THE PRINCE OF MACHIAVELLI AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

The article seeks to discuss the book The Prince, of Nicolau Machiavelli, analyzing its potentials for historiographic treatment. In this sense, we start from an effort to understand the place of production of The Prince - discussing the social, cultural and identity aspects which involve its author, the circumstances of its production, the society and political world where this work of political realism has arised. The intertextuality, considered fundamental to the understanding of The Prince as a historical source, is expressed in the opposition of this work to the circuit of texts known as "mirrors of princes". In the final half of the article, we evoke several historiographical problems that can be applied to the Prince, completing the possibility of his insertion in a perspective of ProblemHistory.