Although the five-act comedy was published in 1524 and first performed in the carnival season of 1526, Machiavelli likely wrote The Mandrake in 1518 as a distraction from his bitterness at having been excluded from the diplomatic and political life of Florence following the 1512 reversion to Medici rule.

[1] However, Machiavelli set the action in 1504 during the period of the Florentine Republic in order to express his frustrations without fear of censure from patrons already ill-disposed towards him and his writing.

She allows a disguised Callimaco into her bed and, believing that the events which caused her to break her marriage vows were due to divine providence, thereafter accepts him as her lover on a more permanent basis.

The play is mentioned in the 16th Letter of Amabed in Voltaire's Les Lettres d'Amabed (1769) stating that "the piece mocks the religion which Europe preaches, of which Rome is the centre, and the throne of which is the Papal See".

This run was directed by Dan Southern, with an original jazz score by pianist Michael Wolff, and Italian Renaissance sets by Gerard Bourcier.

[6] The Mumeijuku[7] Company performed La Mandragola, un Fiore Velenoso at the Sunshine Theater[8] of Sunshine-City[9] in Ikebukuro, Tokyo in 1981, starring Koji Yakusho[10][11] as Callimaco and Tatsuya Nakadai[12] as Nicia.

Ms. Tomoe Ryu,[14] who has won the National Arts Festival (sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Japan) Excellence Award for directing Henrik Johan Ibsen's The Master Builder, Solness in 1980.

Pulitzer prize winning American composer William Bolcom adapted the story in operetta form with a libretto by Marc Campbell.