Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli (between 1426 and 1429 – 1500) was a citizen of

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and father to

Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ( , , ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527), occasionally rendered in English as Nicholas Machiavel ( , ; see below), was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. ...

. Although he was a Doctor of Law (hence, his title of ''Messer''), debts inherited from his father and uncles limiting his career prevented him from joining the legal guild. In the year 1480, Bernardo reported being unemployed on his tax return. Miles Unger: ''Machiavelli: A Biography,'' p. 22, New York 2011, He is known independently for his diary or ''Libro di Ricordi'', chronicling the years 1474–1487. The pages, housed in the

Biblioteca Riccardiana The Biblioteca Riccardiana (''Riccardian Library'') is a library in Florence, Italy. The library is located adjacent to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. The main facade of Michelozzo's Medici Riccardi palace is on Via Camillo Cavour (corner of Via de ...

in Florence, serve as a valuable window into everyday life and culture during the time and provide the only reliable information on his famous son's early youth. Bernardo Machiavelli was married to Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli. They had four children, Primavera, Margherita, Niccolò (the author of ''

The Prince ''The Prince'' ( it, Il Principe ; la, De Principatibus) is a 16th-century political treatise written by Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli as an instruction guide for new princes and royals. The general theme of ''The ...

'') and Totto.

References

Bibliography

* Catherine Atkinson: ''Debts, Dowries, Donkeys. The Diary of Niccolò Machiavelli’s Father, Messer Bernardo, in Quattrocento Florence'', Frankfurt am Main 2002, * Cesare Olschki, Hrsg.: ''Bernardo Machiavelli, Libro di Ricordi'', Florenz 1954. 1420s births 1500 deaths Italian male writers Writers from Florence Niccolò Machiavelli Italian diarists {{Italy-writer-stub