Niccolò Machiavelli as Machiavelli had himself done, despite also explaining how they could sometimes work). This became the theme of much future political discourse in Europe during the 17th century. This includes the Catholic Counter Reformation writers summarised by Bireley: Giovanni Botero, Justus Lipsius, Carlo Scribani, Adam Contzen, Pedro de Ribadeneira, and Diego Saavedra Fajardo. These authors criticized Machiavelli, but also followed him in many ways. They accepted the need for a prince to be concerned with reputation, and even a need for cunning and deceit, but compared to Machiavelli, and like later modernist writers, they emphasized economic progress much more than
The Art of War (Machiavelli) The Art of War (Machiavelli) The Art of War () is a treatise by the Italian Renaissance political philosopher and historian Niccolò Machiavelli. The format of "The Art of War" is a socratic dialogue. The purpose, declared by Lord Fabrizio Colonna (perhaps Machiavelli's "persona") at the outset, "To honor and reward "virtù", not to have contempt for poverty, to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline, to constrain citizens to love one another, to live without factions, to esteem less the private than the public good." To these ends, Machiavelli notes in his preface, the military is like the