MACHIAVELLI, Niccolò [and] MORNAY, Philippe Du Plessis

A most interesting sammelband with uncommon editions of three important early modern political texts: Niccolò Machiavelli’s ‘Prince’ and the ‘Discourses’ (here in the second Latin ed.), and Philippe Du Plessis Mornay’s ‘Vindiciae contra Tyrannos’. Machiavelli (1469- 1527) was an Italian historian, writer, diplomat and politician who served for many years as senior official for the Republic of Florence until 1512, when the Medici regained power and he was first imprisoned and then exiled. His most famous work, the ‘Principe’, composed in 1513 and unpublished in Italy until 1532, was so controversial for the ruthlessness the author seemingly advocated in ambitious princes that ‘Machiavellian’ became synonym with realpolitik and reason of state. Whilst discussing different forms of government, the ‘Prince’ and the ‘Discourses’ summarise Machiavelli’s views on how one person should rule over one state – whether a principality or a republic – so as to achieve political strength for that state.

Despite his Republican leanings, Machiavelli also wrote more pragmatically about princes as a reflection of the political situation of his time. ‘The controversy that surrounded the publication of Machiavelli’s works by Perna in Basel in 1580 helped end the era of Latin translations by Italian Protestants who sought refuge in the city. Following the publication of the “Contre Machiavel” by Gentillet in Geneva (1576) […] came the diffusion of Anti- Machiavellism in the German-speaking territories. […] Jacob Foillet, a former assistant in Perna’s press in Basle, was particularly active in publishing Machiavelli’s writings in Mümperlgardt, ruled by the House of Württemberg. […] The 1591 ed. of the ‘Discourses’ was published with ‘a dedicatory letter to Joannes Oschmolsky, […] an important and little- known figure in the publication of Machiavelli’s writings in Switzerland’ (Guidi, pp.139-40). The third work, originally published in Basle in 1579, was written under the pseudonym Stephanus Junius Brutus, and has been attributed to Philippe de Mornay (1549-1623), a Huguenot apologist, very close to Henri IV. Thematically, it ties in perfectly with the first two works, in that it examines what happens when a sole ruler, here a king, turns into a tyrant. It asks and answers four points concerning whether people should obey a king that goes against the law, and whether they should have the duty to resist a king – as Mornay says they should – who is destroying the commonwealth. A most interesting political sammelband.