Work · Renaissance & Humanism
The Prince
How to acquire and keep power – the fox and the lion instead of Ciceronian virtue.
Introduction
Machiavelli wrote the short Italian treatise in 1513, after losing his office, at his farm outside Florence; in a letter to Francesco Vettori of 10 December 1513 he describes working on a book “De principatibus”. He dedicated it to Lorenzo de’ Medici. Its 26 chapters deal with kinds of principalities, with armies, where he rejects mercenaries, and with the conduct of the ruler – including whether it is better to be loved or feared (chapter 17) and Cesare Borgia as an example. The last chapter calls for the liberation of Italy from foreign powers. Printed only in 1532, five years after his death, the book was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559.
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Connections
Criticizes
- On Duties (De officiis)c. 44 BCE · Cicero
Taken up in
- Six Books of Politics1589 · Justus Lipsius
- Prison Notebooks1935 · Antonio Gramsci
More works by Niccolò Machiavelli
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