Happy 547th birthday, Niccolò Machiavelli!

Politician, philosopher and adjectival inspiration Niccolò Macchiavelli was born on this day in 1469. His quintessential work, The Prince, can be found in the Social Sciences room at Central Library (if not on the shelves, then in the stacks - just ask and we'll fetch it for you). And in addition to complete versions of the book, such as this 1893 edition of The Prince and Other Pieces from the Italian, we have the Cliffs Notes to help you wade through it.


A true Renaissance man (both in the literal and figurative sense of the term), an exploration of Central's holdings of Niccolò's works will give you a pretty good tour of the library: in addition to The Prince in our room, we have his Art of War (call number 355.02) in the Government/Business/Law room next door; across the Great Hall from us in the Entertainment/Literature/Biographies room are his "lively comedy" Mandragola (852.3) and his poem The First Decennale (851.3).

Upstairs on the third floor you can find his History of Florence and the affairs of Italy, from the Earliest Times to the Death of Lorenzo the Magnificent (English and Italian - call number 945.5) in the History/Geography/Travel room. And downstairs on the first floor you can find representations of Machiavelli in fiction in such works as Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence (the book is available in our Center for the Reader while the audio book can be checked out in the Studio) and throughout Michael Scott's young adult "Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" series (Teen Lounge - though audio version of those books also available in the Studio). And while you are at the Studio, you can also borrow some episodes of The Borgias or The Tudors, in which he appears as a supporting character. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

Buon compleanno, Niccolò!