Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli was a famous Italian writer during the Reniassance. He was also a humanist, diplomat, philosopher, politician, and historian. Machiavelli was very smart and gifted, a psychologist actually name a behavioral trait after him. He was very versatile and could do many things, but being a writer was one of his most popular. Machiavelli is known for writing the book, The Prince. There is a lot of debate about this particular book. His writings in this book exemplified many different elements of Renaissance Humanism. Renaissance Humanism is defined as "collection of intellectual Greek and Roman teachings, undertaken by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists, taking place initially in Italy, and then spreading across Europe." Renaissance Humanism was developed during the 14th and 15th centuries. The Humanist movement was also very popular around this time. The humanist movement was those who study and were interested in Latins and Greeks texts, mainly grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and ethics (Levack 232). In Machiavelli's The Prince, he describes humanist interest through how a country should view a progressing culture. Machiavelli thinks that a nation should make an attempt to make a progress in their culture. For example, he states, "But when states are acquired in a country differing in language, customs, or laws, there are difficulties, and good fortune and great energy are needed to hold them, and one of the greatest and most real helps would be that he who has acquired them should go and reside there" (Marriott 137). Machiavelli has gone to describe that from the humanist viewpoint progression is good thing. Niccolo Machiavelli has had many eventful milestones in his lifetime. Machiavelli was a citizen of the Commune of Florence in Italy and was eventually arrested on charges of conspiracy and later exiled from the city of Florence and decided to focus on literary pursuits, the writing of