The Prince

The Prince is a sixteenth-century political treatise written by the Italian diplomat and political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli in the form of an instruction guide for new princes; a version was being written in 1513 under the Latin title De Principatibus, but the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death, with the permission of the Medici pope Clement VII. Many commentators view one of its main themes as the idea that immoral acts are sometimes necessary to achieve political glory, and although written in the traditional mirrors-for-princes style, it was generally agreed to be especially innovative, since Machiavelli distanced his book from classical works of political philosophy that he viewed as too concerned with the ideal regime, illustrating his reasoning with comparisons drawn from classical, biblical and medieval events, including the career of Cesare Borgia.