henry frowde oxford university press warehouse amen corner, ec

44 INTRODUCTION.
a book appeared at Naples with the title 'de regnandi
peritial/ This is in fact little more than a Latin version of
The Pr/nce. Some quotations given in the notes to the present
edition will indicate the extent of Nifo's theft, and the following
portion of the dedication will serve to show the system upon
which Nifo worked, and the plan of his book :--
'Inveneris enim in his turn tyrannica, turn regia facinora
breviter explicata, veluti in medicorum literis venena et antidota.
Illa quidem ut fugias; haec vero ut prosequaris. Divisimus
autem materiam universam in quinque libros. In primo quidem
rnodi narrantur, quibus privatae gentes regna acquisierunt. In
secundo arma, milites, ac modi quibus ab hostium invasione
tutati sunt. In tertio jura, astus, versutiae, quibus a subditorum
insultibus, defectionibus, rebellionibusque eadem praeservarunt.
In quarto narrantur communia quaedam, his utrisque utilia sunt.
In quinto denique honestum regnandi genus ostenditur.'
From this the reader will have already gathered that the
first four books contain Nifo's version of The Prince : the fifth
is an addition of his own, and forms the antidote to the poison
of the earlier portion. It is quite possible that Nifo may have
really believed Machiavelli's work intended for an exposition of
the arts of the tyrant, for 'poison' is his own phraseology; and
though Nifo's dishonesty has discredited the value of any
evidence he had to give, it is interesting to find that such an
interpretation could have spontaneously suggested itself to a
contemporary writer.
For the rest, Nifo's method is singularly unfortunate;
he has entirely destroyed the artistic qualities of The Prince;
sometimes Machiavelli's words are expanded in the spirit
of a pedant2; sometimes a single chapter of The Prince
Augustini Niphi Medicae philosophi suessani de regnandi peritla ad Carolum
V imper. Caesarem semper Augustum. At the end is the following :-
Finis Suessae die iii Octobris _tDXXII
Neapoli in aedlbus Dominae Catenne de Siluestro
.A.nno a Nativitate Domini MDXXIH
Die xxvi Martii
Carolo V Romanorum Rege Imperante.
This is followed by an index, and a letter and epigram of fulsome flattery from
P1etro Gravina. It is a thin volume in small quarto, and is, I believe, of considerable
rarity.
2 For example, Bk. i. oh. i, which bears the title ' Quot dominationum genera