MACHIAVELLI, Niccolo (1469-1527). Nicholas Machiavel’s Prince. Also, The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca. Translated by Edward Dacres. London: R. Bishop for William Hils and Daniel Pakeman, 1640.
 
Price Realized £43,250 ($66,865)
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Estimate £20,000 – £30,000 ($31,000 – $45,000)

Christie’s
13 June 2012
London, King Street

Lot Description

MACHIAVELLI, Niccolo (1469-1527). Nicholas Machiavel’s Prince. Also, The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca. Translated by Edward Dacres. London: R. Bishop for William Hils and Daniel Pakeman, 1640.

12° (141 x 72mm). Typographical borders throughout. (Two light stains on title, paper fault affecting C6.) Late 18th-century calf, drab endpapers (rebacked preserving old spine, front pastedown glue-stained). Provenance: occasional light pen scoring by an early hand.

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of Machiavelli’s short but audaciously perceptive treatise on political leadership. It was first published in 1532, five years after his death, and did more than any of his longer works to contribute the term ‘Machiavellian’ to the English language. The Life of Castruccio Castracani is less well known but similar in its frame of reference to near contemporary Italians who perpetrated criminal deeds for reasons of political expediency. Bertelli & Innocenti Bibliografia Machiavelliana XVII/38; Gerber III, p. 104, no. 2; PMM 63; STC 17168.