Niccolò Machiavelli wrote 'The Prince' & 'Discourses on Livy' in the wake of his exile from Florence, which occurred following the restoration of the Medici regime after Niccolò's benefactor Piero Soderini was removed from power in 1512 A.D. & forced to flee the city. The pair of historical treatises represents Machiavelli's interpretations & opinions on political theory in regards to two very dissimilar forms of government : the principality & the republic. Niccolò spent much of his professional life working as a bureaucratic aide which most likely gave him sufficient time & reason in which to devote to history & philosophy at his leisure or in his spare time. Like many Italian men & women living during the Renaissance Era in history, Niccolò Machiavelli viewed the 142-book history authored by Titus Livius, 'Ab Urbe Condita' or 'From the Founding of the City', with a reverence bordering closer to worship. The turbulent period in Italian history related to the rise & the fall of papal tyrant Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) & his incestuous male issue, Duke Valentino (Cesare Borgia) probably left many citizens desperately seeking some source of stability with which they could find solace & comfort. What better place to go than to their own past? Machiavelli wrote his 'Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio' or 'Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius' over a number of years, beginning in (we believe) 1517 A.D.
This edition of 'The Discourses' is from the translation originally completed by Leslie Walker & with revisions by Brain Richardson. It also includes a substantial seventy-page introduction written by Bernard Crick which I found so interesting I read through it twice. At the end of the intro, the reader is provided with a list of suggested further reading that includes such intriguing titles such as Raab's 'The English Face of Machiavelli', Butterfield's 'The Statecraft of Machiavelli', & Leo Strauss' 'Thoughts on Machiavelli'. While I've yet to read these particular titles I can definitely say that I very much hope to at some point in the near future. At the end of this 500-plus-page tome is a very-copious section of expanded notes from which you are able to learn all manner of insightful historical facts relevant not only to 'The Discourses' but also to Machiavelli's sister works 'The Art of War' & 'The Prince'.
The effects of being made to endure the grim realities living in Niccolò Machiavelli's time period of Italian Renaissance history begin to become discernible when reading his writings, in 'The Prince' as well as his 'Discorsi'; much of the language he favors throughout both is flavored with a caustic, unapproachably bitter sarcasm. It permeates these 2 works much as I imagine it would have permeated his character when he was alive. Both expositions are bleak in atmosphere & as well as in substance. When a person lives through periods of intense warfare, strife & political conflict, eventually I'd believe they would begin to perceive their world as through a clouded lens. After Machiavelli's expulsion from the city-state of Florence, the Medici regime subsequently subjected Niccolò to months of torture before finally permitting him to escape with his life & his sanity intact, so I can only imagine how the hardships he underwent hardened his outlook on life & on mankind. Having read not only 'The Discourses' but also 'The Prince', I can attest to the tone & the language of the former being of a comparatively more conservative nature when held next to that of the latter. 'Il Principe' is a work that was probably composed to read a certain way, so as to advocate a very specific vein of government that, thankfully for all of us living in modern times is most assuredly extinct. 'The Discourses' is complex, multi-faceted work that seeks to spread an altogether different message, indicative of Machiavelli's beliefs on how a state is, or should be governed, & even though I was able to discern how the Florentine diplomat's harsh life experiences somewhat sour his outlook at times in the 'narrative', his irrepressible optimism shines through time & time again. Crick's eloquent introduction summarizes both works more effectively than I could hope to do, describing 'The Prince' as "notorious, but short", & 'The Discourses' as "famous, but long".
Niccolò Machiavelli's republican treatise is arranged according to a unique & interesting structure. 'The Discourses' is divided into three lengthy books, each covering a specific area of Rome's history : forming her constitution/government, expanding her empire, & finally, the men of importance who made her great. Each Discourse varies to such a degree in format & length that the very smart (in my opinion) decision is made to further separate them into small groups of 5-10 which make them feel more akin to what modern readers would be comfortable considering as proper chapters. The sole exception to this rule being the final book, in III:VI, entitled 'On Conspiracies'. This is a long discourse & there are rough headings provided, which assist the reader following Machiavelli's brisk pace as he discusses his subject matter.
