History Fact Finder | Culture and Recreation - What Does The Term Machiavellian Mean?

What does the term Machiavellian mean?

The term Machiavellian has come to define a person who is "characterized by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith" in his or her attempts to gain political power. It is derived primarily from The Prince, a book in which Italian diplomat Niccoló Machiavelli (1469–1527) presents an amoral theory of governing.

Machiavelli was a controversial Italian defense secretary who traveled widely on diplomatic missions. During one of his trips he met Cesare Borgia (1476–1507), who was the son of Pope Alexander VI (1431–1503) and an important figure of the Italian Renaissance (a revival of classical Greek and Roman culture; c. 1350–c. 1600). In 1513, after being exiled (forcibly sent away) from Florence, Italy, by the powerful Medici family, Machiavelli turned his attention to writing The Prince. With Borgia as his model, he described the methods that are vital to...

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