Rare first edition of Machiavelli's famous leadership treatise, 'The Prince,' goes up for auction

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a Florentine diplomat, writer and political theorist whose most famous written work is 'The Prince.' (Archive Photos / Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

London -

The Italian Renaissance diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli has become synonymous with subtle scheming. And now, an extremely rare first edition of his most famous work, the political manual “The Prince,” is going up for auction, with an expected sale price of up to £300,000 (US$375,000).

The copy of the early 16th-century book is one of only 11 first editions to be recorded, according to auction house Sotheby’s. While all the others are held by institutional libraries, largely in Italy, this example comes from a private collector and was previously unknown.

“We were not aware of any other copies in private hands, and this is the first copy that we are aware of to have come to auction, certainly in recent decades,” Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby’s Books & Manuscripts specialist, told CNN.

“So, we have one of the great works of political theory of all time, one of the most famous books of the 16th century and it’s a very first edition, and unique opportunity for a copy to come to auction,” he added.

Heaton said the auction house is “delighted” and “excited” to offer the “incredibly rare book” at Sotheby’s in London in its next Books & Manuscripts auction, which runs from November 28 to December 12.

He described this copy of “The Prince,” which is still in its early-17th-century Italian binding, as “very interesting.”

This copy of 'The Prince' is one of only 11 recorded first editions, according to Sotheby's. (Courtesy Sotheby's via CNN Newsource)

It is bound with another of Machiavelli’s works, a second edition of his longest book, “Florentine Histories.”

As well as being a writer, Machiavelli was a diplomat who served in the Florentine government until the republic was overthrown by the Medici family in 1512.

He wrote “The Prince” in 1513, after being imprisoned on suspicion of conspiracy and retiring to his father’s property in the Florentine commune San Casciano.

The political treatise, dedicated to Florentine ruler Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, was circulated as a manuscript before Machiavelli’s death in 1527. Seven manuscripts, some of which were written by his former colleague Biagio Buonaccorsi, are recorded to have been published after his death and before 1532.

Approximately 15 editions were in circulation before the Catholic Church banned the text by listing it on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559. The Index forbids books considered dangerous to the faith or morals of Roman Catholics. The text was only published again more than seven decades later.

The copy up for sale — which was in an Italian library until the middle of the 19th century and passed through several hands before being acquired by an English private collector — is from 1532.

The book was printed in 1532 and bound with Machiavelli's 'Florentine Histories' in an Italian binding, according to Sotheby's. (Courtesy Sotheby's via CNN Newsource)

Its title page is removed, possibly “in order to circumvent confiscation by the authorities,” the auction house said, describing it as perhaps material evidence of the text’s “illicit status in Renaissance Italy post-1559.”

Machiavelli’s text advises princes to learn not to be good but to act according to necessity — and this move away from looking at utopian ideals of the way humans and the world are, and instead at reality, led him to be considered the founder of modern political science.

An early reader of this copy has put brackets in the margins of chapter 18, a section with some of the book’s “most strikingly modern pronouncements about the necessity for a savvy politician to manipulate the gulf between appearances and reality to his own ends,” according to its catalogue note, which adds that Machiavelli’s philosophical stance must be contextualised by the “exceptionally volatile political climate” of the time, during which “even a skilled politician could undergo a sudden and dramatic fall from grace.”

Machiavelli is “a writer who has intrigued people ever since the book was first written. He gives a very clear-sighted view of the nature of political power, and especially the way that political power is exercised in times of turbulence and uncertainty,” said Heaton.