DE REGNO ADVERSUS NIC. MACHIAVELLUM LIBRI TRES.
Lugd. Batavorum: Hieronymum de Vogel, 1647. Hardcover. 18mo: [xxiv], 594, [17, index], [1, blank] pp. with the engraved title page. Full period vellum blinding, with very faint holographic titles at the spine head and yapp edges. The contents are clean and bright. Some mild soiling to the vellum; else an exceptionally well-preserved example of Gentillet's influential Anti-Machiavel.
Gentillet, a Huguenot lawyer and politician, wrote and published the Discours sur les moyens de bien gouverner (Sermon on the means of governing), in which he condemned the ideas of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), suspected of trying to introduce impiety and immorality in government. The book, translated and published in Latin in 1577, then in English, was widely read throughout Europe until the mid-17th century. Gentillet argues that the source of wealth of a state is its large population. He believes that the infighting and bad laws are contrary to the development of population and condemned luxury as detrimental to national welfare. Very good. Item #79181
Price: $950.00