MACHIAVEL, NICOLAS Œuvres. Nouvelle édition augmentée de l'Anti-Machiavel & d'autres pièces. La Haye, aux dépens de la Compagnie, 1743. 6 volumes in-12 (158 x 96 mm) de 2 ff.n.ch., XVI, 591 pp. pour le volume I ; 2 ff.n.ch., 429 pp. pour le volume II ; 2 ff.n.ch., XXII pp., 1 f.n.ch., 374 pp. 8 tableaux dépliants (dont 7 typographiques et 1 gravé) pour le volume III ; 2 ff.n.ch., XXXII, 446 pp. pour le volume IV ; 2 ff.n.ch., 480 pp. pour le volume V ; 2 ff.n.ch., LX, 485 pp. pour le volume VI. Vélin ivoire, dos lisse orné du titre doré, tranches rouges (reliure de l' époque).
Première édition des Oeuvres de Machiavel contenant l'Anti-Machiavel de Frédéric le Grand dans la version éditée par Voltaire.
“The history of the publication of the Anti-Machiavel is, of course, fascinating. the nub of the matter being the coincidence of Frederick's ascending the throne when publication of his work, maintaining that rulers should govern according to the principles of private morality rather than what we would now call realpolitik, was embarrassingly imminent. As far as content is concerned, Voltaire made some modifications, but not many. [He] eliminated those elements that might jeopardize the international standing of a new (and young) European potentate. These changes involved in particular the elimination of over-dismissive judgements of reigning
European heads of state and vigorous anti-clerical or even antireligious statements. He ruthlessly excised every pleonasm, every redundant (according to classical tenets) image, every tendency to lengthy rhetoric, and every expression of general ideological principles (with which Frederick tended to introduce each chapter of his commentary). As a consequence, Frederick's text was reduced by one third, which, coincidentally, represents the proportion of notes to text for the Anti-Machiavel, so that (since the Refutation is not annotated) the two texts are of almost identical length” (Richard
Waller, The Modern Language Review, Vol. 94, no 3, 1999, p. 828).
Très bon exemplaire.
