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Stock# 86277
Description
First English edition, translated by Edward Dacres
A Superb Example in a Contemporary Binding
London: R. Bishop for Williams Hils and Daniel Pakeman, 1640.
"Machiavelli founded the science of modern politics on the study of mankind—it should be remembered that a parallel work to 'The Prince' was his historical essay on the first ten books of Livy." -PMM
"... [Machiavelli] wrote as a patriot and a political scientist, and he deserves better to be remembered as such than as the Borgia-like figure which his name now connotes." -PMM
Over 100 years after the Prince was first published in Italian in 1532, its printing having been banned in England throughout the sixteenth century, the first printed English translation was published in 1640 (Scott).
Condition Description
12mo. Contemporary English paneled calf, covers and spine ruled in blind. (Joints expertly repaired.) Ink manuscript ("Oxford") and marginalia on title page in an early hand (with some offsetting to facing endpaper). Tear on outer edge of N1 repaired, with border in pen facsimile.
A6, B-N12, O12
[1], [1, blank],[3], [1, blank], [6], 305, [306, blank], [5], [1, blank]. Housed in custom black full morocco clamshell case.
A6, B-N12, O12
[1], [1, blank],[3], [1, blank], [6], 305, [306, blank], [5], [1, blank]. Housed in custom black full morocco clamshell case.
Reference
PMM 63 (Il Principe); STC 17168; Tomita, A Bibliographical Catalogue of Italian Books Printed in England §472 N; SCOTT, MARGARET. “Machiavelli and the Machiavel.” Renaissance Drama 15 (1984): 147–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41913884.