Machiavelli in Context | The Prince, 1–5: Republics Old and New (Lecture 6)

Lecture 6: If we are going to understand The Prince, we need to take seriously its author’s words. Hence, in this and the following five lectures, we will be “text crawling.” First, we will need to consider the original and revised dedications of the book—both to members of the Medici family. We will also consider how this work can be seen as an attempt to win the favor of the Medici so that Machiavelli could return to Florence and be of service to his beloved city.

The first few chapters are often passed over rather quickly, for they are something of a catalogue of types of principalities and ways that they acquire new territory.

Chapter 4 is Machiavelli’s first extended use of examples from classical antiquity to illuminate his discussion. He also makes use of the examples of the Ottoman Empire and France in his own time. We will discuss this chapter both for Machiavelli’s appeal to the past and the focus of The Prince on the present.

Recommended Readings:
Machiavelli, The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella, chapters 1–5.