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Books, Autographs & Prints

Tuesday 11 November 2025 e Wednesday 12 November 2025, 03:00 PM • Rome

126

Machiavelli, Niccolò

All the Works of Nicolo Machiavelli, 1550

Estimate

€ 400 - 600

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Information

Snt, 1550 [but Geneva, 1610-1620]. In 4°. Two volumes. Woodcut portrait with bust of Machiavelli on the title page, taken from the impression of the Discourses made by Comin da Trino in 1540, and from which derives the name of the Testina edition by which the five printings (which in turn include numerous variants) that were made are universally designated, all dated between 1610 and 1620 with the fictitious wording of 1550, at the end of Dell'Arte della Guerra , double sheet with a beautiful woodcut engraving with the general conformation of the military barracks as theorized by Machiavelli, usual foxing and blushing, the body of the volume partially detached from the binding of volume I.

Specialist Notes

THE FAMOUS EDITION OF THE HEAD.

These are five editions bearing the date 1550 on the title page, but which are actually 17th-century forgeries. They constitute an interesting bibliographical case due to the particular difficulty of identification due to the presence of variants, issues, and recompositions, and they testify to Machiavelli's enormous success beyond the Alps. The works contained are: The Florentine Histories; The Prince; Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius; The Art of War; The Golden Ass, Mandrake, and Clizia. There are five editions of the Testina, all fully 17th-century, write Bertelli and Innocenti in their rigorous Machiavellian bibliography, disproving the reduction to just three printings that had been proposed in the 19th century by Angelo Ridolfi in his Thoughts on the Purpose of Niccolò Machiavelli in the Book of the Prince (Milan, 1810). Bertelli-Innocenti, 16th century, p. 79, no. 205. Gamba, 623, No. 5 (a very detailed description of the typographical peculiarities of the print run). Olschki, Choix, 4775-76. Razzolini-Bacchi Della Lega, p. 206 (meticulous description of the five print runs). Brunet, III, 1274.

Condition report

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