An Unlikely Prince: The Life and Times of Machiavelli

By Niccolò Capponi

Book Overview

In this compelling new biography, historian Niccol? Capponi frees Machiavelli (1469-1527) from centuries of misinterpretation. Exploring the Renaissance city of Florence, where Machiavelli lived, Capponi reveals the man behind the legend. A complex portrait of Machiavelli emerges--at once a brilliantly skillful diplomat and a woefully inept liar; a sharp thinker and an impractical dreamer; a hardnosed powerbroker and a risk-taking gambler; a calculating propagandist and an imprudent jokester. Capponi's intimate portrait of Machiavelli reveals his behavior as utterly un-Machiavellian, his vision of the world as limited by his very provincial outlook. In the end, Machiavelli was frustrated by his own political failures and utterly baffled by the success of his book The Prince .

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030681756X
• ISBN13: 9780306817564
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The biography I have been waiting for

What a pleasure to have this new biography of Machiavelli. Until now my favorite was Vilari's, which is more than one hundred years old. I took a month to read Capponi's only because I was deliberately savoring it and didn't want it to end. His writing is clear and entertaining. Too often when dealing with Macchiavelli authors descend into impenetrable, overly erudite prose. Capponi brings him to life as a person. Capponi is a descendant (I don't quite know how) of Machiavelli and a member of the very old and influential Florentine Capponi family. I think only a Florentine and a member of its ruling class could really understand and appreciate Machiavelli so well. I would suggest that anyone new to Machiavelli, or one trying to understand his political thought, should read this biography first so they can put his controversial writings into the proper perspective. A superb job. It made my summer.