ABSTRACT
Florentine bureaucrat, writer, and political theorist. Machiavelli, the son of a lawyer, served the Florentine
republic in several important administrative and diplo matic capacities, including leading missions to France, Germany and other Italian city-states. He was exiled by the Medici, the ruling family of Florence, when they were restored to power in 1512 after being expelled in 1494. He spent his remaining years in retirement writing at his estate just outside Florence.
