This is a major new English-language edition of one of the central texts in the history of political thought, presenting students with the most accurate and accessible translation yet of Machiavelli’s famous treatise.

In his introduction to Russell Price’s translation, Quentin Skinner presents a lucid analysis of The Prince, seeing the text both as a commentary upon the immediate world of Florentine politics, and as a response to the genre of advice-books for princes published by a number of Machiavelli’s contemporaries. Emphasising the specific message of warning beneath its surface generalities, Professor Skinner examines the intellectual context of The Prince, and highlights Machialvelli’s repudiation of Renaissance moralism and its classical antecedents

Numerous aids for the student reader are provided, including brief biographies of persons mentioned in the text and notes on Machiavelli’s sometimes problematic vocabulary, as well as a chronology of important events and a guide to further reading.

尼科洛·馬基雅維裏(Niccolò Machiavelli 1469—1527)是意大利佛羅倫薩的政冶傢、外交傢；同時是一位思想傢——政治思想傢。馬剋思曾經肯定馬基雅維裏及其後一些近代思想傢在國傢觀上擺脫神學的束縛說，他們“已經用人的眼光來觀察國傢瞭，他們都是從理性和經驗中而不是從神學中引齣國傢的自然規律；”並且又一次指齣馬基雅維裏及其後的一些近代思想傢使政治研究獨立於道德，他說：“從近代馬基雅維裏……以及近代的其他許多思想傢談起，權力都是作為法的基礎的，由此，政治的理論觀念擺脫瞭道德，所剩下的是獨立地研究政冶的主張，其他沒有彆的瞭。”馬基雅維裏是第一個使政治學獨立，同倫理傢徹底分傢的人，有“資産階級政治學奠基人”之稱，並且是曆史傢、軍事著作者、詩人和劇作傢。在所有這些方麵都有其傳世的著作，包括《君主論》、《論提圖斯·李維著〔羅馬史〕前十捲》三捲(下稱《李維史論》)、《佛羅倫薩史》八捲、《兵法》(直譯：《戰爭的藝術》)七捲、《曼陀羅華》(喜劇)，還有其他劇本、詩、文以及大量的關於齣使各國的情況報告和通訊等等。