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Machiavelli in the British Isles: Two Early Modern Translations of the Prince
Machiavelli in the British Isles reassesses the impact of Machiavelli's <>The Prince in sixteenth-century England and Scotland through the analysis of early English translations produced before 1640, surviving in manuscript form. This study concentrates on two of the four extant sixteenth-century versions: William Fowler's Scottish translation and the Queen's College (Oxford) English translation, which has been hitherto overlooked by scholars.
Alessandra Petrina begins with an overview of the circulation and readership of Machiavelli in early modern Britain before focusing on the eight surviving manuscripts. She reconstructs each manuscript's history and the afterlife of the translations before moving to a detailed examination of two of the translations. Petrina's investigation of William Fowler's translation takes into account his biography, in order to understand the Machiavellian influence on early modern political thought.
Her study of the Queen's College translation analyses the manuscript's provenance as well as technical details including writing and paper quality. Importantly, this book includes annotated editions of both translations, which compare the texts with the original Italian versions as well as French and Latin versions. With this volume Petrina has compiled an important reference source, offering easy access to little-known translations and shedding light on a community of readers and scholars who were fascinated by Machiavelli, despite political or religious opinion.
Alessandra Petrina begins with an overview of the circulation and readership of Machiavelli in early modern Britain before focusing on the eight surviving manuscripts. She reconstructs each manuscript's history and the afterlife of the translations before moving to a detailed examination of two of the translations. Petrina's investigation of William Fowler's translation takes into account his biography, in order to understand the Machiavellian influence on early modern political thought.
Her study of the Queen's College translation analyses the manuscript's provenance as well as technical details including writing and paper quality. Importantly, this book includes annotated editions of both translations, which compare the texts with the original Italian versions as well as French and Latin versions. With this volume Petrina has compiled an important reference source, offering easy access to little-known translations and shedding light on a community of readers and scholars who were fascinated by Machiavelli, despite political or religious opinion.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Alessandra Petrina
19 books1 followerAlessandra Petrina is Professor of English Literature at the Università di Padova, Italy.
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June 13, 2026
【Machiavelli in the British Isles / Alessandra Petrina / 2009, Ashgate】
It always has been a constarnation to see Niccolò Machiavelli been simplified everywhere, from the modern self-help to English Renaissance. I came to know that it was from the fact he had been an underground author, at least in the Anglosphere, with somewhat omnipotent notoriety of puns like "Much devill" (an important indication in this book is that anagrams has also been used from good faith, including the name of the monarch - see p. 88, Chapter 4).
There are books that are unread and really popular / notorious. For example, Japanese animations are really popular, especially its dramaturgy, but hardly anyone realizes animations are that good because its core actors in its pioneering days were actually the most skilled actors in Japan who funded themselves with voice acting for unprofitable actings from Shakespeare to Ionesco.
In the case of Machiavelli, he was translated only privately, sometimes even without any information to find the translator (in the case of Queen's College Cambridge, for example). He was bootlegged even seen from the publication standards of the era. That's understood how he was misread.
It always has been a constarnation to see Niccolò Machiavelli been simplified everywhere, from the modern self-help to English Renaissance. I came to know that it was from the fact he had been an underground author, at least in the Anglosphere, with somewhat omnipotent notoriety of puns like "Much devill" (an important indication in this book is that anagrams has also been used from good faith, including the name of the monarch - see p. 88, Chapter 4).
There are books that are unread and really popular / notorious. For example, Japanese animations are really popular, especially its dramaturgy, but hardly anyone realizes animations are that good because its core actors in its pioneering days were actually the most skilled actors in Japan who funded themselves with voice acting for unprofitable actings from Shakespeare to Ionesco.
In the case of Machiavelli, he was translated only privately, sometimes even without any information to find the translator (in the case of Queen's College Cambridge, for example). He was bootlegged even seen from the publication standards of the era. That's understood how he was misread.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review