Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy in 1469. At age forty-four, after a life in politics, he was facing ruin. Suspected of conspiring against the new government he was imprisoned and tortured. Eventually he was found innocent and released. He left town to live with his wife and family on a small farm but he soon became bored and depressed with a rural life. In the long, empty evenings he began to write down some considerations on how to win power and, above all, how to hold on to it and not to be a victim of circumstances. This volume is the result of the evenings he spent writing. It soon became a scandal because of its topic and has been a source for instruction through the centuries.
