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CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE
HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
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MACHIAVELLI
The Prince
Second Edition
This new edition of the acclaimed translation of Niccolò Machiavelli’s
The Prince – revised for the first time after 30 years – includes a rewritten
and extended introduction by Quentin Skinner. Niccolò Machiavelli is
arguably the most famous and controversial figure in the history of political
thought. The Prince remains his best-known work, and throws down
a challenge that subsequent writers on statecraft and political morality have
found impossible to ignore. Quentin Skinner’s introduction offers a lucid
analysis of Machiavelli’s text both as a response to the world of Florentine
politics and as a critical engagement with the classical and Renaissance genre
of advice-books for princes.
This edition also features an improved timeline of key events in
Machiavelli’s life, helping the reader place the work in the context of its
time, in addition to an enlarged and fully updated bibliography.
Quentin Skinner is the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at
Queen Mary University of London.
Russell Price, who died in 2011, was Senior Lecturer in Politics at the
University of Lancaster
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Machiavelli: The Prince (2nd Edition) Machiavelli
C A M B R I D GE T EX T S I N T H E
H I S T O R Y OF PO LI T I C A L T H O U G H T
General Editor
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QUENTIN SKINNER
Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities, Queen Mary
University of London
Editorial Board
M IC H A EL CO OK
Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
G A B R I E L PA Q U E T T E
Dean of the Clark Honors College, University of Oregon
A N D R E W S A RT O R I
Professor of History, New York University
H I L D E D E W E E R DT
Professor of Chinese History, Leiden University
Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought is firmly established as
the major student series of texts in political theory. It aims to make available
all the most important texts in the history of political thought, from ancient
Greece to the twentieth century, from throughout the world and from every
political tradition. All the familiar classic texts are included, but the series
seeks at the same time to enlarge the conventional canon through a global
scope and by incorporating an extensive range of less well known works,
many of them never before available in a modern English edition, and to
present the history of political thought in a comparative, international con-
text. Where possible, the texts are published in complete and unabridged
form, and translations are specially commissioned for the series. However,
where appropriate, especially for non-Western texts, abridged or tightly
focused and thematic collections are offered instead. Each volume contains
a critical introduction, together with chronologies, biographical sketches,
a guide to further reading, and any necessary glossaries and textual apparatus.
Overall, the series aims to provide the reader with an outline of the entire
evolution of international political thought.
For a list of titles published in the series, please see end of book.
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Machiavelli: The Prince (2nd Edition) Machiavelli
MACHIAVELLI
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The Prince
EDITED BY
QUENTIN SKINNER
Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities, Queen Mary University of London
AND
RUSSELL PRICE
Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Lancaster 1933–2011
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doi: 10.1017/9781316536223
© in the English translation and editorial matter Cambridge University Press
1988, 2019
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First edition published 1988
Thirty-second printing 2018
Second edition published 2019
Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
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Contents
Editorial Note page viii
Introduction x
Principal Events in Machiavelli’s Life xxvii
Bibliographical Note xxx
Translator’s Note xxxvi
Note on the Text xl
Map: Northern and Central Italy, c. 1500 xli
Dedicatory Letter: Niccolò Machiavelli to His Magnificence
Lorenzo de’ Medici 3
I How Many Kinds of Principality There Are, and by What
Means They Are Acquired 5
II Hereditary Principalities 6
III Mixed Principalities 6
IV Why the Kingdom of Darius, Which Alexander
Occupied, Did Not Rebel against His Successors after
Alexander’s Death 15
V By What Means Cities or Provinces that Lived under
Their Own Laws before They Were Occupied Ought
to Be Administered 17
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Machiavelli: The Prince (2nd Edition) Machiavelli
VI New Principalities Acquired by One’s Own Arms and
Ability 19
VII New Principalities Acquired through the Arms
and Fortune of Others 22
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VIII Those Who Become Rulers through Crime 29
IX The Civil Principality 33
X In What Ways the Strengths of All Principalities Should
Be Measured 37
XI Ecclesiastical Principalities 39
XII How Many Kinds of Soldiers There Are, and Mercenary
Troops 41
XIII Auxiliaries, Mixed Troops and One’s Own Troops 46
XIV How a Ruler Should Act Concerning Military Matters 50
XV The Things for Which Men, and Especially Rulers,
Are Praised or Blamed 53
XVI Liberality and Parsimony 54
XVII Cruelty and Mercifulness; and Whether It Is Better
to Be Loved than Feared, or the Contrary 56
XVIII In What Way Rulers Should Keep Their Promises 59
XIX How Contempt and Hatred Should Be Avoided 62
XX Whether Building Fortresses, and Many Other Things
That Rulers Frequently Do, Are Useful or Useless 70
XXI What a Ruler Should Do in Order to Be Thought
Outstanding 74
XXII On Those Whom Rulers Employ in Secret Matters 77
XXIII How Flatterers Should Be Shunned 79
XXIV Why the Rulers of Italy Have Lost Their States 80
XXV How Much Control Fortune Has over Human Affairs,
and by What Means She Should Be Resisted 82
vi
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Contents
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XXVI An Exhortation to Seize Possession of Italy and Assert
Her Liberty from the Barbarians 85
Appendix A Letters Relevant to The Prince 90
Appendix B Notes on the Vocabulary of The Prince 98
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Biographical Notes 114
Index of Subjects 144
Index of Proper Names 151
vii
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Editorial Note
When the original version of this edition was published in 1988, the
division of labour between me and my co-editor, Russell Price, was as
follows. I wrote the Introduction, and also compiled the Bibliographical
Note and the list of principal events in Machiavelli’s life. The translation
was the work of Russell Price, who was also responsible for the annota-
tions to the text, the Appendices, the Biographical Notes and the
Indexes. He expressed his gratitude in our Editors’ Note to Paolo Rossi
for checking most of his translation, and to Francesco Badolato, Luciano
Cheles and Michael Oakeshott for commenting on particular chapters.
For further advice he thanked Bruna Isella and the Rev. Giovanni Rulli,
SJ; and for help with correcting the proofs he thanked Harro Höpfl.
For this new edition I have rewritten the Introduction and produced
a more extensive and up-to-date Bibliography. With an Anglophone
audience in mind I have placed my main emphasis on books and articles
in English. I need to stress, however, that some of the best recent
scholarship on Machiavelli has been published in French and especially
in Italian, and I have included some of the most important of these works.
I am much indebted to John McCormick and Pete Stacey for enlighten-
ing discussions about recent trends in the scholarly literature.
Russell Price, who died in 2011, never proposed any changes to his
translation, and I have generally resisted the temptation to tinker with it.
But I need to note two exceptions to this rule. One relates to
Machiavelli’s chapter headings, which appear in Latin in the earliest
manuscripts of The Prince. Some of Russell’s renderings of Machiavelli’s
Latin can only be described as misleading, and I have tried to improve
them. The other exception is due to the fact that some of Russell’s
viii
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