LITMIR.BIZ

       Cover image: painting by Portrait of Niccol ò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito

      Published by Wisehouse Classics – Sweden

      ISBN 978-91-7637-124-4

      Wisehouse Classics is a Wisehouse Imprint.

      © Wisehouse 2015 – Sweden

       www.wisehouse-publishing.com

      © Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.

       Contents

Introduction

Youth 1469-94

Office 1494-1512

Literature and Death 1512-27

The Man and his Works

Dedication

CHAPTER I: How many kinds of principalities there are, and by what means they are acquired

CHAPTER II: Concerning hereditary principalities

CHAPTER III: Concerning mixed principalities

CHAPTER IV: Why the kingdom of Darius, conquered by Alexander, did not rebel against the successor of Alexander at his death

CHAPTER V: Concerning the way to govern cities or principalities which lived under their own laws before they were annexed

CHAPTER VI: Concerning new principalities which are acquired by one’s own arms and ability

CHAPTER VII: Concerning new principalities which are acquired either by the arms of others or by good fortune

       CHAPTER VIII: Concerning those who have obtained a principality by wickedness

       CHAPTER IX: Concerning a civil principality

       CHAPTER X: Concerning the way in which the strength of all principalities ought to be measured

       CHAPTER XI: Concerning ecclesiastical principalities

       CHAPTER XII: How many kinds of soldiery there are, and concerning mercenaries

       CHAPTER XIII: Concerning auxiliaries, mixed soldiery, and one’s own

       CHAPTER XIV: That which concerns a prince on the subject of the art of war

       CHAPTER XV: Concerning things for which men, and especially princes, are praised or blamed

       CHAPTER XVI: Concerning liberality and meanness

       CHAPTER XVII: Concerning cruelty and clemency, and whether it is better to be loved than feared

       CHAPTER XVIII: Concerning the way in which princes should keep faith

       CHAPTER XIX: That one should avoid being despised and hated

       CHAPTER XX: Are fortresses, and many other things to which princes often resort, advantageous or hurtful?

       CHAPTER XXI: How a prince should conduct himself so as to gain renown

       CHAPTER XXII: Concerning the secretaries of princes

       CHAPTER XXIII: How flatterers should be avoided

       CHAPTER XXIV: Why the princes of Italy have lost their states

       CHAPTER XXV: What fortune can effect in human affairs and how to withstand her

       CHAPTER XXVI: An exhortation to liberate Italy from the barbarians

       Description of the Methds Adopted by the Duke Valentino when Murdering Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, the Signor Pagolo, and the Duke di Gravina Orsini

       The Life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca

       Notes

Introduction

      NICOLO MACHIAVELLI was born at Florence on 3rd May 1469. He was the second son of Bernardo di Nicolo Machiavelli, a lawyer of some repute, and of Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli, his wife. Both parents were members of the old Florentine nobility.

      His life falls naturally into three periods, each of which singularly enough constitutes a distinct and important era in the history of Florence. His youth was concurrent with the greatness of Florence as an Italian power under the guidance of Lorenzo de' Medici, Il Magnifico. The downfall of the Medici in Florence occurred in 1494, in which year Machiavelli entered the public service. During his official career Florence was free under the government of a Republic, which lasted until 1512, when the Medici returned to power, and Machiavelli lost his office. The Medici again ruled Florence from 1512 until 1527, when they were once more driven out. This was the period of Machiavelli's literary activity and increasing influence; but he died, within a few weeks of the expulsion of the Medici, on 22nd June 1527, in his fifty-eighth year, without having regained office.

Youth 1469-94

      ALTHOUGH THERE IS LITTLE RECORDED of the youth of Machiavelli, the Florence of those days is so well known that the early environment of this representative citizen may be easily imagined. Florence has been described as a city with two opposite currents of life, one directed by the fervent and austere Savonarola, the other by the splendour-loving Lorenzo. Savonarola's influence upon the young Machiavelli must have been slight, for although at one time he wielded immense power over the fortunes of Florence, he only furnished Machiavelli with a subject of a gibe in “The Prince,” where he is cited as an example of an unarmed prophet who came to a bad end. Whereas the

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