The Prince (2019) is a joint editing project created by Sean Messarra, PhD candidate in History, UCLA, and Luca Messarra, PhD candidate in English, Stanford.
This edition calls for the adoption of a radically different approach to reading this classic text of political philosophy, one that would have been unthinkable to the Florentine himself, but which the editors hope offers the possibility for fresh and creative interpretations. The Prince (2019) provides two different texts in one volume. The first text has been edited as to remove every single reference Machiavelli makes to ancient history and contemporary affairs; that is to say, every sentence involving history has been expunged from the text. What is left behind from these edits are Machiavelli’s lessons from history, his principles, his theory. The second text has been edited as to remove every single one of these lessons, principles, and theories which Machiavelli derives from his study of history and knowledge of contemporary politics. What is left behind from these edits is a text of history.
The literature on Machiavelli’s theory of history and his usage of history in his political inquiry is substantial. By
releasing this edition, it is not the intention of the editors to highlight any shortcomings of these rich and intriguing bodies of research. Rather, it is our intention to offer a device through which scholars and students can experience and see this canonical text with different lenses. What happens when one reads The Prince devoid of all its depthful historical references? What happens when all one sees are the principles, the theory, derived from
Machiavelli’s study of the past? Conversely, what happens
when one only reads his account of history and is prevented
from seeing the theoretical propositions he derives? In
short: to what extent does the architecture of The Prince
affect our understanding of it? How does history make
theory, and vice versa?
Undocumented press 