The Prince ( ) is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and
political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title,
De Principatibus (
About Principalities). However, the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. This was done with the permission of the
Medici pope
Clement VII, but "long before then, in fact since the first appearance of
The Prince in manuscript, controversy had swirled about his writings".