The Prince

by Machiavelli, Niccolo; Mansfield, Harvey C.

• ISBN13: 9780226500447
• ISBN10: 0226500446
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

The most famous book on politics ever written,The Princeremains as lively and shocking today as when it was written almost five hundred years ago. Initially denounced as a collection of sinister maxims and a recommendation of tyranny, it has more recently been defended as the first scientific treatment of politics as it is practiced rather than as it ought to be practiced. Harvey C. Mansfield's brilliant translation of this classic work, along with the new materials added for this edition, make it the definitive version ofThe Prince, indispensable to scholars, students, and those interested in the dark art of politics. This revised edition of Mansfield's acclaimed translation features an updated bibliography, a substantial glossary, an analytic introduction, a chronology of Machiavelli's life, and a map of Italy in Machiavelli's time. "Of the other available [translations], that of Harvey C. Mansfield makes the necessary compromises between exactness and readability, as well as providing an excellent introduction and notes."Clifford Orwin,The Wall Street Journal "Mansfield's work . . . is worth acquiring as the best combination of accuracy and readability."Choice "There is good reason to assert that Machiavelli has met his match in Mansfield. . . . [He] is ready to read Machiavelli as he demands to be readplainly and boldly, but also cautiously."John Gueguen,The Sixteenth Century Journal

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
A Note on the Translation	xxv
Chronology	xxix
Map	xxxii
The Prince	1	(2)
Dedicatory Letter	3	(2)
How Many Are the Kinds of Principalities and in What Modes They Are Acquired	5	(1)
Of Hereditary Principalities	6	(1)
Of Mixed Principalities	7	(9)
Why the Kingdom of Darius Which Alexander Seized Did Not Rebel from His Successors after Alexander's Death	16	(4)
How Cities or Principalities Which Lived by Their Own Laws before They Were Occupied Should Be Administered	20	(1)
Of New Principalities That Are Acquired through One's Own Arms and Virtue	21	(4)
Of New Principalities That Are Acquired by Other's Arms and Fortune	25	(9)
Of Those Who Have Attained a Principality through Crimes	34	(4)
Of the Civil Principality	38	(4)
In What Mode the Forces of All Principalities Should Be Measured	42	(3)
Of Ecclesiastical Principalities	45	(3)
How Many Kinds of Military There Are and Concerning Mercenary Soldiers	48	(6)
Of Auxiliary, Mixed, and One's Own Soldiers	54	(4)
What a Prince Should Do Regarding the Military	58	(3)
Of Those Things for Which Men and Especially Princes Are Praised or Blamed	61	(1)
Of Liberality and Parsimony	62	(3)
Of Cruelty and Mercy, and Whether It is Better to Be Loved Than Feared, or the Contrary	65	(3)
In What Mode Faith Should Be Kept by Princes	68	(3)
Of Avoiding Contempt and Hatred	71	(12)
Whether Fortresses and Many Other Things Which Are Made and Done by Princes Every Day Are Useful or Useless	83	(4)
What a Prince Should Do to be Held in Esteem	87	(5)
Of Those Whom Princes Have as Secretaries	92	(1)
In What Mode Flatterers Are to Be Avoided	93	(3)
Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their States	96	(2)
How Much Fortune Can Do in Human Affairs, and in What Mode It May Be Opposed	98	(3)
Exhortation to Seize Italy and to Free Her from the Barbarians	101	(6)
Appendix Machiavelli's Letter of December 10, 1513	107	(6)
Glossary	113	(28)
Bibliography	141	(4)
Index of Proper Names	145