Is My The Prince (Il Principe) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The true first is the posthumous Roman edition: [Il principe di Niccholo Machiavello al magnifico Lorenzo di Piero de Medici], Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, dated 4 January 1532, printed five years after Machiavelli's death under a privilege granted to Blado by Pope Clement VII on 23 August 1531
• Sotheby's catalogued a copy as 8vo and 4to (174 x 120mm) with a final blank leaf; the bibliographical reference is Edit16 24013, with USTC recording 11 copies
• It is exceptionally rare: Sotheby's recorded only 12 copies in institutional libraries, just six of them outside Italy, and catalogued a newly surfaced copy in 2024 as previously unknown
• Confirm the Blado imprint and the January 1532 date, and confirm the title leaf is present — it is the leaf most often lacking (the Sotheby's copy itself lacked it)
• Any copy offered outside an established auction house or an ILAB/ABAA specialist should be assumed to be the Giunta second edition, a later Italian edition, or a modern facsimile until collated by a specialist

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
4. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

Original-language precedence: Blado, Rome, 4 January 1532 is the first; Bernardo Giunta's Florence edition of 16 March 1532 follows about ten weeks later and is the SECOND edition, not a rival first. The census note is correct on this point. Both 1532 editions are separately collected, and Giunta copies are the more frequently encountered of the two — Giunta held his own 1531 privilege for Machiavelli's works, which is why two authorized editions appear in the same year. The first edition in English is Edward Dacres's translation: 'Nicholas Machiavel's Prince. Also, The life of Castruccio Castracani of Lucca. And The meanes Duke Valentine us'd to put to death Vitellozzo Vitelli... Translated out of Italian into English by E.D.', London: printed by R. Bishop for Wil. Hils, 1640, 12mo — STC 17168; the work is Printing and the Mind of Man 63. The census note is correct that the 1640 Dacres is the realistic high-spot for an English-language collection; it is itself rare, and was published in the window when episcopal censorship had broken down.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Book-club tells do not apply to the 1532 or 1640 editions. The overwhelming reality for any donated copy is a modern reprint or translation: Everyman, Penguin Classics, Modern Library, Oxford World's Classics, Dover Thrift, the Tudor Translations reprint of the early English versions, and a very large volume of print-on-demand and 'facsimile' reissues, plus 19th- and 20th-century Italian reprints of the Blado or Giunta text. A 1532 or 1640 date printed on a modern reset title page is not a hand-press book: check for laid paper with chain lines, woodcut initials and ornaments, no ISBN, and period binding structure before treating any copy as antiquarian. Note also that Dacres's translation reappeared in later 17th-century printings (the sources consulted place the next English appearance more than twenty years after 1640, censorship having been re-established by 1643), so a Dacres text is not by itself a 1640 first — read the imprint.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Prince (Il Principe) a first edition?

A first edition of The Prince (Il Principe) by Niccolò Machiavelli (Antonio Blado, Rome) is identified by: The true first is the posthumous Roman edition: [Il principe di Niccholo Machiavello al magnifico Lorenzo di Piero de Medici], Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, dated 4 January 1532, printed five years after Machiavelli's death under a privilege granted to Blado by Pope Clement VII on 23 August 1531.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. Original-language precedence: Blado, Rome, 4 January 1532 is the first; Bernardo Giunta's Florence edition of 16 March 1532 follows about ten weeks later and is the SECOND edition, not a rival first.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

Book-club tells do not apply to the 1532 or 1640 editions. The overwhelming reality for any donated copy is a modern reprint or translation: Everyman, Penguin Classics, Modern Library, Oxford World's Classics, Dover Thrift, the Tudor Translations reprint of the early English versions, and a very large volume of print-on-demand and 'facsimile' reissues, plus 19th- and 20th-century Italian reprints of the Blado or Giunta text. A 1532 or 1640 date printed on a modern reset title page is not a hand-

I have a first edition of The Prince (Il Principe) — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.