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Available
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Publication
Modern Library (1966), Paperback, 540 pages
Description
Fifteenth-century Italian stateman Niccolo Machiavelli's famous treatise on the qualities and actions necessary for princes to gain and keep power, in which he holds up ancient Roman rulers as examples and shows why, for leaders of nations, "the ends justify the means."
User reviews
LibraryThing member AlanWPowers
Re-reading under our would-be prince president, Tacitus got him exactly right: "It's easier to revenge an injury than to repay a benefit, because gratitude weighs like a burden, while vengeance results in profit."(p.198, n1)
Machiavelli says Sparta lasted 800 years, whereas the republic of Athens,
On the other hand, it is marvelous to consider how Rome grew as a republic, the reason being simple: "perché non il bene particulare ma il bene comune è quello che fa grandi le città," because it was not solitary ownership but profit in common that makes cities great (280).
Other exact parallels with our US tyrant, on how corruption can be maintained, Discorsi Book I, Ch XVIII. "Because it's not people with more ethics (virtu) but those with more power who ask appointment to public office, magistrates, while the ethical and powerless do not ask, for fear"(180).
As for Il Principe, see the most famous chapter, Ch XVII, On pity and fear, "an sit melius amari quam timeri," whether it is better for a leader to be loved or feared. He answers, best to be both, but if you can only be one, "è molto piú sicuro essere temuto che amato," better feared than loved, because man are ungrateful, complaining, simulators, fleeing from danger, desiring money, and while you do them good, they are yours, but if you fall off a bit, they revolt. But lay off their property, for "l'uomini sdimenticano piú presto la morte del padre che la perdita del patrimonio," men forget more quickly the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony (70).
By the way, no academic freedom back then, as Machiavelli was imprisioned 7 Dec 1512 a couple months after Medici partisans occupied the Palazzo and ended the Republic of Florence. Like Athens, the Florentine Republic lasted less than a century. Machiavelli was suspected of participating in the Boscoli conspiracy, and imprisoned in February and March 1513-- and tortured. Released with the election of Cardinal de Medici as Pope. (No academic freedom outside of the Catholics, either, in the 1570's, when Giordano Bruno was jailed by the Calvinists in Geneva for publishing a critique of a professor's talk. Religious equal-opportunity.)
*Bought this in Italian, Feltrinelli, after a Tony Molho lecture while in his NEH post-doc seminar at Brown U, 13x79.
Machiavelli says Sparta lasted 800 years, whereas the republic of Athens,
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barely a century. But the Athenians fought fiercely for their liberty, because even a good prince does not improve the common good. Even if a good prince arises ("un tiranno virtuoso"), who grows his dominion, nothing results for the public, but for himself alone (280).On the other hand, it is marvelous to consider how Rome grew as a republic, the reason being simple: "perché non il bene particulare ma il bene comune è quello che fa grandi le città," because it was not solitary ownership but profit in common that makes cities great (280).
Other exact parallels with our US tyrant, on how corruption can be maintained, Discorsi Book I, Ch XVIII. "Because it's not people with more ethics (virtu) but those with more power who ask appointment to public office, magistrates, while the ethical and powerless do not ask, for fear"(180).
As for Il Principe, see the most famous chapter, Ch XVII, On pity and fear, "an sit melius amari quam timeri," whether it is better for a leader to be loved or feared. He answers, best to be both, but if you can only be one, "è molto piú sicuro essere temuto che amato," better feared than loved, because man are ungrateful, complaining, simulators, fleeing from danger, desiring money, and while you do them good, they are yours, but if you fall off a bit, they revolt. But lay off their property, for "l'uomini sdimenticano piú presto la morte del padre che la perdita del patrimonio," men forget more quickly the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony (70).
By the way, no academic freedom back then, as Machiavelli was imprisioned 7 Dec 1512 a couple months after Medici partisans occupied the Palazzo and ended the Republic of Florence. Like Athens, the Florentine Republic lasted less than a century. Machiavelli was suspected of participating in the Boscoli conspiracy, and imprisoned in February and March 1513-- and tortured. Released with the election of Cardinal de Medici as Pope. (No academic freedom outside of the Catholics, either, in the 1570's, when Giordano Bruno was jailed by the Calvinists in Geneva for publishing a critique of a professor's talk. Religious equal-opportunity.)
*Bought this in Italian, Feltrinelli, after a Tony Molho lecture while in his NEH post-doc seminar at Brown U, 13x79.
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LibraryThing member keylawk
Machiavelli's writing has been subject to ironic misinterpretation. THE PRINCE is one of his earliest and shortest works, and it is "dedicated" to a vicious Borgia who had taken a woman Machiavelli loved, and his family estates he would have inherited. So, why the dedication? Dante's detailed, if
Machiavelli was a diplomat for a relatively weak Italian city-state, and was certainly aware of social manipulations and issues of autonomy, power, subjection, and "appearances". He repeatedly recognizes the need for a collective "state" to protect private citizens, usually from other citizens and particularly from the tyrants who take over the state. In this work, he appears to invoke "historical" examples, such as various Roman generals. Significantly, however, these examples are just "made up" by him -- knowing that Prince Borgia was too ignorant to know the difference. We do not know if his plan worked.
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poetic, description of Hell was in broad circulation, and Machiavelli, who took the vows of a priest, could certainly hope that if there is no justice in this world, perhaps in the afterlife. So, he writes a "handbook" for a Prince to follow that would guarantee the Prince a place in the deepest pit of the Inferno. Machiavelli was a diplomat for a relatively weak Italian city-state, and was certainly aware of social manipulations and issues of autonomy, power, subjection, and "appearances". He repeatedly recognizes the need for a collective "state" to protect private citizens, usually from other citizens and particularly from the tyrants who take over the state. In this work, he appears to invoke "historical" examples, such as various Roman generals. Significantly, however, these examples are just "made up" by him -- knowing that Prince Borgia was too ignorant to know the difference. We do not know if his plan worked.
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LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
The book(s) that define the modern school of political science. Machiavelli was a practising diplomat, and his set of principles for dealing with the capricious governments he dealt with, has a lot of values for modern political observers and practitioners. The translation reads fairly well and the
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book's sucess is registered by the number of now-cliches that flow past the reader's eyes. Read it and weep, especially in the days of our Trumpery. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1513, 1532
1517, 1531
Physical description
540 p.; 7.1 inches
ISBN
0394309251 / 9780394309255