feeble health, brought on an illness, of which he died on the 20th June of the same year. His death was accompanied by the usual ministrations of the church, for, though he had written much against clerical corruption and tyranny, he had never impugned, nor indeed even discussed, religious doctrine. He was interred in his family's burying-place in Santa Croce, but all exact record of the spot is lost, the family having become extinct as early as 1597.
Through misrepresentation and misunderstanding of his writings, his name became after his death hated, and his teachings were spoken of as almost diabolical, his earliest and most violent assailants being the clergy, and especially the Jesuits. Although his writings were several times partially published in a more or less garbled form, the first great edition was not issued until 1782; it was dedicated to Earl Cowper, who had had a leading part in encouraging the publication, as also in promoting a public subscription for a monument to Machiavelli in Santa Croce. From that period until our own day his fame has steadily increased, and his pre-eminent position as the founder of political science is now assured.
Machiavelli's writings fill 6 vols. 4to (Florence, 1782), or 10 vols. 8vo. Besides his letters and state-papers, his historical writings also comprise Florentine Histories, extending from 1215 to 1492, with a fragmentary continuation to 1499; Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius; a Life of Castruccio Castracani (unfinished); a History of the Affairs of Lucca. His literary works comprise an imitation of the Golden Ass of Apuleius, an essay on the Italian language, and several minor compositions. He also wrote Seven Books on the Art of War, which has been much admired by the learned in military science. But the great source of his reputation, for good or for evil, is the celebrated book De Principatibus, or, as it has since been called, Il Principe. The main question discussed in this world-famed book is: How principalities may be governed and maintained. In resolving this question, various cases are supposed, for each of which appropriate rules, principles, and suggestions are laid down, and all are illustrated both by contemporary examples and by a wealth of historical learning which it is difficult to overrate. The 7th chapter, in which he details with evident admiration the system of Cæsar Borgia, and the 18th, in which he discusses 'the duty of princes as to the obligation of keeping faith,' are perhaps those which have most contributed to draw upon the author the odious reputation of which his very name has become the symbol; but, in truth, these chapters are only more precise and more formal than the rest, from their heaping together statements which are elsewhere insinuated or supposed. The broad scheme of the book is everywhere the same—viz. that for the establishment and maintenance of authority all means may be resorted to, and that the worst and most treacherous acts of the ruler, however unlawful in themselves, are justified by the wickedness and treachery of the governed. Such being the moral of the book, a question has arisen as to the intention of the writer, and a favourite theory for a time prevailed, that The Prince was but a satire upon absolutism, and was designed to serve the cause of liberty, of which Machiavelli was an ardent friend, by making arbitrary power odious and contemptible. This theory, however, besides being utterly irreconcilable with the tone of the work, is completely disproved by a letter of Machiavelli to his friend Vettori (1513), which was discovered only in 1810, and which shows that The Prince was written by Machiavelli in all seriousness, in order to recommend himself to the Medici (for whose private perusal it was designed, and not for publication) as a master in the art of government. In his ardour for the liberation of Italy from the rule of foreigners, Machiavelli had become convinced that strong native governments, even though absolute, must be endured; and, having accepted that of the Medici for Florence, he was content to use all means for its security and consolidation. The Prince was published, after Machiavelli's death, at Rome, in 1532; and, if any doubt should be entertained as to the seriousness of the author, the book need only be compared with the commentary which is furnished by every page of his Legazioni, or the reports of his diplomatic missions, which are also contained in his collected works. Of the many criticisms and rejoinders to which The Prince has given occasion, the most remarkable is that of Frederick the Great, Antimachiavelli, ou Examen du Prince de Machiavelli (1740); and The Prince was condemned by Pope Clement VIII.
The comedies of Machiavelli form an epoch in the history of the Italian theatre, as he and his great contemporary, Ariosto, were the first to represent actual life and dialogue in their plays. Machiavelli's famous comedy, La Mandragola, full of biting humour and shameless indecency, is a masterpiece of dramatic art.
Among the many noted historians who have discussed the work and morality of Machiavelli, we may note Macaulay's brilliant essay, and in the more modern style of historical criticism Leopold Ranke's study in Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtsschreiber. The most complete and remarkable work on Machiavelli is that by P. Villari, Niccolo Machiavelli e i suoi tempi (1877-82; Eng. trans. 1890). Tommasini's Vita e Scritti di Machiavelli (1883) is full of careful research. Mr John Morley's Romanes Lecture on Machiavelli was published in 1897.