In May 1479, as Florence was gripped by plague, the ten-year-old Niccolò Machiavelli was bundled into a cart and hurried out of the city as fast as his horse could take him. Since the first case had been reported in Lombardy, almost two years before, the pestilence had devastated much of northern Italy.
In Milan, 20,000 people had died in the first few months alone; and now that it had reached Tuscany, the Florentines were terrified they would suffer a similar fate. Machiavelli’s father, Bernardo, took no chances. While he holed himself up at home with his wife, he packed his three youngest children, Niccolò included, off to their uncle’s farm in the countryside – and prayed that they would be safe.
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