MACHIAVELLI , Niccolo (1469-1527) – Agostino NIFO (c.1473-1538 or 1545) - photo 1
MACHIAVELLI , Niccolo (1469-1527) – Agostino NIFO (c.1473-1538 or 1545) - photo 2
MACHIAVELLI , Niccolo (1469-1527) – Agostino NIFO (c.1473-1538 or 1545) - photo 3

MACHIAVELLI , Niccolo (1469-1527) – Agostino NIFO (c.1473-1538 or 1545)

Lot 75
13.12.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 15 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1105614
Lot 75 | MACHIAVELLI , Niccolo (1469-1527) – Agostino NIFO (c.1473-1538 or 1545)
Estimate value
£ 15 000 – 20 000
MACHIAVELLI , Niccolo (1469-1527) – Agostino NIFO (c.1473-1538 or 1545)

Eutychi Augustini Niphi medices philosophi Suessani libellus de his: quę ab optimis principibus agenda sunt. Florence: Filippo Giunta’s heirs, 3 April, 1521.

Extremely rare Machiavelliana; the first edition of perhaps the earliest political treatise inspired by Machiavelli’s The Prince. Agostino Nifo was a major Averroesian philosopher, famously chosen by Pope Leo X to confute Pietro Pomponazzi’s De immortalitate animae. In the years 1519-1522 Nifo was in Florence, and was part of the intellectual circle associated with the Giunti printing house that included Machiavelli; the latter’s Arte della Guerra was published by Giunti in 1521.



According to Bertelli-Innocenti, Bibl. Machiavelliana, the present work shows the clear influence of Machiavelli on Nifo, and is the first political work concerning the behaviour that a prince should adopt in order to be successful. It therefore represents an extremely important and early influence of Machiavelli’s thought on political theory. Two years later in Salerno, Nifo translated Machiavelli’s Italian into Latin, eliminated chapters XV and XXIV-XXVI, restyling ‘The Prince’ into four parts, and adding an additional fifth. Published as De Regnandi peritia in 1523, it was called a direct ‘plagiarism,’ although, as Coyle has noted, ‘Nifo … was careful to adapt his material to the political context of the south. He added a number of contemporary Neapolitan examples’ (Coyle, The Prince, 31).



Rare: RBH only one records one highly defective copy at auction; we can trace 5 copies in the US (Stanford, Newberry, Princeton, JHU and Duke), and 2 in the UK (BL and Oxford). EDIT16 CNCE 55289; Bertelli & Innocenti, Bib. Machiavelliana, pp. xxxi-xxxii and no. 4 (described in the note to De regnandi peritia).



Small quarto (188x126 mm). Roman type, [4], 27 ff. (final leaf with woodcut device supplied from another contemporary work by Giunta bearing the same device and re-margined with early paper and mounted, small marginal stain to lower corner, light waterstains to upper margin and gutter in the second part, occasional scattered spotting mainly confined to fore-edge and heavier to final 2 leaves). Modern wrappers (lightly soiled, endpaper renewed). Provenance: paper label at upper corner of front wrapper numbered in ink manuscript ‘12443’.

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.12.2023 12:00 – 17:00
10.12.2023 12:00 – 17:00
11.12.2023 09:00 – 18:00
12.12.2023 09:00 – 17:00
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.