Machiavelli: The Prince

by Niccolo Machiavelli , Edited by Quentin Skinner , Russell Price

• ISBN13: 9780521349932
• ISBN10: 0521349931
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1988-10-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Professor Skinner presents a lucid analysis of Machiavelli's text as a response to the world of Florentine politics.

Table of Contents

Editors' note	vii	(2)
Introduction	ix	(16)
Principal events in Machiavelli's life	xxv	(4)
Bibliographical note	xxix	(3)
Translator's note	xxxii	(4)
Map: northern and central Italy, c. 1500	xxxvi
Dedicatory letter: Niccolo Machiavelli to His Magnificence Lorenzo de' Medici	3	(2)
I The different kinds of principality and how they are acquired	5	(1)
II Hereditary principalities	6	(1)
III Mixed principalities	6	(9)
IV Why the Kingdom of Darius, conquered by Alexander, did not rebel against his successors after Alexander's death	15	(2)
V How one should govern cities or principalities that, before being conquered, used to live under their own laws	17	(2)
VI New principalities acquired by one's own arms and ability	19	(3)
VII New principalities acquired through the power of others and their favour	22	(8)
VIII Those who become rulers through wicked means	30	(4)
IX The civil principality	34	(3)
X How the strength of all principalities should be measured	37	(2)
XI Ecclesiastical principalities	39	(3)
XII The different types of army, and mercenary troops	42	(6)
XIII Auxiliaries, mixed troops and native troops	48	(3)
XIV How a ruler should act concerning military matters	51	(3)
XV The things for which men, and especially rulers, are praised or blamed	54	(1)
XVI Generosity and meanness	55	(3)
XVII Cruelty and mercifulness; and whether it is better to be loved or feared	58	(3)
XVIII How rulers should keep their promises	61	(2)
XIX How contempt and hatred should be avoided	63	(9)
XX Whether building fortresses, and many other things that rulers frequently do, are useful or not	72	(4)
XXI How a ruler should act in order to gain reputation	76	(4)
XXII The secretaries of rulers	80	(1)
XXIII How flatterers should be shunned	81	(2)
XXIV Why the rulers of Italy have lost their states	83	(1)
XXV How much power fortune has over human affairs, and how it should be resisted	84	(3)
XXVI Exhortation to liberate Italy from the barbarian yoke	87	(6)
Appendix A Letters relevant to The Prince	93	(7)
Appendix B Notes on the vocabulary of The Prince	100	(14)
Biographical notes	114	(27)
Index of subjects	141	(7)
Index of proper names	148