The Prince: A Clearview Large Print Edition [Large Print]

By Niccolò Machiavelli

Book Overview

The Prince by Niccol Machiavelli, originally published 1532. The Prince was finished in 1513 by an exiled Florentine diplomat who had spent his career watching how Italian city-states actually negotiated power. He wrote it as a job application; it became the founding document of secular political analysis. Machiavelli stripped political advice of its Christian decoration and wrote down what rulers had always done, which is why every generation of moralists has tried and failed to put the decoration back. The book still matters because it is the cleanest description of how power behaves when no one is being watched, which is information no leader and no citizen can afford to be without. This Clearview Editions hardcover is built on a production standard that significantly exceeds the industry norm for large-print publishing. The body text is set at 18-point Atkinson Hyperlegible Next on 24-point leading, a 1.33-ratio line-spacing pairing that meets American Printing House for the Blind and NAVH standards for "super large print." The leading North American large-print hardcover imprints typically set their body text at 16 point, and most large-print trade paperbacks release at 14 to 16 point. At 18 point, Clearview Editions offers text that is measurably larger than every other major large-print publisher, specifically for readers with low vision, macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or any visual condition that makes standard trade print frustrating or impossible to read for long stretches. The trim size is equally generous. Clearview Editions is printed on a 7x10-inch page, substantially larger than the 6x9 hardcover that is standard in the large-print industry and roughly 50 percent larger by area than the 5x8 trade paperback trim most legacy large-print paperback imprints use. The extra page area is deliberate: it allows the 18-point body to set at the 50-to-55 character line length that reading-fatigue research identifies as optimal, without the narrow text columns and cramped margins that plague smaller-trim large-print books. Wide interior margins keep the binding from swallowing the gutter text and leave the thumb margins comfortable for older hands gripping a heavier hardcover. The body font, Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, was developed by the Braille Institute of America specifically to maximize letter recognition for readers with low vision, macular degeneration, and visual processing differences. It distinguishes between commonly-confused letter pairs - lowercase l versus uppercase I, the digit 0 versus uppercase O, b versus d, p versus q - using distinctive shape features that preserve readability even under eye strain. Text is justified with careful hyphenation tuning for a clean right margin without the distracting interword gaps of cheap large-print reprints, every page is protected against widowed and orphaned lines, and all illustrations are reproduced in 300-DPI grayscale on coated white text stock. The text of this edition is faithfully preserved from the original public-domain source with the full structural integrity of parts and chapters as the author intended, and a dedicated "Begin Reading" bookmark anchors the first chapter for readers using digital reading devices or reading software. Clearview Editions is an imprint of Nimble Books LLC, dedicated to bringing the canon of public-domain literature to low-vision readers and to anyone who has ever found standard trade-paperback print too small, too cramped, or too tiring for the kind of sustained reading a great book deserves. Clarity before ornament.

• Format: Hardcover
• Large Print: Yes
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1608888193
• ISBN13: 9781608888191
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Clearview Editions
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 1.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

amazing all over

machiavelli wrote one of the most influential pieces of literature during the 16th century and i’m proud to say that i’ve read it and enjoyed it.

Prince review

This is a must read for literate thinking persons. I have enjoyed the historical setting introduction to the text. It was a valuable enlightenment into the character of Machiavelli, and the events occureing in the nations during Machiavelli's life. Many of the things he speaks of, a person can see repeated or reflected in politics in our world history in the succeeding centuries since Machiavelli's time. A worthwhile way to use reading time. Highly recommended.

A Simple Book, Yet It Holds The Answers To Politics

Machiavelli's The Prince is one of the classic books to center the ideas of gaining and holding power in political life and what a "Prince" must do to not only accomplish these tasks, but do them successfully. This version of the book is a great copy to use and carry around because Penguin has made this short book into a very small compact size, while not compromising text size and even leaving some room to write in the margins. The book itself is a great book that all students of all disciplines should read, if not for enlightenment in their field, just for the pure gains that a person can take out of this book for life applications. When looking toward politics around the world, many political scientists, politicians, and everyday people alike, use the ideas of Machiavelli and his many simple arguments, knowingly or not. So reading this book will help you not only understand these positions but it will also help you keep yourself in an informed state when debating, voting or just talking all things politics. Machiavelli wrote such a good work that there are numerous single line quotations which a person can take out of this book, and many of them great and true, but to really understand, beyond a few lines of text, the real meaning, one must read the book cover to cover.

