The Prince

"The Prince" is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolٍ Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus (About Principalities). However, the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. This was done with the permission of the Medici pope Clement VII, but "long before then, in fact since the first appearance of the Prince in manuscript, controversy had swirled about his writings".


The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy, in which the effective truth is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. It was also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time concerning how to consider politics and ethics.


This Palmera Publishing edition of "The Prince" in unabridged and is the best translation available. It was translated by N. H. Thomson in 1910 and published in Volume 36 of "The Harvard Classics" by P. F. Collier & Sons Company.