Niccolo Machiavelli: an intellectual biography

Part I. The Florentine secretary

A shadowy period : the first half of his life

The relationship with Savonarola

The activity in the Chancery

The correspondence with functionaries of the domain

Diplomatic activity

The experience of the early missions

Changes of fortune and the Ghiribizzi al Soderino

The Florentine ordinance

The Venetian defeat and the reconquest of Pisa

The end of the republic and the return of the Medici

Part II. Exile in his homeland

The confinement at Sant'Andrea

"I have composed a little work on princedoms"

The "myth" of the prince

Frequenting the Orti Oricellari

An original comment on Livy

The art of war

Part III. "Niccolo Machiavelli, historian, comic writer, and tragic writer"

A new season in Machiavelli's life

A return to business

"The annals or the history of Florence"

"The things done at home and abroad by the Florentine people"

The friendship with Guicciardini

Clizia and the musical madrigals

Final act

Appendix: Notes on the use of the word stato in Machiavelli.