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Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence in 1469 of an old citizen family. In 1498 he was appointed secretary and a second chancellor to the Florentine Republic. During his time of office he accompanied Julius II on his first campaign of conquest. In 1507, as chancellor of the newly appointed Nove di Milizia, he organised an infantry force which fought at the capture of Pisa in 1509. Three years later it was defeated by the Holy League at Prato, the Medici returned to Florence, and Machiavelli was excluded from public life. He retired to his farm near San Casciano, where he gave his time to study and writing. After a brief return to public life, he died in 1527. Tim Parks was born in Manchester in 1954, studied at Cambridge and Harvard, and moved to Italy in 1980. His translations from the Italian include works by Alberto Moravia, Italo Calvino, Roberto Calasso and Antonio Tabucchi. He currently lectures on literary translation in Milan. He has written a number of novels, the most recent of which are Europa and Destiny, a collection of essays, Adultery and Other Diversions, and an academic work Translating Style. His account of provincial life in Italy, Italian Neighbours, was an international bestseller.
[Machiavelli] can still engage our attention with remarkable immediacy, and this cannot be explained solely by the appeal of his ironic observations on human behaviour. Perhaps the most important thing is the way he can compel us to reflect on our own priorities and the reasoning behind them; it is this intrusion into our own defenses that makes reading him an intriguing experience. As a scientific exponent of the political art Machiavelli may have had few followers; it is as a provocative rhetorician that he has had his real impact on history. -from the Introduction by Dominic Baker-Smith
