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Books Machiavelli: A Biography - Now in Stores! He is the most infamous and influential political writer of all time. His name has
become synonymous with cynical scheming and the selfish pursuit of power.
Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine diplomat and civil servant, is the father of
political science. The Prince, his most notorious work, is a primer on how to acquire
and retain power without regard to scruple or conscience. His Discourses offers a
profound analysis of the workings of the civil state and a hard-headed assessment of
human nature.Machiavelli's philosophy was shaped by the tumultuous age in which he lived, an age of towering geniuses and brutal tyrants. He was on intimate terms with Leonardo and Michelangelo, and his first political mission was to spy on the fire-and- brimstone preacher Savonarola. As a diplomat, he matched wits with the corrupt and carnal Pope Alexander VI, and his son, the notorious Cesare Borgia whose violent career served as a model for The Prince. His insights were gleaned by studying up close men like Julius II, the "Warrior Pope" and his successor, the vacillating Clement VII, as well as two kings of France and the Holy Roman Emperor. Analyzing their successes and failures, Machiavelli developed his revolutionary approach to power politics. Machiavelli was, above all, a student of human nature. In The Prince he wrote
a practical guide to the aspiring politician that is based on the world as it is, not as it
should be. He has been called cold and calculating, cynical and immoral. In reality,
argues biographer Miles Unger, he was a deeply humane writer whose controversial
theories were a response to the violence and corruption he saw around him. He was
a psychologist with acute insight into human nature centuries before Freud. A
brilliant and witty writer, he was not only a political theorist but also a poet and the
author of La Mandragola, the greatest comedy of the Italian Renaissance. He has
been called the first modern man, unafraid to contemplate a world without God.
Rising from modest beginnings on the strength of his own talents, he was able to see
through the piety and hypocrisy of the age in which he lived. Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de' Medici
Reviews of Magnifico
"This brilliant book is almost as much the biography of a city as of a man; one of its strengths is an ability to convey the cultural, political and sexual ambiance of 15th-century Florence with a rare clarity. The author explains how the passion for pagan classical myth of Lorenzo and the brilliant scholars, poets and artists with whom he liked to surround himself did not involve a rejection of Christianity: the search for God was an important part of Lorenzo’s spiritual life, and, like all Florentines, he was a member of the religious confraternities whose utterances and practices (including flagellation) would not have been out of step with the ferocious preaching of Savonarola. Membership of a confraternity was for Florentines like belonging to branches of political parties with all their opportunities for plotting and 'networking'" "After finishing Miles Unger's dazzling new biography of Lorenzo de' Medici, my head was filled with myriad impressions of this book, but none more striking than this: Five centuries ago, at the height of the Italian Renaissance, the famed Florentine leader helped foster a remarkable flowering of art, architecture, literature and intellectual life that remains nearly unparalleled in history.
From the first sentence, "Magnifico" transports the reader to 15th-century Florence, a place of matchless splendor, both natural and man-made. Unger, a contributing writer on art for The New York Times, mines a rich lode of sources that include government records; historical accounts; diaries; and Lorenzo's own memoirs, letters and poems. The result is an indelible personal profile and an enthralling account of both the glories and brutality of the era." "This portrait of the 'uncrowned' ruler of Florence does great justice to this most intriguing of all Renaissance princes." The Watercolors of Winslow Homer
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A true Renaissance man, Lorenzo de' Medici ruled Florence during its golden age. Known for his prodigious talents, magnetic personality, and political ruthlessness, Lorenzo was the leading statesman of his time and a renowned poet and legendary patron of the arts. In Magnifico, Miles Unger draws on primary research from Italian sources and an intimate knowledge of Florence to give us a biography as bold and colorful as its subject.
Picture Editor: Arnold Skolnick