MACHIAVELLI is the story of history’s most notorious political theorist: Niccolo Machiavelli.  Did he make a pact with the devil as some of his adversaries believed or was he simply showing humanity its true side by stripping away the thin veneer of civility that disguises man’s brutish nature?

MACHIAVELLI begins in Florence, Italy, when a nationalistic uprising overthrows the powerful ruling Medici house after the head of the family, Piero de Medici, cowardly surrenders Florence to the invading French king.  It follows Machiavelli’s meteoric rise through the government of the Florentine Republic and his attempts to keep his beloved Florence free form servitude as Italy becomes a bloody battlefield on which the kings of France and Spain, the emperor of Germany, the exiled Medici, Pop Alexander and his son, the infamous Cesare Borgia, fight to become her master.

Sent as Florentine envoy to the warring courts, Machiavelli quickly learns the machinations of power, lessons he writes down for all the world to see, lessons that have accorded him the reputation of being one of history’s most villainous men. With them, Machiavelli becomes a willing participant in the intrigues, plots, stratagems and assassinations that infect 16^th Century Italy. At a time when Italy becomes a sanctuary for spies, mercenaries and murderers -- the crossroads of all double-crosses -- Machiavelli fights to keep his beloved country, a love echoed in his dying words -- “I love my country more than my own soul.”