Machiavelli, Niccolò

The Works of the Famous Nicolas Machiavel Citizen and Secretary of Florence. London: Printed for J[ohn] S[tarkey], to be sold by Robert Boulter, 1675



Folio (11 ¾ x 7 1/8 in.; 298 x 180 mm). General title and four section titles, woodcut vignette on first title, head-pieces of printer's ornaments, decorative woodcut initial; title frayed at top affecting inscription and purchase note dated "Feb[ruary 16]75" and mended in fore- and lower margin touching frame, narrow dampstain in fore-margin throughout, occasional tiny rustmarks or soiling. Contemporary mottled calf; rebacked with gold-stamped title label on spine, edges rubbed.

Bertelli & Innocenti 70; Wing M-128

First edition of this translation. This collection includes his History of Florence, The Prince, The Discourses on Livy, and the Art of War, along with other minor pieces and the Letter in vindication of his works (which is dated a decade after his death and thought to be the work of the translator). The translation was done by the Parliamentarian controversialist Henry Neville (1620-1694), friend of the political philosophers James Harrington and Thomas Hobbes, who had, by this time, retired to a more contemplative life in Berkshire, where he wrote the libertine fantasy The Isle of Pines (1668).