MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLO.:

TUTTE L'OPERE DI NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI Segretario e Cittadino Fiorentino: con una Prefazione di Giuseppe Baretti.

      London, Thomas Davies, 1772. Three volumes, complete set, Italian text, 4to, 305 x 230 mm, 12" x 9", frontispiece portrait in Volume I, 3 folding plates in Volume II, pages lx, 407; 453; 580, (1 - description of the plates), bound in full contemporary tree calf, very elegantly and professionally rebacked to style, raised bands to spine, ornate gilt decoration in compartments, gilt lettered contrasting morocco labels, marbled endpapers. Corners expertly restored, few minor scuffs to covers, armorial bookplate on first pastedowns, slight offsetting from portrait onto title page, a few pages lightly age-browned, occasional light foxing chiefly to margins, heavy foxing in 2 places in Volume I affecting 10 pages in each case, 3 closed tears, 2 marginal, 1 into text with no loss, all with neat old repairs, one upper edge slightly ragged, 1 corner tip missing, binding tight and firm. A very good handsome set.Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 –1527) was a Florentine statesman and political philosopher. As a theorist, he was the key figure in realistic political theory, crucial to European statecraft during the Renaissance. His two most famous books, Discourses on Livy and The Prince, were written in the hope of improving the conditions of the Northern Italian principalities, but became general handbooks for a new style in politics. The Prince, written to encourage the appearance of a political saviour who would unify the corrupt city-states and fend off foreign conquest, advocated the theory that whatever was expedient was necessary—an early example of utilitarianism and realpolitik. Images sent on request.