Niccolò Machiavelli’s “The Prince” was among the first and most impactful works of modern political philosophy ever published, describing a guide for political strategy predicated upon the notion that leaders must use unscrupulous methods to obtain and preserve power.
Published in 1532, five years after the philosopher and political theorist’s death, the treatise gave rise to the word “Machiavellian,” used to describe his controversial worldview.
Only 12 copies are believed to exist. Only half of those are held outside of Italy.
A first-edition has never surfaced for public auction until now, as Sotheby’s will sell a previously unknown copy at auction with a high estimate of $375,000.
“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.”
Consigned by a private collector, the book’s provenance has been traced back to Biblioteca Magliabechiana in Florence. The library sold and exchanged books, however this copy cannot be found in the sales records. It then found itself in the possession of American insurance mogul Henry Wheelwright Marsh who co-founded Marsh McLennan, later arriving in the hands of the current seller.
At the time of the book’s release, it was considered so beyond the pale the Catholic Church named it to a list of prohibited books in 1559, leading to these early copies becoming extremely scarce. The auction house notes that the title-page of the book, which is not included on this copy, “might have been removed deliberately in order to circumvent confiscation by the authorities.”
In 2022, a less-desirable and more common translated copy published in 1640 sold for $132,300.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.