So, at a young age, Machiavelli was exposed to many classical authors who influenced him profoundly as he says in the Discourses, the things that shape a boy of “tender years” will ever afterward regulate his conduct (D 3.46).
His father was Bernardo, a doctor of law who spent a considerable part of his meager income on books and who seems to have been especially enamored of Cicero. His mother was Bartolomea di Stefano Nelli. He had three siblings: Primavera, Margherita, and Totto. He grew up in the Santo Spirito district of Florence. Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469, to a somewhat distinguished family. Citations to the Art of War refer to book and sentence number in the Italian edition of Marchand, Farchard, and Masi and in the corresponding translation of Lynch (e.g., “AW 1.64”). Citations to the Discourses and to the Florentine Histories refer to book and chapter number (e.g., “D 3.1” and “FH 4.26”). In what follows, citations to The Prince refer to chapter number (e.g., “P 17”). Most of Machiavelli’s diplomatic and philosophical career was bookended by two important political events: the French invasion of Italy in 1494 by Charles VIII and the sack of Rome in 1527 by the army of Emperor Charles V. It is customary to divide Machiavelli’s life into three periods: his youth his work for the Florentine republic and his later years, during which he composed his most important philosophical writings.
Indeed, the very list of these successors reads almost as if it were the history of modern political philosophy itself. Arguably no philosopher since antiquity, with the possible exception of Kant, has affected his successors so deeply. Philosophers disagree concerning his overall intention, the status of his sincerity, the status of his piety, the unity of his works, and the content of his teaching. There is still no settled scholarly opinion with respect to almost any facet of Machiavelli’s philosophy. His philosophical legacy remains enigmatic, but that result should not be surprising for a thinker who understood the necessity to work sometimes from the shadows. His two most famous philosophical books, The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, were published after his death.
Machiavelli was a 16th century Florentine philosopher known primarily for his political ideas.