The Prince

by Niccolò Machiavelli, George Bull (Translator)

Overview

Rejecting the traditional values of political theory, Machiavelli drew upon his own experiences of office in the turbulent Florentine republic to write his celebrated treatise on statecraft. While Machiavelli was only one of the many Florentine “prophets of force,” he differed from the ruling elite in recognizing the complexity and fluidity of political life.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143036333
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/06/2005
Series:	Penguin Great Ideas
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,023,459
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.86(h) x 0.35(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a Florentine statesman who was later forced out of public life. He then devoted himself to studying and writing political philosophy, history, fiction, and drama.

George Bull is an author and journalist who has translated six volumes for the Penguin Classics: Benvenuto Cellini’s Autobiography, The Book of the Courtier by Castiglione, Vasari’s Lives of the Artists (two volumes), The Prince by Machiavelli and Pietro Aretino’s Selected Letters. He is also Consultant Editor to the Penguin Business Series. After reading history at Brasenose College, Oxford, George Bull worked for the Financial Times, McGraw-Hill World News, and for the Director magazine, of which he was Editor-in-Chief until 1984. His other books include Vatican Politics; Bid for Power (with Anthony Vice), a history of take-over bids; Renaissance Italy, a book for children; Venice: The Most Triumphant City; and Inside the Vatican.

Read an Excerpt

I How many kinds of principality there are and the ways in which they are acquired

All the states, all the dominions under whose authority men have lived in the past and live now have been and are either republics or principalities. Principalities are hereditary, with their prince's family long established as rulers, or they are new. The new are completely new, as was Milan to Francesco Sforza, or they are like limbs joined to the hereditary state of the prince who acquires them, as is the kingdom of Naples in relation to the king of Spain. Dominions so acquired are accustomed to be under a prince, or used to freedom; a prince wins them either with the arms of others or with his own, either by fortune or by prowess.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Prince"
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Copyright © 2005 Niccolo Machiavelli.
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Table of Contents

Map

Introduction

Translator's Note

Selected Books

Machiavelli's Principal Works

Letter to the Magnificent Lorenzo de Medici ..... 1

I: How many kinds of principality there are and the ways in which they are acquired ..... 5

II: Hereditary principalities ..... 5

III: Composite principalities ..... 6

IV :Why the kingdom of Darius conquered by Alexander did not rebel against his successors after his death ..... 13

V: How cities or principalities which lived under their own laws should be administered after being conquered ..... 16

VI: New principalities acquired by one's own arms and prowess ..... 17

VII: New principalities acquired with the help of fortune and foreign arms ..... 20

VIII: Those who come to power by crime ..... 27

IX: The constitutional principality ..... 31

X: How the strength of every principality should be measured ..... 34

XI: Ecclesiastical principalities ..... 36

XII: Military organization and mercenary troops ..... 39

XIII: Auxiliary, composite, and native troops ..... 43

XIV: How a prince should organize his militia ..... 47

XV: The things for which men, and especially princes, are praised or blamed ..... 49

XVI: Generosity and parsimony ..... 51

XVII: Cruelty and compassion; and whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse ..... 53

XVIII: How princes should honour their word ..... 56

XIX: The need to avoid contempt and hatred ..... 58

XX: Whether fortresses and many of the other present-day expedients to which princes have recourse are useful or not ..... 67

XXI: How a prince must act to win honour ..... 71

XXII: A prince's personal staff ..... 75

XXIII: How flatterers must be shunned ..... 76

XXIV: Why the Italian princes have lost their states ..... 78

XXV: How far human affairs are governed by fortune, and how fortune can be opposed ..... 79

XXVI: Exhortation to liberate Italy from the barbarians ..... 82

Glossary of Proper Names ..... 86

Notes ..... 99

What People are Saying About This

John M. Najemy

I still consider Atkinson's translation of The Prince the best of the many . . . out there, especially with its extensive and extraordinarily valuable commentary. (John M. Najemy, Professor of History, Cornell University, 2007)

Mario Domandi

This edition of the The Prince has three distinct and disparate objectives: to provide a fresh and accurate translation; to analyze and find the roots of Machiavelli's thought; and to collect relevant extracts from other works by Machiavelli and some contemporaries, to be used to illuminate and explicate the text. The objectives are all reached with considerable and admirable skill. The reader senses Professor Atkinson's empathy and feeling for even the tiniest movements in Machiavelli's mind. Professor Atkinson has done a great service to students and teachers of Machiavelli, who should certainly welcome this as the most useful edition of The Prince in English. (Mario Domandi, Italica, 1978)

Editorial Reviews

[Machiavelli] can still engage our attention with remarkable immediacy, and this cannot be explained solely by the appeal of his ironic observations on human behaviour. Perhaps the most important thing is the way he can compel us to reflect on our own priorities and the reasoning behind them; it is this intrusion into our own defenses that makes reading him an intriguing experience. As a scientific exponent of the political art Machiavelli may have had few followers; it is as a provocative rhetorician that he has had his real impact on history.” –from the Introduction by Dominic Baker-Smith

From the Publisher

[Machiavelli] demands to be read—plainly and boldly, but also cautiously.”

Sixteenth Century Journal

[Machiavelli] can still engage our attention with remarkable immediacy, and this cannot be explained solely by the appeal of his ironic observations on human behavior. Perhaps the most important thing is the way he can compel us to reflect on our own priorities and the reasoning behind them; it is this intrusion into our own defenses that makes reading him an intriguing experience.”

Dominic Baker-Smith

There is something stimulating in Machiavelli’s forthrightness. Reading him, we are brought face to face, as nowhere else so vividly, with a question that few philosophers had dared to discuss: is statesmanship bound by morality?”

author of The Story of Civilization Will Durant

A publishing bull's-eye.

The Scotsman

Richardson is speaking one-to-one. He is personal, intimate, confidential. That is at it should be.

The Guardian

This is the book that made the author's name into a dark symbol of unalloyed power and sinister political motives. That reputation, though, is somewhat undeserved, and this new recording brings fresh insights and interpretations to the work. Narrator Ian Richardson does a magnificent job with this classic text. He reads with such focus and mellifluous beauty that we must remind ourselves that the book is over 500 years old, and not a contemporary political tract. Richardson's diction and pacing are legendary from his long career on stage and in films, and he applies these talents effortlessly, emphasizing key phrases, speaking conversationally, and making it appear as if he’s reading to only one person at a time. If you've never read THE PRINCE, here is a wonderful opportunity to do so. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2008 - AudioFile