Machiavelli believed that a state could be governed in six different ways, or more appropriately, three "pure" forms of government operating under ideal virtuous conditions, & three "corrupt" forms the institutions would assume under conditions of crisis or duress. In the native Italian, 'Principato', 'Ottinanti' & 'Popolare' translate to Principality, Aristocracy & Democracy. Their alter-egos were 'Potestà Assoluta', 'Stato di Pochi' & 'Licenzioso', or Tyranny, Oligarchy & Anarchy, all respectively. For such a relatively short professional political career, the depth of Niccolò Machiavelli's competence in comprehending administrative intricacy & political subtlety is impressive by anyone's standards, at any point in history.
It should be noted that while 'The Discourses' technically is a commentary on the history of Titus Livius, Machiavelli is neither bashful nor tentative about inserting events from his own time & of his own choosing to the treatise to augment his eloquently-worded arguments. And the manner in which he goes about accomplishing this, almost always managed to impress me whilst I perused his 'Discorsi'. In section II:XXIV he speaks of the rebellion in 1507 of Genoa against the king of France, Louis XII. Louis seeks to set a grim precedent when he, after retaking the city, constructs the fortified bastion known as 'Codefà' in the center of the city-state to dissuade the populace from further truculence. Codefà unfortunately did not achieve the king's desired effect, when after a sixteen-month siege, the political revolutionary Ottaviano Fregoso seized not only the fortress but control of the city-state a mere five years later, in 1512. At the end of the siege, Fregoso would demolish the castle in a flagrant expression of his utter contempt for the French monarchy.
Early on, it can be ascertained that Niccolò was just as proficient a wordsmith as he was at statecraft. 'The Discourses' is more refined, both mechanically & stylistically than its heavy-handed authoritarian counterpart 'Il Principe'. Not necessarily better, but more subtle & elegant in my opinion. He effortlessly integrates key concepts into the curriculum in a way that makes sense even today. Among my favorites is the stark portrait he paints of the nobility & the masses, 'chi vuole acquistare ou chi vuole mantenere'. In Machiavelli's native Italian, it means 'Those who want to acquire, & Those who want to keep'. Many of the concepts discussed in this book revolve around or involve this fundamental disparity in social class. Trust Niccolò to explain things to you in about as cut-and-dry a manner as is humanly possible to do. He also utilizes another unique concept that also is somewhat noticeable in 'The Prince', that of the proposed "correct" path to tread being one that commits to one path of decisive action, a path precluding the dreaded 'middle path' of indecisiveness such as the Samnites took at the Battle of the Caudine Forks in Rome's Second Samnite War. When the Roman army wandered into Samnite territory, the troops entered a crevasse of sorts that essentially trapped them & placed them in a very vulnerable position. The Samnite forces could have either A:Destroyed them, or B:Let them go, but instead they choose the perilous 'middle path' where they disarmed the Roman army, allowing them to leave in shame & resentment. This ultimately led to Rome returning to win the war, sealing Samnium's fate for all time.
Thanks to the superlative expanded notes & an array of astute stylistic decisions on the part of the translator, readers can experience Machiavelli's significant concepts in his native Italian language, in addition to the usual Latin terms you might expect in a book that discusses the 'Ab Urbe Condita' as its primary focus. All three books in his 'Discorsi' are rife with the author's eloquent if somewhat austere axioms that remain interesting to ruminate upon today, even as the brutal context that Renaissance Italy immersed his political dictum within is thankfully no longer relevant as it was in Niccolò's era. The detrimental effect of ridiculing one's foes is summed up wonderfully in II:XXVI, "For smart sayings, when they border on the truth, leave a bitter taste behind them." In 'On Conspiracies' the author laments of the scenario where a group of men conspire to kill a ruler who is beloved by the people, stating that "..when the people are well disposed to the prince you have killed; for in such a case, since there is no remedy to which the conspirators can have recourse, there is no chance of their ever obtaining security." He goes on to provide the assassination of Julius Caesar as an example of an ill-conceived conspiracy which ends in the conspirators' utter ruination.
