Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469 - 1527) was an Italian diplomat, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Renaissance. For many years he served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. He worked as secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. Primarily because of his work Il Principe (The Prince), he is considered one of the most important state philosophers of modern times. In this writing, Machiavelli was concerned with analytically examining power and establishing the difference between what should be and what is. He based his analysis on what he considered empirically ascertainable. His main political-philosophical work Discorsi has taken a back seat to this.