The European Renaissance may have started in Florence, but it pretty quickly moved out of Italy and spread the art, architecture, literature, and humanism across Europe to places like France, Spain, England, and the Low Countries....

From Shakespeare's plays to modern TV dramas, the unscrupulous schemer for whom the ends always justify the means has become a familiar character type we love to hate. For centuries, we've had a single word to describe such characters:...

Italian citizens voted out the monarchy in 1946, and the last Italian dynasty ended with King Umberto II being forced into exile. The constitution of the Italian republic went into effect in 1948, and since then, governments have changed...

Historian Martin Jay (UC Berkeley) describes Machiavelli's historical role as one of the first thinkers who formally recognizes the autonomy of the political.

UC Berkeley historian Martin Jay relates the rich web of ironies and subtleties surrounding the influence, past and present, that the renowned Renaissance political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli has had on our views on the truth in politics.

Historian Martin Jay (UC Berkeley) highlights the importance of wrestling with the subtle and often deceptive nature of language in order to fully appreciate the cultural values of any particular society.

Intellectual historian Quentin Skinner (QMUL) describes his initial confusion when trying to understand Machiavelli and other Renaissance philosophers when they spoke of what it means to be a free citizen.

The Man with Six Faces | The Life & Times of Talleyrand

I am very lucky to have found myself (and gotten myself) in a situation that is well suited to the quirks of my personality. But I still find myself sometimes unintentionally hurting people, annoying people, or letting people down even...

Turns out the method to Machiavelli's madness was mollifying mad Medici after a mountain of madness above the Mediterranean. Special thanks to Blue for lending me his expertise on the subject and coming in to talk about Machiavelli's...