Niccolò Machiavelli

About Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was a Florentine diplomat, philosopher, historian, and writer who remains one of the most significant political thinkers of the Renaissance. His enduring historical importance, which places him at the #97 spot in MIT's HPI ranking, stems primarily from his seminal work, The Prince. This treatise offered a pragmatic, and often ruthless, analysis of how political power is acquired, maintained, and lost, decoupling effective governance from traditional morality and earning him a permanent place in political science.

In the modern digital age, Machiavelli garners 1.4 million annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. While a substantial figure, this attention suggests an "overattention" of approximately 2x relative to his historical rank, indicating that the internet places a higher value on his work than the broad global cultural impact measured by the HPI. For comparison, Friedrich Nietzsche, another towering philosopher ranked closely at #103, draws slightly more interest with 2.1 million views. Conversely, figures with vastly superior historical weight, like Gautama Buddha (#2 HPI), receive only 410K views, illustrating the sharp divergence between historical influence and contemporary online focus.

Despite his established stature, Machiavelli’s online presence is not entirely static; his 2025 pageviews show a healthy year-over-year growth of +15.5%, and his Q1 to Q3 momentum suggests interest is slightly accelerating.