THE FATHER OF MODERN POLITICAL SCIENCE: 1675 FIRST EDITION OF MACHIAVELLI'S WORKS IN ENGLISH, HANDSOMELY BOUND

MACHIAVELLI, Niccolo. The Works of the Famous Nicolas Machiavel, Citizen and Secretary of Florence. Written Originally in Italian, and from thence newly and faithfully Translated into English. London: Printed for J[ohn]. S[tarkey]., 1675. Folio (8 by 12-1/2 inches), contemporary full dark brown calf rebacked, raised bands, burgundy morocco spine label, marbled edges, pp. (24), 530, (22); housed in a custom slipcase.

First edition in English of this comprehensive collection of the great Italian statesman's most important writings, the foundation of the modern study of politics. Includes The Art of War, Discourses on Livy, and his primer of power politics, The Prince, in contemporary calf boards.

Before Machiavelli, "political speculation had tended to be a rhetorical exercise based on the implicit assumption of Church or Empire. Machiavelli founded the science of modern politics on the study of mankind… Politics was a science to be divorced entirely from ethics, and nothing must stand in the way of its machinery" (PMM 63). "Niccolo Machiavelli is a popular symbol for the… completely unprincipled, and unscrupulous politician whose whole philosophy is that the end justifies the means. The highest law to Machiavelli, it is universally believed, was political expediency… From a comparative reading of [The Discourses and The Prince], one must come to the startling conclusion that Machiavelli was a convinced republican. He had no liking for despotism, and considered a combination of popular and monarchical government best. No ruler was safe without the favor of his people. The most stable states are those ruled by princes checked by constitutional limitations… His ideal government was the old Roman republic, and he constantly harked back to it in the Discourses… It is hardly disputable that no man previous to Karl Marx has had as revolutionary an impact on political thought as Machiavelli" (Downs, 12). "He more than any other political thinker created the meaning that has been attached to the state in modern political usage" (Sabine 351). As Lord Acton noted, "The authentic interpreter of Machiavelli is the whole of later history." Included is "Nicholas Machiavel's Letter to Zanobius Buondelmontius in Vindication of Himself and His Writings," which was in fact authored by Henry Neville, the translator of this edition. There are two issues of this work from 1675: one with the general title page imprint, "Printed for J.S." (as in this copy), and another, "Printed for John Starkey." Separate title pages for The Prince, The Discourses, and The Art of War (as issued). Occasional mispagination as issued. With five-page publisher's catalog bound at rear. Wing M128. Lowndes 1438. ESTC R19906. Contemporary owner signature of John Wiggott, dated 1678.

Interior generally clean, contemporary calf boards lovely. A most handsome copy of this classic in the history of thought.