The First Translations of Machiavelli’s Prince. From the Sixteenth to the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Ed. Roberto de Pol

This book is part of a research project which aims at bringing together the earliest translations of Machiavelli’s The Prince: the volume under review is the first of a projected two. The second volume will study the translations of the work from the mid- Nineteenth Century onwards. As one might expect, translation of the book across Europe is a gradual process, with the first effort being a somewhat plagiarized Latin version by Agostino Nifo, who in 1523, while Machiavelli was still alive, brought out parts of the work in a quasi-Aristotelian treatise on government. This translation is discount ed by the editor of The First Translations, Roberto de Pol. The honour therefore falls to France, and Jacques de Vintimille, who in 1546 produced a translation (existing only in manuscript) for Anne de Montmorency, Great Constable of France. The sig - nificant French translations that were to achieve print are by Guillaume Cappelle, Gaspard d’ Auvergne (both in 1553), and in 1571 by Jacques Gohory (whose text is used today by the Pléiade edition of Machiavelli.)