Florence is widely regarded as the birthplace of the cultural movement that characterized the Renaissance, but it was also one of the first Italian republics and, thanks to the ensuing tensions between Church and state, home to intrigue and political chicanery. Against this background emerged the first modern, secular political philosopher – Niccolò Machiavelli. His book The Prince, ostensibly a handbook of advice on how to gain and exercise power, was also a realistic description of politics.
Machiavelli argued that it is fruitless to theorize about an ideal political society, distinguishing between private individual morality and the expediency of the ruler and state. A ruler, he says, must at times be prepared to act immorally, using violence and deceit if necessary: ‘consider the results that have been achieved … rather than the means by which they have been executed’. Machiavelli was, however, a republican at heart, and it is likely that The Prince was a satirical description of, in Francis Bacon’s words, ‘what men do, not what they ought to do’.
