Machiavelli, Il principe, Venice, 1539, later marbled calf

Niccolò Machiavelli

Il principe... La vita di Castruccio Castracani da Lucca... Il modo che tenne il Duca Valentino per ammazzare Vitellozzo, Oliverotto da Fermo... I ritratti delle cose della Francia, e della Alamagna... nuovamente aggiunti. Venice, 1539

8vo (150 x 92mm.), nineteenth-century marbled calf, spine gilt in compartments, red speckled edges, occasional light browning, joints rubbed

AN EARLY EDITION OF THE PRINCE, following editions produced in Rome by Antonio Blado and in Florence by Filippo Giunta in 1532 and then in 1535 (without place of printing). All these editions use Blado's version of the text (Giunta made just a few changes) and include the life of Castruccio Castracani (for whom see also lot 227) and Cesare Borgia's killing of his wayward generals; Machiavelli's account of France and Germany was added from the 1532 Giunta edition onwards.

LITERATURE:

Bertelli & Innocenti, Bibliografia Machiavelliana 43; Edit16 68020 (listing 3 copies; 2 more recorded by USTC)

PROVENANCE:

"Versailles, Juillet 1843, Lemazurier" D.M.V." [i.e. docteur de médecine à Versailles], inscription on flyleaf, i.e. Michel-Jules Lemazurier (1786-1861), renowned military physician; Noel Pinelli (1881-1940), bookplate; Jean A. Bonna, green hexagonal booklabel, his sale, Christie's, 16 June 2015, lot 40; "De la biblioth. Visconti 118", pencil note at foot of flyleaf; Libreria Antiquaria Mediolanum, bookseller's label