The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, W. K. Marriott — Bibliomancer edition cover

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Nonfiction · 1532

The Prince

Niccolò Machiavelli · translated by W. K. Marriott

Reading time
about 3.5 h
Length
49,258 words · 132 pages in print
Structure
28 chapters · 3 front-matter sections
Language
English (translated from Italian)
Era
Renaissance

Written in 1513, after its author had lost office in Florence, and printed in 1532, five years after his death, The Prince is a short handbook on how power is won and kept — by fortune or by ability, by cruelty or by clemency, by keeping faith or by breaking it. Its plainness about means made “Machiavellian” an insult; its analysis made it one of the founding texts of political thought.

Niccolò Machiavelli’s Italian is given here in the English translation by W. K. Marriott, first published in 1908.

This volume carries Machiavelli’s dedication to Lorenzo de’ Medici and, after the treatise, the life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca that he wrote in 1520.

Contents

  1. Note
  2. Introduction
  3. The Man and His Works
  4. Dedication
  5. Chapter I — How Many Kinds of Principalities There Are, and by What Means They Are Acquired
  6. Chapter II — Concerning Hereditary Principalities
  7. Chapter III — Concerning Mixed Principalities
  8. Chapter IV — Why the Kingdom of Darius, Conquered by Alexander, Did Not Rebel Against the Successors of Alexander at His Death
  9. Chapter V — Concerning the Way to Govern Cities or Principalities Which Lived Under Their Own Laws Before They Were Annexed
  10. Chapter VI — Concerning New Principalities Which Are Acquired by One’s Own Arms and Ability
  11. Chapter VII — Concerning New Principalities Which Are Acquired Either by the Arms of Others or by Good Fortune
  12. Chapter VIII — Concerning Those Who Have Obtained a Principality by Wickedness
  13. Chapter IX — Concerning a Civil Principality
  14. Chapter X — Concerning the Way in Which the Strength of All Principalities Ought to Be Measured
  15. Chapter XI — Concerning Ecclesiastical Principalities
  16. Chapter XII — How Many Kinds of Soldiery There Are, and Concerning Mercenaries
  17. Chapter XIII — Concerning Auxiliaries, Mixed Soldiery, and One’s Own
  18. Chapter XIV — That Which Concerns a Prince on the Subject of the Art of War
  19. Chapter XV — Concerning Things for Which Men, and Especially Princes, Are Praised or Blamed
  20. Chapter XVI — Concerning Liberality and Meanness
  21. Chapter XVII — Concerning Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than Feared
  22. Chapter XVIII — Concerning the Way in Which Princes Should Keep Faith
  23. Chapter XIX — That One Should Avoid Being Despised and Hated
  24. Chapter XX — Are Fortresses, and Many Other Things to Which Princes Often Resort, Advantageous or Hurtful?
  25. Chapter XXI — How a Prince Should Conduct Himself So as to Gain Renown
  26. Chapter XXII — Concerning the Secretaries of Princes
  27. Chapter XXIII — How Flatterers Should Be Avoided
  28. Chapter XXIV — Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their States
  29. Chapter XXV — What Fortune Can Effect in Human Affairs and How to Withstand Her
  30. Chapter XXVI — An Exhortation to Liberate Italy from the Barbarians
  31. The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca

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About this edition

The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer and held to human review; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.

Part of Political Thought, Essential Philosophy.

Source mind

About the author

Niccolò Machiavelli

1469–1527 · Renaissance

A Bibliomancer biography of Niccolò Machiavelli is in preparation. See all their books.

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