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Machiavelli's Reading List

Nicholas Antongiavanni (Washington, DC USA)
Qualifications: avid Nick reader

Livy: History of Rome, Books 1-2, (LCL, 114) by Foster
$21.50 Used & New from: $21.32
There are 14 volumes. Nick read them all. So should you.

The Education of Cyrus (Agora Editions) by Xenophon
$19.95 Used & New from: $15.96
The only book mentioned by name in The Prince. (Though Nick deliberately gets the name wrong.) A fantastic translation of the most enjoyable book in classical literature.

On Tyranny by Leo Strauss
$20.00 Used & New from: $17.30
Xenophon's short dialogue on tyrrany is mentioned in Discourses II 2. Of course, Nick couldn't read Strauss or Kojeve, but you should.

Dante: Monarchy (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) by Dante
$19.99 Used & New from: $9.79
Only other book Nick mentions by name in the Prince or the Discourses (I 53). The quote he cites is actually from another book, but who's counting?

The Landmark Thucydides : A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War by Robert B. Strassler
$15.75 Used & New from: $6.50
Nick only mentions this once (Discourses III 16), and not by name, but stories and lessons herefrom pervade his writings.

The Aeneid (Vintage Classics) by Robert Fitzgerald
$7.70 Used & New from: $1.47
As Virgil put in the mouth of Dido, "Don't blame me!" (Prince 17).

Cicero: On Duties (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) by Marcus Tullius Cicero
$17.99 Used & New from: $4.89
Lampooned in Chapter 18 of The Prince.

Polybius: The Histories, Vol. 3 by Polybius
$21.50 Used & New from: $19.49
Not translated into Italian or Latin in Nick's time, yet a nearly word-for-word summary of Book VI appears in Discourses I 2. Could it be that Nick knew Greek?

City of God (Penguin Classics) by St. Augustine
Used & New from: $1.37
Imagined principality number one.

The Republic of Plato by Plato
$14.92 Used & New from: $4.49
Imagined principality number two.

Plutarch: Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (Modern Library Series, Vol. 1) by Plutarch
$15.72 Used & New from: $10.00
Essential "matter."

Tacitus: Histories I-III (Loeb III) by Tacitus
$21.50 Used & New from: $14.24
Also essential, and not just for understanding the "Tacitean subsection" (Discourses III 19-23).

Plautus : The Darker Comedies. Bacchides, Casina, and Truculentus by David R. Slavitt
$25.00 Used & New from: $18.75
Machiavelli's play "Clizia" is a rewrite of Plautus's "Casina."

Frontinus: The Stratagems and the Aqueducts of Rome (Loeb Classical Library, No 174) by Frontinus
$21.50 Used & New from: $19.95
Major, if unacknowledged, source for Nick's Art of War

Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers (Loeb Classical Library #184) by Laertius Diogenes
$21.50
31 of 34 witty sayings of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca are cribbed (without attribution, natch) from this book.

Ovid II: The Art of Love and Other Poems (Loeb Classical Library 232) by Ovid
$21.50 Used & New from: $14.75
Nick liked to read Ovid "or one of the minor poets" when reminiscing about lost loves.

Petrarch: The Canzoniere, or Rerum vulgarium fragmenta by Mark Musa
$28.62 Used & New from: $18.99
See above. Also quoted at the end of The Prince.

Defensor pacis by Cary J. Nederman
$27.50 Used & New from: $7.95
Leo Strauss makes the case that Nick read, absorbed, and dismissed this early attempt at modernity.

Xenophon: Anabasis (Loeb Classical Library) by Xenophon
$21.50 Used & New from: $18.00
I have no doubt that Nick read and loved this. He can't mention it, however, as Socrates figures prominently.

Memorabilia by Xenophon
$49.95 Used & New from: $25.00
No doubt he read this too, but he would never say so.

The History of Italy by Francesco Guicciardini
$17.61 Used & New from: $9.95
History useful for understanding Machiavelli, by one of Nick's best friends. Written after Nick's death, but he would have read it if he could. You definitely should.

The Sweetness of Power: Machiavelli's Discourses & Guicciardini's Considerations by Niccolo Machiavelli
$55.00 Used & New from: $45.00
The only English translation of Guicciardini's commentary on the Discourses currently in print. Alas, Nick was dead by the time G. finished this. He would have been amused by it.

Sallust (Loeb 116) by Crispus C. Sallustius
$21.50 Used & New from: $17.00
More matter.

The Divine Comedy : Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (in one volume) (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) by Dante Alighieri
$15.60 Used & New from: $15.15
Another enemy.

The Holy Bible: King James Version
$4.99 Used & New from: $1.34
THE enemy!

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