How is this book unique? Illustrations included Unabridged The Prince (Italian: Il Principe) is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli. The Prince is arguably the first works of modern political philosophy. Although it is relatively short, the treatise is the most remembered of Machiavelli’s works and responsible for bringing the word and “Machiavellian and ” into usage as a pejorative. The base assumption in the treatise is that the aims of a prince — such as glory and survival — justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends.