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Machiavelli’s 10 December 1513 letter to Francesco Vettori records the drafting of a princely treatise

On 10 December 1513 Machiavelli wrote to Francesco Vettori describing farm days and evening work on a small book of princely rule, the documentary date for The Prince’s composition. In the causal graph this event sets in motion Digital Learning Access, a driver that weakens Learning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries) — an improving welfare path.

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

On 10 December 1513 Machiavelli wrote to Francesco Vettori describing farm days and evening work on a small book of princely rule, the documentary date for The Prince’s composition. The letter is the instrument. Later print is 1532.

Context

A private letter later published is a knowledge-access and dating source. It is not yet a printed handbook of fear.

Niccolò Machiavelli is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

Why it matters

Composition evidence is an initiating knowledge path. High confidence on the letter’s date in the received correspondence.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Niccolo Machiavelli

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.28 · verified

    Florentine secretary and writer as documented. Printers, censors, and later rulers reuse the name.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Letters of Machiavelli — Internet ArchiveInternet Archive · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Niccolò MachiavelliStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorNiccolo Machiavelli
  2. contributed toFactMachiavelli’s 10 December 1513 letter to Francesco Vettori records the drafting of a princely treatise
  3. sets in motionDriverDigital Learning Access
  4. weakensIndicatorLearning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries)

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Machiavelli’s 10 December 1513 letter to Francesco Vettori records the drafting of a princely treatise. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/mc-vettori-letter-1513

https://factrail.ai/facts/mc-vettori-letter-1513

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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