The Prince

&quot;The Prince" (Italian: «Il Principe») is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, «De Principatibus» («About Principalities»). However, the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli&apos;s death. This was done with the permission of the Medici pope Clement VII, but «long before then, in fact since the first appearance of the &apos;Prince&apos; in manuscript, controversy had swirled about his writings». <br/> Although it was written as if it were a traditional work in the «mirrors for…