What treatise on political power did Niccolò Machiavelli write in 1513?

Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513.

Machiavelli composed the work after he had been removed from political office in Florence when the Medici returned to power. It was dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici, although the book was not published during Machiavelli’s lifetime. The first known printed edition appeared in 1532, several years after his death.

The Prince examines how rulers acquire, maintain, and lose political power. Machiavelli draws on classical history, Italian politics, and examples from rulers such as Cesare Borgia. The work is often treated as a handbook of ruthless behavior, but it is more precisely a study of political effectiveness under unstable conditions. Its name produced the modern adjective “Machiavellian,” though that later label can oversimplify the book’s historical and political arguments.