A seminal philosophical work on the nature of politics, Politics was written by the Greek philosopher Aristotle after 335 B.C.

Machiavelh's view of the world is applied to the modern political scene in Michael A. Ledeen's Machiavelli On Modern Leadership. Why Machiavelli's Iron Rules are as Timely and Important Today As Five Centuries Ago (1999).

Giorgio Vasari was a painter during the Renaissance. First published in 1550, his book Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Artists reminisces about his acquaintances with many of the key artists who lived in Florence during Machi-avelli's time, including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Brunnelleschi.

Jacob Burckhardt, a Swiss historian whose writings changed the way historians looked at the past, ushered in a new perspective on the Renaissance period. His 1860 book A History of Italy in the Renaissance is a groundbreaking work that introduces readers to Machiavelli...