The Florentine History in VIII. Books. Now Exactly Translated from the Italian.

MACHIAVEL, Nicholas. [Niccolo Machiavelli].

$4,200.00

Item Number: 122358

London: Printed for Charles Harper and John Amery, 1674.

Rare first edition of this translation of Machiavelli’s Florentine history. Octavo, bound in full contemporary calf with morocco spine label lettered in gilt, triple gilt ruling, fleuron cornerpieces and elaborate blind stamping to the front and rear panel, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, engraved frontispiece portrait of Machiavelli, rebacked. Ownership inscription. In near fine condition. Rare especially with the original frontispiece.

First published posthumously in 1532, Machiavelli's Florentine Histories was commissioned by Giulio de' Medici, later Pope Clement VII, not as a eulogy of the Republic of Florence of which Machiavelli had been titled "il segretario", but as glorification of the Medici family. After the crisis of 1513, with arrests for conspiracy, torture and after being sentenced to house arrest, Machiavelli's relationship with the Medici family passively began to mend itself. If the dedication of Il Principe (1513) to Lorenzo II de' Medici had not any effect, part of the then dominant faction of Florence was not against him, and instead granted him an appointment. The first of the eight books presents a general history of the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the beginning of the 15th century; books II, III and IV present the history of Florence before the Medici rise; and the final four books speak to the fight for power that ended with the Medicean lordship, closing with he death of Lorenzo il Magnifico.