Niccolo Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469.  He grew up in a Florentine family.  Niccolo had two older sisters and a younger brother.  His sisters were Primavera and Margherita.  His younger brother was Totto.  Niccolo was very close to his father, Bernardo di Niccolo di Buoninsegna.  Bernardo held a law degree but earned very little from his profession.  Yet, he was respected for his intelligence.  Thanks to Niccolo's father's patience labor, Niccolo was able to read the Roman historian's account of the political and military achievements that transformed a small city into a free, powerful republic.  Niccolo and his father were more like two friends than father and son.  A few years after his father's death, his mother, Madonna Bartolomea, died on October 11, 1496.  No one really knows much about her but she's known that she was a well-read woman who wrote poems and religious lauds.

Niccolo's parents gave Niccolo and Totto a good education which included a good understanding of Latin, grammar, and the use of the abacus, as well as a familiarity with rhetoric, the art of writing and speaking eloquently so as to convince, persuade, and move a reader or listener.  What he did not learn from the books, he learned in the streets and squares , the public benches, churches, and taverns of Florence.

In August of 1501, Niccolo married Marrieta Corsini, who came from the same background as he did.  Even as a married man, Niccolo did not give up his love for other women and romance.  What bothered Marrieta though, were his long absences, about which she complained to his friends.  Niccolo had promised her that he would be away for only eight days, but he had been gone for ten and would not return until January 23, 1503 but he had left in mid-October 1502.  Marrieta lost her temper and refused to write back to him.  When Niccolo returned, he tried to cheer her up with jokes.

Niccolo Machiavelli died on June 21 1527.  By the time he had died, he had become a saddened, disappointed, resigned man.  He was almost sixty years old.  He had fallen ill immediately after June 10 and died on June 21, after confessing his sins to Friar Matteo.