Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction

Preface

An earlier version of this introduction was published in the Past Masters series in 1981. I remain greatly indebted to Keith Thomas for inviting me to contribute to his series, to the staff of the Oxford University Press (especially Henry Hardy) for much editorial help at that time, and to John Dunn, Susan James, J. G. A. Pocock, and Keith Thomas for reading my original manuscript with meticulous care and providing me with many valuable comments. For expert help with the preparation of this new edition I am again very grateful to the editorial staff at the Press, and especially to Shelley Cox for much patience and encouragement.

For this new edition I have thoroughly revised my text and brought the bibliography up to date, but I have not altered my basic line of argument. I still think of Machiavelli essentially as the exponent of a neo-classical form of humanist political thought. I argue in addition that the most original and creative aspects of his political vision are best understood as a series of polemical — sometimes even satirical — reactions against the humanist assumptions he inherited and basically continued to endorse. While my principal aim has been to provide a straightforward introduction to Machiavelli’s views on statecraft, I hope that this interpretation may also be of some interest to specialists in the field.

When quoting from Boethius, Cicero, Livy, Sallust, and Seneca, I have used the translations published in the Loeb classical library. When I cite from Machiavelli’s Correspondence, Legations, and so-called Caprices (Ghiribizzi) the translations are my own. When quoting from The Prince I have used the translation by Russell Price in Machiavelli, The Prince ed. Quentin Skinner and Russell Price (Cambridge, 1988). When quoting from Machiavelli’s other works I have relied (with kind permission) on the excellent English versions in Allan Gilbert, trans.: Machiavelli: The Chief Works and Others (3 vols, Duke University Press, 1965). When I cite from the Correspondence and the Legations, I identify the source by placing a ‘C’ or an ‘L’ in brackets, as appropriate, together with the page-reference after each quotation. When I refer to other works by Machiavelli, I make it contextually clear in each case which text I am citing, and simply add the page-references in brackets. Full details of all the editions I am using can be found in the list of ‘Works by Machiavelli Quoted in the Text’ on p. 101.

I need to make two further points about translations. I have ventured in a few places to amend Gilbert’s renderings in order to keep closer to Machiavelli’s exact phraseology. And I have held to my belief that Machiavelli’s pivotal concept of virtú (virtus in Latin) cannot be translated into modern English by any single word or manageable series of periphrases. I have consequently left these terms in their original form throughout. This is not to say, however, that I fail to discuss their meanings; on the contrary, much of my text can be read as an explication of what I take Machiavelli to have meant by them.