Frederik de Grote - Anti-Machiavel - 1740

[Frederick II of Prussia] Anti-Machiavel, or an essay of critique on Machiavelli's The Prince. Edited by F.M.A. de Voltaire — The Hague, at the publisher's expense, 1740 — XVI, 191, (3) pp — contemporary leather binding.

In the book 'Il principe' by the Florentine philosopher Machiavelli, the state was raised above every norm. Everything was good that was good for the state. The Prussian crown prince Frederick (1712-1786) did not agree with this as an ‘enlightened’ philosopher and wrote this pamphlet as a long treatise for an ethical stance in politics. The king was ‘le premier domestique’ of his people; war is a remedy in emergencies; a good king will be well served. He had not yet handed the manuscript to Voltaire for correction when his father died. The idealistic crown prince suddenly became himself a ‘principle’ from one day to the next. To avoid overextending himself, he tried at the last moment to prevent publication of the Antimachiavel, but it was too late. The book appeared in September 1740. Four weeks later Frederick decided to invade Silesia. Two weeks after that the troops were mobilized. Frederick’s enlightened pretensions proved impossible to reconcile with his politics. The author of the Antimachiavel was probably the greatest Machiavellian of his time.

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