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Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli

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Near balanceFormula-derived score

Florentine Second Chancery secretary (1498–1512) and political writer whose Prince, Discourses, Art of War, and Histories were printed as separate instruments. The most recent verified record is “Machiavelli is dismissed from the Florentine Second Chancery after the Medici restoration” (7 November 1512), linked to the driver Judicial Independence.

Sources: [1][2][3][4][5]+17

Raison d’état as a published craft of princely survivalcivic-militia republicanism in the Discourseslater Index and dictator reception treated as separate political uses of his name

Impact

Not rated yet: the verified records linked to this person, without a numeric impact.

Editorial assessment (context, not the score)

The dossier is not a statue of the father of political science and not a cartoon devil. The heaviest documented costs are the 1532 printed Prince as a public method of unaccountable rule, the 1559 Index as knowledge prohibition, confession-war and stage ‘Machiavel’ slogans, and twentieth-century dictator reception, sitting beside 1512–13 purge and torture.

The offsets are real and bounded: 1498 office, 1506 militia, 1521 Art of War, 1531 Discourses, 1525 Histories, and later open access after the Index. He did not write 1924 or 1958. Confidence is high on print and chancery dates, medium on reception weights, low where letters are asked to yield medicine or wages.

Indicators affected

Indicators this person’s verified facts reach. No score contribution is assigned; the observed state is the indicator’s own reading.

Accountability & contradictions

Claims against the record, the type of responsibility, and what is disputed.

What could change this assessment

  • 4 linked facts have no assessed welfare direction yet.
  • Lifetime coverage has not been assessed: the record reflects stored facts only (1498–2010).

Causal path

Person → Fact → Driver → Indicator. Select a path to inspect its factors; the full network opens on demand.

Timeline

The most relevant dated facts, newest first.

Evidence & methodology

How the record is sourced and how the score is derived.

31 of 31 linked facts verified, drawing on 22 distinct sources (1498–2010).

Sources include Cambridge University Press, Project Gutenberg, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fordham University, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Holy See, University of Chicago Press, Marxists Internet Archive.

The score is formula-derived (Factrail formula v1, version 1.0.0), not an editorial verdict. Read the methodology.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed · Sources: 22

Expert analysis

An excerpt; the full analysis opens on request.

The first fact about Machiavelli is a split corpus. Il Principe and the Discorsi are not one mood. The 1506 militia and the 1532 printed handbook of fear are not one office. A catalog that averages them into ‘realism’ is already doing Gentillet’s work, or Mussolini’s.

February 1513 torture is a body harm. November 1512 dismissal is a purge. 1532 print made unaccountable survival advice copyable. 1559 listed the name as forbidden, which is a knowledge harm even when the book is dangerous. 1576 Gentillet and early-modern English ‘Machiavel’ organised religious and xenophobic polarisation around a dead secretary. 1924 Fascist prelude and 1958 Strauss, in different registers, made him a usable founder of hard politics. Mandragola’s bed-trick is a bounded dignity harm in comedy. Borgia dispatches sit next to a condottiere’s violence without converting reportage into a signed massacre. Posthumous letter editions leak household detail. Medici patronage after 1520 restored one man’s income under princely pay.

Offsets are equally dated. 19 June 1498 is an election to a civilian foreign office. 1506 ordinanza and 1521 Art of War argue native infantry against a market in mercenaries. 1531 Discourses print mixed government, tumult, and citizen virtue. 10 December 1513 is composition evidence. 1525 Histories are a public civic narrative under a papal name. 1966 ends the Index as law. Gutenberg, Fordham, SEP, Cambridge, and Liberty Fund reprints are access instruments, not moral laundering.

What the score must not say: that he designed Mussolini; that the Discourses cancel The Prince; that the Index proved the book’s crimes; that a 1513 farm letter is a ministry white paper; that UNESCO’s Florence listing is his welfare. Complex contribution is the honest type almost everywhere. Direct would over-claim printers, popes, and Duce.

1532 is not 1513. 1559 is not 1966. 1924 is not 1498. Official and independent URLs on each row are different pages. If a number of victims of ‘Machiavellianism’ is not in those pages, it is not supplied. Related people are Soderini, Vettori, Cesare Borgia, Savonarola, Clement VII, Gentillet, Mussolini, Strauss, Guicciardini, and Lorenzo duke of Urbino — roles and periods, not a pad of unrelated commissioners.

Responsibility stays boring. A secretary drafts and files. A printer issues. A congregation lists. A dictator cites. Sharing labour is not innocence and not sole authorship of later harm. Confidence is high on chancery dates and print years, medium on reception size, low on health and privacy metaphors. Keep Prince, Discourses, militia, Index, and Fascist prelude unmerged. A civic portrait in Palazzo Vecchio does not repeal strappado. A Stanford page does not staff a militia. Readers who want a demon or a nation-maker should be equally disappointed: the file is a set of dates.

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