1893 Rare Book - The Prince From the Italian of Nicolo Michiavelli
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Author: Niccolò Machiavelli.
Title: The Prince and Other Pieces. From the Italian of Nicolo Michiavelli. With an Introduction by Henry Morley.
Publisher: London, George Routledge & Sons, Limited, 1893. Fourth Edition (stated).
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7 x 5 inches.
Pages: 308 pages + publisher's catalog.
Binding: Attractive and very good original pale blue-grey cloth binding, decorated and lettered in darker grey on the upper board and spine in the distinctive floral style of Morley’s Universal Library series. Rear board plain. (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. A rare find in any condition!
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing and toning - as shown).
The book: A handsome and collectible 1893 edition of The Prince, one of the most influential political treatises ever written, translated into English and issued as part of Morley’s Universal Library — a 19th-century series aimed at making essential literary works accessible to a broader public. This edition includes Machiavelli’s lesser-known writings (The Life of Castruccio Castracani, The State of France, The State of Germany, etc.), thus offering a fuller perspective on his political thought. The publisher’s decorative series binding is iconic in Victorian popular literature design.
The author: Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was a Florentine diplomat, historian, and philosopher, best known for Il Principe (The Prince), a pragmatic and often controversial manual on political power and statecraft. His works, foundational to modern political science, reflect his firsthand experiences in Renaissance Italy’s volatile courts and republics.
The editor: Henry Morley (1822–1894) was a prominent literary scholar and a professor of English Literature at University College London. As the editor of Morley’s Universal Library, he sought to democratize knowledge by curating affordable editions of essential texts, often prefacing them with his own accessible and scholarly introductions.