Niccoló Machiavelli (1469-1527) created a whole new field of study that we now call political science. He and his best friend Francesco Guicciardini together wrote the first studies of political action that subjected these actions to careful “scientific” study in an attempt to study the political field of human action in a calm and dispassionate way, isolated from the usual religious and national prejudices. No one had ever thought this way; no one had ever written in this way. It was new; It was modern. One book above all made him famous: The Prince. The most powerful man in the world, Emperor Charles V, had three books on his bedside table: The Bible,The Courtier, and The Prince.

The literature on Machiavelli is enormous. He remains to this day one of the most controversial writers in the Western tradition and therefore numerous publications about him continue to appear every year. In the notes below, I will call to your attention just a few books that may help you to continue your studies on Machiavelli.

Books by Machiavelli.

1. The Prince.
There are hundreds of editions of The Princeand therefore you can easily choose one based on price and availability. The Penguin Classics edition seems good to me. One that I do not recommend is the one that has received much recent praise and this is the new translation by Harvey Mansfield and published by the University of Chicago Press to much acclaim. I do not like it. Mansfield chooses to translate the book with an overly literal choice of English and the result is that it is just misleading on some occasions. For example, on the first page of The Prince Machiavelli uses the word “imperio” and Mansfield translates it as “empire.” This is ludicrous. Machiavelli means “power” when he uses his Italian word whereas empire in American English means a large international state. So as far as I am concerned, a translation that starts off on the first page misleading the American reader is a waste of everybody’s time. The best edition of The Prince is a dual-language edition with Italian on one page and an English translation on the facing page. Such an edition was published in 1964 by St Martin’s Press with an excellent translation by the great American expert on Italian, Mark Musa. Unfortunately that edition is now out of print but you can find copies still out there using Bookfinder.com.

2. The Letters.
The Letters of Machiavelli, A Selection.
Edited and translated by Allan Gilbert. First published in 1961, University of Chicago Press paperback edition, 1988.
One of the best ways to know Machiavelli is to read his letters and this wonderful collection by Allan Gilbert is an excellent place to begin. Gilbert has provided a very helpful introduction and other editorial aids.

3. Machiavelli’s History of Florence.
Machiavelli’s book on the history of Florence was one of the most influential works of history in the early modern world. His book influenced all other later historians and created a model for modern, critical history. Normally this book is entitled in English, The History of Florence, in the newest and most acclaimed translation published by Princeton, the translators give it the plural title Florentine Histories as it is in Machiavelli’s Italian.
Florentine Histories. Translated by Laura Banfield and Harvey Mansfield, Jr. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Biographies in English

Ridolfi, Roberto. The Life of Niccoló Machiavelli.
Translated from the Italian by Cecil Grayson.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.
The Ridolfi biography published in the 1960’s is the father of all other contemporary biographies. Ridolfi was a brilliant Florentine patrician from a family that was active in politics in the days of Machiavelli and he invested his scholarship with the energy of a proud Florentine patriot. He also wrote equally fine biographies of Guicciardini and Savonarola.

De Grazia, Sebastian. Machiavelli in Hell.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
This was the first significant new biography to appear after Ridolfi written by an Italian who taught at Princeton. It received rave reviews and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. It is rich and a big book at 400 pages in the paperback edition (Vintage Books, 1994). Joseph Frank, the brilliant biographer of Dostoevsky, calls it “a model of how intellectual biography should be done.”

Viroli, Maurizio. Niccoló’s Smile.
New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2000.
Paperback edition, 2002. ($13.00)
This new biography of Machiavelli was first published in Italy in 1998 and then a translation was published here in the USA in 2000 and now we have a paperback edition out in 2002. I recommend it to you highly. Viroli has done something that no other biographer has done: he has created a likable, witty, fun, interesting whole human being who loved his friends, loved his city, loved his wife. It is a wonderful biography and a totally delightful reading experience. Although De Grazia has written a bigger book, Viroli gives you an unforgettable character whom you can like. The politics and diplomacy are brilliantly portrayed and the book is an excellent introduction to the complicated politics of early sixteenth-century Italy.

Commentary

There are a number of influential studies of various aspects of Machiavelli’s life and works. Unfortunately, many of them are out of print and therefore you need to use the library or an online search website such as Bookfinder.com. Here below I will list just a few of my favorites on Machiavelli.

Chabod, Federico. Machiavelli and the Renaissance.
Cambridge, Mass: Havard University Press, 1958.
Reprinted as a Harper Torchbook in 1965.
Federico Chabod was one of the most influential scholars ever to write on the Renaissance and this collection of several of his most important articles is a treasure. Sadly, it is out of print but there are many used copies of the paperback edition out there. Most important in this book are Chabod’s articles “The Prince” and his “The Concept of the Renaissance.”

Gilbert, Felix. Machiavelli and Guicciardini:
Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965.
Paperback edition from Norton in 1984. Now out of print but there are many used copies out there.
This book by Felix Gilbert which he wrote while he was in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, is one of the greatest studies of the interchange between politics and history that has ever been written. Gilbert immersed himself in the details of the politics of Florence at the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century, and then he turned to the great histories of Florence written by Machiavelli and Guicciardini and tried to show how exactly the politics influenced the writing of history. It is one of the best books written on the Renaissance.

Hale, J. R. Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy.
Originally published in England in the Teach Yourself History series edited by A. L. Rowse, this book was then reprinted in the USA by Collier books paperbacks n 1963. It is now out of print but there are many used paperback copies and Amazon says they can get it for you. This is the best little book with which to try to understand both Machiavelli and his age. The English scholar John Hale has devoted half a century or more to the study of the Renaissance and has written the best one-volume study of the Renaissance in Europe (The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance) that exists.

Jensen, De Lamar. Machiavelli:
Cynic, Patriot, or Political Scientist?
Boston: Heath and Company, 1960.
This succinct, small pamphlet is part of the Heath series, Problems in European Civilization. The whole series was excellent and many of the works are still in print but not this one. But Amazon.com says there are many used copies so it is worth the search if you want a good place to begin your Machiavelli studies. Jensen takes up the overall question of how to evaluate Machiavelli and the book includes many important articles written on Machiavelli from earlier periods, articles that still influence much of the debate.

Mattingly, Garrett. Renaissance Diplomacy.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1955.
Reprinted in various paperback editions and it is still in print.
Machiavelli was above all, a diplomat. His career as ambassador for the Republic of Florence unfolded at exactly the moment in which the network of international diplomacy that we all take for granted in our modern world was being invented. Much of that initial creative work was carried out by Florentine diplomats. Italy was ahead of all the world in creating and promoting an international diplomatic system. And Machiavelli was there, present at the creation. This book by the great Columbia University historian was first published in 1955 and no one has ever written a better book on Renaissance diplomacy and therefore it is still the basic text that all young historians must read on the subject. It is a model of writing: clear, concise, witty – a delight to read. And it is still in print so run get a copy quick before some fool takes it out of print. Mattingly also wrote one of my all time favorite books of history; The Armada. It is also still in print.