After the downfall of the Republic and Machiavelli's release from prison in 1513, fortune seems never again to have favoured him. It is true that in 1520 Giuliano de' Medici commissioned him to write his _History of Florence_, and he afterwards held a number of offices, yet these latter were entirely beneath his merits. He had been married in 1502 to Marietta Corsini, who bore him four sons and a daughter. He died on June 22, 1527, leaving his family in the greatest poverty, a sterling tribute to his honesty, when one considers the many opportunities he doubtless had to enrich himself. Machiavelli's life was not without blemish--few lives are. We must bear in mind the atmosphere of craft, hypocrisy, and poison in which he lived,--his was the age of Cæsar Borgia and of Popes like the monster Alexander VI. and Julius II. Whatever his faults may have been, Machiavelli was always an ardent patriot and an earnest supporter of popular government. It is true that he was willing to accept a prince, if one could be found courageous enough and prudent enough to unite dismembered Italy, for in the unity of his native land he saw the only hope of its salvation. Machiavelli is buried in the church of Santa Croce at Florence, beside the tomb of Michael Angelo. His monument bears this inscription: "Tanto nomini nullum par eulogium." And though this praise is doubtless exaggerated, he is a son of whom his country may be justly proud. Hugo Albert Rennert. [*] Villari, _Niccolo Machiavelli e i suoi tempi_, 2d ed. Milan, 1895-97, the best work on the subject. The most complete bibliography of Machiavelli up to 1858 is to be found in Mohl, _Gesch. u. Liter. der Staatswissenshaften_, Erlangen, 1855, III., 521-91. See also _La Vita e gli scritti di Niccolo Machiavelli nella loro Relazione col Machiavellismo_, by O. Tommasini, Turin, 1883 (unfinished). The best English translation of Machiavelli with which I am acquainted is: The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic writings of Niccolo Machiavelli, translated by Christian E. Detmold. Osgood & Co., Boston, 1882, 4 vols. 8vo. THE FLORENTINE HISTORY OF NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI BOOK I CHAPTER I Irruption of Northern people upon the Roman territories--Visigoths--Barbarians called in by Stilicho--Vandals in Africa--Franks and Burgundians give their names to France and Burgundy--The Huns--Angles give the name to England--Attila, king of the Huns, in Italy--Genseric takes Rome--The Lombards.