The historian Ex Urbe wrote a fascinating series of articles about Machiavelli and why he is such an important person in history. I found them eye-opening and very interesting; I commend them to your attention if things like medieval attitudes on morality and the birth of modern political science (and ethics) sounds at all interesting.

They are:

• Machiavelli I – S.P.Q.F.
• Machiavelli I (addendum): thoughts on this style of presenting history
• Machiavelli II: The Three Branches of Ethics
• Machilavelli III: Rise of the Borgias
• Machiavelli IV: Julius II, the Warrior Pope
• and the last one, Why We Keep Asking “Was Machiavelli an Atheist?”

(via James Nicoll, who linked to one of these and thereby got me so hooked on the whole series that I started following Ex Urbe so I could make sure not to miss any.)