The Routledge Guidebook to Machiavelli’s The Prince

290 Pages·2016·2.317 MB·English

by  John T. Scott

Routledge Guides to the Great Books
The Routledge Guidebook to
’
Machiavelli s The Prince
NiccolòMachiavelli’sThePrinceisoneofthemostinfluentialworksinthe
history of political thought, and to this day we wonder whether his
“Machiavellian” advice on how to acquire and maintain power is an edu
cation in evil or cleareyed realism. How are we to grasp the meaning of
Machiavelli’s text, in both his time and our own? And how does a con
temporary reader get togrips with a book full ofreferences tothe politics
oftheearlysixteenthcentury?
The Routledge Guidebook to Machiavelli’s The Prince provides readers
with the historical background, textual analysis, and other relevant infor
mationneededforagreaterunderstandingandappreciationofthisclassic
text.Thisguidebook introduces:
(cid:1)
the historical, political, and intellectual context in which Machiavelli
wasworking;
(cid:1)
the key ideas developed by Machiavelli throughout the text and the
exampleshe usestoillustratethem;
(cid:1)
the relationship of The Prince to the Discourses on Livy and Machia
velli’sotherworks.
Featuring a chronology, map, and suggestions for further reading
throughout, this book is an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to be
abletoengagemore fullywith ThePrince.
JohnT.ScottisProfessorofPoliticalScienceattheUniversityofCalifornia,
Davis.
THE ROUTLEDGE GUIDES TO THE GREAT
BOOKS
Series Editor: Anthony Gottlieb
The Routledge Guides to the Great Books provide ideal introductions to the texts
whichhaveshapedWesternCivilization.TheGuidebooksexploretheargumentsand
ideascontainedinthemostinfluentialworksfromsomeofthemostbrilliantthin
kerswhohaveeverlived,fromAristotletoMarxandNewtontoWollstonecraft.Each
Guidebookopenswithashortintroductiontotheauthorofthegreatbookandthe
contextwithin whichtheywere workingand concludeswithan examinationofthe
lastingsignificanceofthebook.TheRoutledgeGuidestotheGreatBookswillthere
fore provide students everywhere with complete introductions to the most sig
nificantbooksofalltime.
Available:
Augustine’sConfessions Wittgenstein’sPhilosophical
CatherineConybeare Investigations
Aquinas’SummaTheologiae MarieMcGinn
JasonT.Eberl Aristotle’sNicomacheanEthics
Kierkegaard’sFearandTrembling GerardJ.Hughes
JohnA.Lippett Heidegger’sBeingandTime
Mill’sOnLiberty StephenMulhall
JonathanRiley Hegel’sPhenomenologyofSpirit
Einstein’sRelativity RobertStern
JamesTrefil Locke’sEssayConcerningHuman
Gramsci’sPrisonNotebooks Understanding
E.J.Lowe
JohnSchwarzmantel
Thoreau’sCivilDisobedience Plato’sRepublic
NickolasPappas
BobPeppermanTaylor
Descartes’Meditations Wollstonecraft’sAVindicationofthe
RightsofWoman
GaryHatfield
SandrineBergès
Hobbes’Leviathan
GlenNewey
Galileo’sDialogue
MauriceA.Finocchiaro
Routledge Guides to the Great Books
The Routledge Guidebook to
’
Machiavelli s The Prince
John T. Scott
Firstpublished2016
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
andbyRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2016JohnT.Scott
TherightofJohnT.Scotttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthisworkhasbeen
assertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,Designs
andPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilised
inanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownor
hereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformation
storageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered
trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintentto
infringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:Scott,JohnT.,1963 author.
Title:TheroutledgeguidebooktoMachiavelli'sTheprince/JohnT.Scott.
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2016.|
Series:TheRoutledgeguidestothegreatbooks|Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2015039802|ISBN9780415707237(hardback:alk.paper)|
ISBN9780415707268(pbk.:alk.paper)|ISBN9781315726373(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Machiavelli,Niccoláo,14691527.Principe.
Classification:LCCJC143.M3946S382016|DDC320.1 dc23
LCrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2015039802
ISBN:9780415707237(hbk)
ISBN:9780415707268(pbk)
ISBN:9781315726373(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
C
ONTENTS
Series Editor’s Preface vii
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction ix
Map of Italy xvii
Chronology xviii
1 Machiavelli’s Life and Times 1
2 The Composition of The Prince 17
3 The Title and Dedicatory Letter 22
4 Acquisition and the Emergence of the New Prince 40
5 The New Prince 73
6 Criminals, Citizens, Popes, and Other Types of Princes 101
7 Arms 128
8 Virtue and Vice 148
vi
CONTENTS
9 Prudence 205
10 Virtue, Fortune, and the Redemption of Italy 219
11 Machiavelli’s Political Thought and His Legacy 239
References 261
Index 266
’
S
ERIES EDITOR S PREFACE
“Thepastisaforeigncountry,”wroteaBritishnovelist,L.P.Hartley:
“theydothingsdifferentlythere.”
The greatest books in the canon of the humanities and sciences
can be foreign territory, too. This series of guidebooks is a set of
excursions written by expert guides who know how to make such
places become more familiar.
All the books covered in this series, however long ago they
were written, have much to say to us now, or help to explain the
ways in which we have come to think about the world. Each
volume is designed not only to describe a set of ideas, and how
theydeveloped,but also to evaluatethem. This requireswhatone
might call a bifocal approach. To engage fully with an author,
one has to pretend that he or she is speaking to us; but to
understand atext’s meaning, it is often necessary to remember its
original audience, too. It is all too easy to mistake the intentions
of an old argument by treating it as a contemporaryone.
TheRoutledgeGuidestotheGreatBooksareaimedatstudentsin
the broadest sense, not only those engaged in formal study. The
intendedaudienceoftheseriesisallthosewhowanttounderstand
thebooksthathavehadthelargesteffects.
AJG
October 2012
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to acknowledge a number of individuals who have
assisted me. First, I would like to thank the studentswho took my
graduate seminars devoted to Machiavelli’s The Prince and then
the DiscoursesonLivy,andespeciallyRexStem,myfriendandcol-
league who made these seminars avery enjoyable teaching colla-
boration, and who then read the manuscript of this book and
offered useful suggestions. Christine Henderson also read the
manuscriptandofferedhelpfulsuggestions,asdidWilliamConnell,
who also indulged me when I dared to offer recommendations
concerning his translation. Alison Gushue read and edited the
manuscript with great care and good judgment, and prepared the
index.Finally,it iscustomary most of the time for an author who
desiresto acquiregracewith his spouse to dedicate theirbooks to
himorher,andinthismatterIgladlyfollowcustomanddedicate
this book to my wife, Adrienne.
I
NTRODUCTION
The Prince issurelyone ofthemost infamousbookseverwritten.
Perhaps even more infamous than the shocking little book is its
author, Niccolò Machiavelli. What other author is so widely
knownforinspiringanadjective?Tocallsomeone“Machiavellian”
instantly and universally evokes awhole host of associations: the
endjustifiesthe means, playing the fox and the lion,manipulation,
power politics, realism, etc. The author of The Prince as a sup-
posed “teacher of evil” has long been associated with the devil,
Old Nick. Yet when we call someone Machiavellian, we usually
do so by tempering our moral condemnation with a certain
begrudgingadmiration.FortobeMachiavellianmeanstoperceive
the world as it actually is and not how we would like it to be, to
see through appearances and posturing, to be brutally honest with
oneselfevenwhilebeingdishonestwithothers.TobeMachiavellian
istobenobody’s fool.Christopher Marlowe capturedour ambiva-
lence when he brought Machiavelli on stage to introduce his play
TheJewofMalta(1589/90),testimonytothefactthattheauthorof
ThePrincehasprovokedsimilarreactionsoverthepast500years:
Tosomeperhapsmy nameisodious;
Butsuchasloveme,guardmefromtheirtongues,