Niccolò Machiavelli, the Italian politician and political thinker, is famous for his treatise on princeship titled The Prince (Il principe) and for a discussion of how to establish a good republican government, The Discourses (Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio). Machiavelli also wrote poems and comedies (including the Mandragola), a History of Florence, and a book titled Art of War. They contain many original ideas and were widely read, but today these writings arouse interest mainly because their author was the man who, with The Prince and The Discourses, inaugurated a new stage in the development of political thought.

When Machiavelli wrote The Prince and The Discourses, he was aware that he was saying things about politics that had not been expressed before; in the introduction to The Discourses he stated that he was resolved "to open a...