The work of an Italian writer and diplomat, a textbook and a guide to action for rulers of all times and peoples for the past five hundred years - Niccolo Machiavelli's treatise “The Prince” turned out to be so seditious that in the church environment it was claimed that it was written by the hand of Satan, and several bishops of the Catholic Church achieved its inclusion in the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559. The History of Florence is the history of the city-state from the beginnings of Italian medieval civilization to the end of the 15th century, an outstanding book in the new historiography and a shining example of political thought. Machiavelli amazingly colorfully recreates historical events, and the dramatic nature of the narrative, expressive monologues and sense of reality allow us to consider the author one of the creators of Italian fiction.