Is 'the Prince' really a political treatise? A discussion of Machiavelli's motivations for writing 'the Prince'

"This contribution intends to consider the problems surrounding the literary genre of The Prince by questioning its unanimous classification as a classical political treatise. The study is conducted on two levels through an examination of factors that are internal and external to the text.(...)." http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/0161462214Z.0000000002