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When Machiavelli asks how Ezio recruited the city's guilds, Ezio credits "Virtù," a real concept from Machiavelli's writing on leadership. Later, Machiavelli jokes about writing a book on Ezio one day, a wink at Machiavelli's real, famously short work, The Prince.
Glitching into the Palazzo Ducale's private quarters reveals the exact chess position from the cutscene where Carlo Grimaldi assassinated Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, though the candle they played under is oddly unlit, and the sky outside turns blood red, likely an unintended lighting bug.
Niccolò Machiavelli, Ezio's mentor figure in the Italian Brotherhood, was a genuine Renaissance diplomat and writer widely regarded as the father of modern political science.
In-game, Leonardo da Vinci relocates his workshop from Florence to Venice in 1481. In real history, Leonardo left Florence for Milan that year, not Venice, a deliberate artistic liberty so Ezio's ally could stay close during the Venice chapters.
