 Title page of a 1550 edition | |
| Author | Niccolò Machiavelli |
|---|---|
| Original title | De Principatibus / Il Principe |
| Language | Italian |
| Subject | Political science |
| Publisher | Antonio Blado d'Asola |
Publication date | 1532 |
| Publication place | Italy |
| Followed by | Discourses on Livy |
| Text | The Prince at Wikisource |
The Prince (Italian: Il Principe [il ˈprintʃipe]; Latin: De Principatibus) is a 16th-century political treatise written by the Italian diplomat, philosopher, and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli in the form of a realistic instruction guide for new princes. As a remarkable general theme, The Prince appears to take it for granted that immoral acts are justified if they can help achieve political glory.[1]
From Machiavelli's correspondence, a version was apparently being written in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus (Of Principalities).[2] However, the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. This was carried out with the permission of the Medici pope Clement VII, but "long before then, in fact since the first appearance of The Prince in manuscript, controversy had swirled about his writings".[3]
Although The Prince was written as if it were a traditional work in the mirrors for princes style, it was generally agreed as being especially innovative. This is partly because it was written in the vernacular Italian rather than Latin, a practice that had become increasingly popular since the publication of Dante's Divine Comedy and other works of Renaissance literature.[4][5] Machiavelli illustrates his reasoning using remarkable comparisons of classical, biblical, and medieval events, including many seemingly positive references to the murderous career of Cesare Borgia, which occurred during Machiavelli's own diplomatic career.
The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy, in which practical effect is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. Its world view came in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time, particularly those on politics and ethics.[6][7]
This short treatise is the most remembered of Machiavelli's works, and the most responsible for the later pejorative use of the word "Machiavellian". It even contributed to the modern negative connotations of the words "politics" and "politician" in Western countries.[8] In subject matter, it overlaps with the much longer Discourses on Livy, which was written a few years later. In its use of near-contemporary Italians as examples of people who perpetrated criminal deeds for political ends, another lesser-known work by Machiavelli to which The Prince has been compared is the Life of Castruccio Castracani.
- ^ Strauss (1987:297): "Machiavelli is the only political thinker whose name has come into common use for designating a kind of politics, which exists and will continue to exist independently of his influence, a politics guided exclusively by considerations of expediency, which uses all means, fair or foul, iron or poison, for achieving its ends – its end being the aggrandizement of one's country or fatherland – but also using the fatherland in the service of the self-aggrandizement of the politician or statesman or one's party".
- ^ He wrote about a short study he was making by this Latin name in his letter to Francesco Vettori, written 10 Dec 1513. This is letter 224 in the translated correspondence edition of James B. Atkinson and David Sices: Machiavelli (1996:264).
- ^ Bireley (1990) p. 14.
- ^ "Italian Vernacular Literature". Vlib.iue.it. Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
- ^ Gilbert (1938) emphasizes similarities between The Prince and its forerunners, but still sees the same innovations as other commentators. Machiavelli's writings continue to be a provocative examination of leadership and government that poses age-old issues regarding the nature of power and the decisions that rulers must make to preserve it.
- ^ Bireley (1990)
- ^ Although Machiavelli makes many references to classical sources, these do not include the customary deference to Aristotle, which was to some extent approved by the church in his time. Strauss (1958:222) says, "Machiavelli indicates his fundamental disagreement with Aristotle's doctrine of the whole by substituting "chance" (caso) for "nature" in the only context in which he speaks of "the beginning of the world." Strauss gives evidence that Machiavelli was knowingly influenced by Democritus, whose philosophy of nature was, like that of modern science, materialist.
- ^ Bireley (1990:241)