AP Topics:1.6 Developments in social, economic and political thought

Born in 1469 “Renaissance Man”--diplomat, political

philosopher, musician, poet, playwright, and civil servant (Florence)

Studied ancient Rome (virtù)

Italian city-states Foreign invasions

Ultimately—the “sack of Rome”—1527 (the same year of Machiavelli’s death)

Written in 1513 Written for the Medici

family Not published until 1532

(after Machiavelli’s death) The first purely secular

treatise on politics.

Was an observation of how effective political leaders acted.

Did not identify behavior as good or bad.

Why did he write it? Satire, Italian patriotism, personal gain? Nobody knows for sure.