Authors: Niccolo Machiavelli, George Anthony Bull (Translator), Fritz Weaver
ISBN-13: 9781598870817, ISBN-10: 1598870815
Format: Compact Disc
Publisher: HighBridge Company
Date Published: December 2006
Edition: Unabridged, 3 CDs, 3 hours
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI was born in Florence in 1469. In 1498, he was appointed Second Chancellor of the Florentine Republic; in 1501, he was imprisoned and tortured when the Medici returned to Florence. Upon his release, he retired to his farm to study and write.
The book has been variously described as the first to analyze the role of the political elite; as the one that established the independence of politics from theology; as an early formulation of the political 'myth' required to galvanize apolitical masses into revolutionary action; as a practical rule-book containing timeless precepts for the diplomat; and, most frequently, as the handbook of evil. Based upon Machiavelli's firsthand experience as an emissary of the Florentine Republic to the courts of Europe, The Prince analyzes the often-violent means by which political power is seized and retained, and the circumstances in which it is lost. Above all, it provides a remarkably uncompromising picture of the true nature of power, no matter in what era or by whom it is exercised.
Chronology | ||
Map | ||
Introduction | ||
Translator's Note | ||
Selected Books | ||
Machiavelli's Principal Works | ||
Letter to the Magnificent Lorenzo de Medici | 1 | |
I | How many kinds of principality there are and the ways in which they are acquired | 5 |
II | Hereditary principalities | 5 |
III | Composite principalities | 6 |
IV | Why the kingdom of Darius conquered by Alexander did not rebel against his successors after his death | 13 |
V | How cities or principalities which lived under their own laws should be administered after being conquered | 16 |
VI | New principalities acquired by one's own arms and prowess | 17 |
VII | New principalities acquired with the help of fortune and foreign arms | 20 |
VIII | Those who come to power by crime | 27 |
IX | The constitutional principality | 31 |
X | How the strength of every principality should be measured | 34 |
XI | Ecclesiastical principalities | 36 |
XII | Military organization and mercenary troops | 39 |
XIII | Auxiliary, composite, and native troops | 43 |
XIV | How a prince should organize his militia | 47 |
XV | The things for which men, and especially princes, are praised or blamed | 49 |
XVI | Generosity and parsimony | 51 |
XVII | Cruelty and compassion; and whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse | 53 |
XVIII | How princes should honour their word | 56 |
XIX | The need to avoid contempt and hatred | 58 |
XX | Whether fortresses and many of the other present-day expedients to which princes have recourse are useful or not | 67 |
XXI | How a prince must act to win honour | 71 |
XXII | A prince's personal staff | 75 |
XXIII | How flatterers must be shunned | 76 |
XXIV | Why the Italian princes have lost their states | 78 |
XXV | How far human affairs are governed by fortune, and how fortune can be opposed | 79 |
XXVI | Exhortation to liberate Italy from the barbarians | 82 |
Glossary of Proper Names | 86 | |
Notes | 99 |