October 1502. As Cesare Borgia sets out to invade the Florentine Republic, Niccolò Machiavelli is sent to spy on him and to glean details of his nefarious plan. But when Borgia asks Machiavelli to write his life story, their bond gains complexity and nuance: ultimately, they both aspire to everlasting fame and to achieve it, they need each other, for the one's sword can only rule in eternity via the pen of the other.
Mr. Bernini’s seamless weave of sources and storytelling sometimes resembles recent biographical works ... Smartly voiced, briskly paced, Oonagh Stransky’s translation from Mr. Bernini’s Italian boasts plenty of idiomatic color and avoids Renaissance costume-drama folderol ... The Throne paints a Machiavelli credibly embedded in his vibrant, vicious times—but capable as well of the flinty thoughts and words that would outlive them.
Bernini does a good job of describing the political and social chaos, the shifting sands of power from one city-state to another ... Well researched with wonderfully vivid details, Bernini presents Machiavelli in all the complications of a life spent navigating political waters, learning to say the right thing or nothing at all, and more importantly, learning how to write about it all.