I think I've droned on long enough already about how much I loved this book, time to bring things to a close. For the determined reader, I would think that 'The Discourses' should take somewhere in the neighborhood of two weeks of dedicated reading to get through. It helps to have read similar literary works of a comparable difficulty level. I personally would suggest to someone interested in this book to have first read Titus Livy's 'The Early History of Rome : Books I-V' & 'Rome & Italy : Books VI-X' as well as Niccolò Machiavelli's 'The Prince' or ('Il Principe', it's the same difference.) I'm sure you can get editions of these books by whatever publisher you prefer but the editions I read were the Penguin Classics versions, which all are excellent, by the way. They all feature easily-readable translation work & wonderful supplementary materials so I'd highly recommend all of them. If you would like to learn a bit about the interesting power dynamic prevalent in the Republic of Genoa, 'La Superba' & the maritime city-state's multi-faceted relationship with the Habsburgs of Spain following Ottaviano Fregoso's successful 1507 coup d'état, Professor Thomas Allision Kirk's 2013 'Genoa & The Sea: Policy & Power In An Early Modern Maritime Republic : 1559 – 1684' is an unbelievably well-written study that explains the bitter rivalry of the Fregoso & the Adorno families, which was shortly followed by the rise of Genoa's 'Pater Patriae', Andrea Doria. Kirk's study is excellent supplementary material to the episode in Machiavelli's 84th Discourse. It is absolutely possible for you to just jump into 'The Discourses' without reading any of the aforementioned titles if you so desire, but I think you'll get so much more out of the book if you have those three titles under your belt, prior to starting this one. It makes the 'Discorsi' more fun to experience, in my opinion. And that's what reading books like this should be all about, just having fun learning about our history.
I hope you enjoyed reading my review, & perhaps learned a bit about Roman History & Niccolò Machiavelli !
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Reviews with images
Better than the prince
It's a political guidebook written by Machiavelli himself. Need I say more?Oh, fine, this is a review after all.It goes into the nitty gritty of why things work the way they do with all the charm and wit the man is known for.Still though, it is less flavourful than the prince, and part of his work is disproven by modern politics. But I still see value in a majority of what he says, and unspoken truths are also spoken plainly in his writing. I have learned quite a bit as a result.... But I was dissapointed.This book, although well established and valuable, is also over hyped. It is an older cookbook for a nation, not much else.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2022
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2023
It's a political guidebook written by Machiavelli himself. Need I say more?
Oh, fine, this is a review after all.
It goes into the nitty gritty of why things work the way they do with all the charm and wit the man is known for.
Still though, it is less flavourful than the prince, and part of his work is disproven by modern politics. But I still see value in a majority of what he says, and unspoken truths are also spoken plainly in his writing. I have learned quite a bit as a result.
... But I was dissapointed.
This book, although well established and valuable, is also over hyped. It is an older cookbook for a nation, not much else.
Oh, fine, this is a review after all.
It goes into the nitty gritty of why things work the way they do with all the charm and wit the man is known for.
Still though, it is less flavourful than the prince, and part of his work is disproven by modern politics. But I still see value in a majority of what he says, and unspoken truths are also spoken plainly in his writing. I have learned quite a bit as a result.
... But I was dissapointed.
This book, although well established and valuable, is also over hyped. It is an older cookbook for a nation, not much else.
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Georg H.
Some other reviews are outdated - bought a different product
Reviewed in Germany on April 30, 2023
Georg H.
Reviewed in Germany on April 30, 2023
+ page numbers exist
+ book three exists
+ an introduction exists
As for the book itself, the paper quality is only okay as the paper is very thin, which is always problematic if you like to take notes or mark a lot
The quality of the content of the book is self-explanatory. Discourses is one of the foundational pieces of political philosophy and a must-read for everyone interested in the topic. As typical for Machiavelli, there is a lot of realism in the book and only little wishful thinking as in most other political philosophy
Only 4/5 on account of the paper quality
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Patrick Sullivan
A Brilliant Analysis Of Human Events
Reviewed in Canada on December 8, 2009sanyata
A Milestone in Political Philosophy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2008