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Dictionary of the History of Ideas

Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas
  
  

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Machiavelli's principal works—the Principe, the Discorsi,
and the Istorie Fiorentine—were first printed in Rome in
1531, but before they were printed, they circulated in
manuscript copies, and throughout the sixteenth century,
handwritten copies remained as important for the spread
of Machiavelli's ideas as printed editions; on this, see Adolf
Gerber, Niccolò Machiavelli. Die Handschriften, Ausgaben
und Übersetzungen Seiner Werke im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert

(1913; reprint Turin, 1962), although since the appearance
of Gerber's book in 1913, additional handwritten copies of
the Principe and the Discorsi have been discovered.

The classical work on the history of Machiavellism is
Friedrich Meinecke, Die Idee der Staatsräson (1924; Mu-
nich, 1960), trans. D. Scott as Machiavellism (New Haven,
1957). The older work of Charles Benoist, Le Machia-
vélisme,
3 vols. (Paris, 1907-36), has now become obsolete
although its references to source materials remain valuable.
Of a somewhat different character is the book by Giuliano
Procacci, Studi sulla Fortuna del Machiavelli, Istituto
Storico Italiano per l'Età Moderna e Contemporanea
(Rome, 1965), which investigates the developments of
Machiavelli scholarship rather than the history of the influ-
ence of Machiavelli's ideas.

On the intellectual developments in the Middle Ages
foreshadowing Machiavellism and the doctrine of reason of
state, see Gaines Post, Studies in Medieval Legal Thought
(Princeton, 1964).

For the developments from the later Middle Ages to the
seventeenth century, see Rodolfo de Mattei, Dal pre-
machiavellismo all'antimachiavellismo,
Biblioteca Storica
Sansoni, Nuova serie XLVI (Florence, 1969), and the peri-
odical Il Pensiero Politico, 1, No. 3 (Florence, 1969); this
issue is devoted to Machiavellism and anti-Machiavellism
in the sixteenth century.

For the attitude of the eighteenth century to Machiavelli
and Machiavellism, see Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An
Interpretation
(New York, 1966), and Felix Gilbert, “The
'New Diplomacy' of the Eighteenth Century,” World Poli-
tics,
1 (1951), 1-38.

For reason of state and for the change in the views on
Machiavelli in the nineteenth century see the article by
Albert Elkan, “Die Entdeckung Machiavellis in Deutsch-
land zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts,” Historische Zeit-
schrift,
119 (Munich and Berlin, 1919), 429-58; for more
recent examples of the application of reason of state, see
Alfred Vagts, “Intelligentsia Versus Reason of State,” Politi-
cal Science Quarterly,
84 (1969), 80-105.

There are a number of studies on the influence of
Machiavelli and on Machiavellism in individual states: for
Venice, see William J. Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense
of Republican Liberty
(Berkeley and London, 1968); for
France, see the survey by Albert Cherel, La pensée de
Machiavel en France
(Paris, 1935); and for the crucial second
half of the sixteenth century, see Vittorio De Caprariis,
Propaganda e pensiero politico in Francia durante le guerre
di religione,
Vol. I, 1559-1572 (Naples, 1959), and Donald
R. Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship;
Language, Law, and History in the French Renaissance
(New
York, 1970); for England, see Felix Raab, The English Face
of Machiavelli
(London and Toronto, 1964); and for detailed
investigations of Machiavelli's influence on individual
writers, see George L. Mosse, The Holy Pretence (Oxford,


126

1957); H. Butterfield, The Statecraft of Machiavelli (London,
1940); and the article by J. G. A. Pocock, “Machiavelli,
Harrington, and the English Political Ideologies in the
Eighteenth Century,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd
series, 22 (1965), 549-83.

For a recent bibliography, see the article by Richard C.
Clark, “Machiavelli: Bibliographical Spectrum,” Review of
National Literatures,
I (1970), 93-135.

Also of interest is S. E. Hyman, Iago; Some Approaches
to the Illusion of His Motivation
(New York, 1970).

FELIX GILBERT

[See also Balance of Power; Constitutionalism; Nation;
Renaissance Humanism; State.
]