Machiavelli, The arte of warre, translated by Whitehorne, London, 1573, 2 volumes

MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLÒ

The arte of warre... set foorth in English by Peter Withorne... with other like martial feates and experiments... Newly imprinted with other additions (Certaine wayes for the ordering of souldiours in battelray). (London: W. Williamson for John Wight, (September) 1573 [i.e. 1574]

2 parts bound in two volumes, 4to (180 x 127mm.; 187 x 133mm.), title within a woodcut border with military scenes [McKerrow & Ferguson 116], woodcut initials and illustrations, typographical diagrams, double-page woodcut of a fortification, first part in early nineteenth-century half calf, flat spine gilt, second part in modern mottled calf, lacking A1-2 in part 1 (containing Machiavelli's preface), small stains on Bb4, diagrams shaved, joints cracked, binding rubbed

Second edition of the first published English translation of Arte della Guerra (see lot 283 for the original Italian), by Peter Whitehorne, a professional soldier who is recorded in Italy in 1549-1550 and who fought in Charles V's campaigns against the Barbary pirates.

This was the first translation of any work of Machiavelli's into English. It was first published in 1560, with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth, and appeared for a third time in 1588. According to Sydney Anglo, "The taut muscularity of his [Whitehorne's] English idiom matches that of the Italian original; and the flexibility both of his language and syntax enables him to follow his source with a literal accuracy denied to all subsequent translators" (Machiavelli, the first century, Oxford, 2005, p.190). Whitehorne also makes use of other works by Machiavelli as well as modern scientific texts by Tartaglia and Zanchi.

Copies of this work were often issued together with an English translation of Cataneo (see lot 74).

LITERATURE:

STC 17165

PROVENANCE:

B.B., ink initials on inside front cover of first volume; Thomas Francis Fremantle, armorial bookplates; second volume purchased from Pickering & Chatto, 25 May 1900, £3-3s