Nicolas Machiavel - Le Prince de Machiavel - 1686

Rarest edition of this work in which Nicolas Machiavelli examines with remarkable precision the mechanisms by which a prince can acquire, preserve and consolidate power in a state -

Composed at the beginning of the 16th century in the troubled context of the Italian Wars, The Prince moves away from traditional treatises that presented the sovereign essentially through Christian or moral virtues that he must embody and instead focuses on the concrete functioning of power, on the power relations, institutions, armies, alliances, human ambitions and historical circumstances -

The work begins by distinguishing different categories of principalities, notably hereditary states, new principalities, territories acquired by arms or by the favor of others, as well as states conquered by fortune or by the political capacity of the sovereign -

Nicolas Machiavel - Le Prince de Machiavel - 1686 - Henri Wetstein -
(34), 220 Pages.

Good condition of the binding, the work in its full original calfskin, wear from use, some minor defects on boards and spine, front hinge split, gilding on the spine faded, missing headbands, corners worn, speckled edges, spine with raised bands -

Good interior condition, browning, first leaf torn, handsome vignette on the title page, third edition, revised, corrected & augmented by the translator [AMELOT de LA HOUSSAIE], pretty borders, beautiful initial, portrait of the author in the frontispiece, ex-libris with red ink stamp ROUCHAUD, pencil manuscript note, title page in fair condition, rare copy -

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