The virtues of Machiavelli

In the course of my political science training, I studied at great length the modern idea of realpolitik. In that study I came to realise that it was somewhat incomplete, without the companionship of The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, a Florentine governmental official in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The Prince is an oft quoted, oft mis-quoted work, used as the philosophical underpinning for much of what is considered both pragmatic and wrong in politics today. To describe someone as being Machiavellian is to attribute to the person ruthless ambition, craftiness and merciless political tactics. Being believed to be Machiavellian is generally politically incorrect. Being Machiavellian, alas, can often be politically expedient. Machiavelli based his work in The Prince upon his basic understanding of human nature. He held that people are motivated by fear and envy, by novelty, by desire for wealth, power and security, and by a hatred of restriction. In the Italy in which he was writing, democracy was an un-implemented Greek philosophical idea, not a political structure with a history of success; thus, one person's power usually involved the limitation of another person's power in an autocratic way. Machiavelli did not see this as a permanent or natural state of being -- in fact, he felt that, during his age, human nature had been corrupted and reduced from a loftier nobility achieved during the golden ages of Greece and Rome. He decided that it was the corrupting influence of Christianity that had reduced human nature, by its exaltation of meekness, humility, and otherworldliness. Machiavelli has a great admiration for the possible and potential, but finds himself inexorably drawn to the practical, dealing with situations as they are, thus becoming an early champion of realpolitik carried forward into this century by the likes of Kissinger, Thatcher, Nixon, and countless others. One of the innovations of Machiavelli's thought was the recognition that the prince, the leader of the city/state/empire/etc., was nonetheless a human being, and subject to all the human limitations and desires with which all contend. Because the average prince (like the average person) is likely to be focussed upon his own interests, a prince's private interests are generally in opposition to those of his subjects. Fortunate is the kingdom ruled by a virtuous prince, virtue here not defined by Christian or religious tenets, but rather the civic virtue of being able to pursue his own interests without conflicting those of his subjects. Virtue is that which increases power; vice is that which decreases power. These follow Machiavelli's assumptions about human nature. Machiavelli rejected the Platonic idea of a division between what a prince does and what a prince ought to do. The two principle instruments of the prince are force and propaganda, and the prince, in order to increase power (virtue) ought to employ force completely and ruthlessly, a

Power Politics and Diplomacy

Based upon Michiavelli's first hand experience as an emissary of the Florentine Republic to the courts of Europe The Prince analyzes the often violent means by which political power is seized and retained, and the circumstance in which it is lost. Because The Prince is a political commentary, and not a work of fiction, Michiavelli does not use "characters" in the sense of a novel or a short story. Instead he draws his examples from the current political and social events, as well as from history. His characters are the political leaders of his time. The book is a declaration in plain language the conduct of great men and the principles of princely governments. The book can be divided into four sections.1. The types of principalities. Michiavelli lists four types of principalities. * Hereditary principalities, which are inherited by the ruler. * Mixed principalities, territories that are annexed to the rulers existing territories. * New principalities which may be acquired by several methods: by own power, by the power of others by criminal acts or extreme cruelty, or by the will of the people * Ecclesiastical principalities, namely the papal states belonging to the catholic churches.2. The character and behavior of the prince. Michiavelli recommends the following character and behavior for princes: * It is better to be miserly than generous. * It is better to be cruel than merciful. * It is better to break promises if keeping than would be against ones interest. * Princes must avoid making them hated and despised; the goodwill of the people is a better defense than any fortress. * Princes should undertake great projects to enhance their reputation. * Princes should choose wise advisors to confide and consult with3. The types of armies A prince must always pay close attention to military affairs if he wants to remain in power. A prince must lay good foundation and those foundations include good laws and good armies. There cannot be good laws without good armies, and where there are good laws there must be good armies. The study of war should be a prince's main goal, for war is a rulers only art.If princes become too refined to study this art they loose their state. The types of armies are: * Mercenaries or Auxiliaries (loaned to you by another ruler) are both dangerous and unreliable, as they will maintain their interests preceding yours. * Native troops composed of ones own citizens or subjects are by far the most desirable kind. 4. Italy's political situation Michiavelli outlines and recommends the following * The rulers of Italy have lost their states by ignoring the political and military principles. * Fortune controls half of human affairs, but free will controls the rest, leaving the prince free to act. However, the f