Niccolò Machiavelli counts among the most famous (and infamous) political authors in the history of Western political thought, primarily on account of his book the Prince. Before he wrote that notorious treatise, however, he served for fourteen years as a prominent and active civil administrator in the government of the Republic of Florence. Removed from office in 1512, following a take-over by the Medici dynasty that had ruled the city during much of the fifteenth century, Machiavelli was incarcerated and tortured as a result of unsubstantiated accusations of his involvement in a coup plot. Soon after his release from prison, he composed the Prince, which is generally seen to constitute the beginning of his career as a political theorist as well as a comic playwright, poet and military analyst of note. Yet little attention has been devoted to the large body of writings—in the form of prose and poetry, as well as the hundreds of pages of diplomatic and personal correspondence—that he produced in the course of his public service. In an unprecedented interpretation, The Rope and the Chains carefully examines the neglected pre-Prince texts in order to frame his later theories. The book reveals that Machiavelli’s thought prior to the Prince was largely conventional when judged by the standards of his day. At the same time, it also demonstrates his dissatisfaction with the intellectual worldview in which he was enmeshed. Machiavelli “became� Machiavelli once liberated from the rope and the chains by which centuries of tradition had constrained him.

A textbook anthology of important works of political thought revealing the development of ideas from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Includes new translations of both well-known and ignored writers, and an introductory overview.

This textbook anthology contains new translations of a selection of important works of medieval political theory. It includes both well known figures such as Thomas Aquinas and John of Salisbury and lesser known figures, including two women, Christine de Pizan and Marie de France. Cary Nederman and Kate Forhan have made their selections on the basis of intellectual importance, geographical range and representativeness. The volume encompasses texts from the Latinized regions of Western Europe, including England, France, Germany and Italy, and gives expression to a wide range of medieval perspectives on politics. A general discussion of medieval political culture introduces the book: the editors identify the main historical religious and philosophical assumptions underpinning the medieval political tradition. This textbook is designed for students of political theory and aims to expose them directly to the texts without enmeshing them in complexities beyond the scope of an introductory course. It is also suitable for students of medieval history and philosophy.