Gabriele Pedullà

On Niccolò Machiavelli: The Bonds of Politics, by Gabriele Pedullà, presents the works within the important context of the historical moment and Machiavelli's life. This adds nuance to a lot of it and a better perspective for all of it.

I don't know how much of the historical information will be new to most readers (depends whether you're using this as an introduction or as another avenue into Machiavelli) and I'm not sure it matters. This is perhaps one of the most concise and useful overviews of Italian history during that time, with connections made that we might otherwise have missed. This leads seamlessly into the discussion of The Prince using this context to better understand what its purpose likely was.

While I love the contextualization, I was most interested in the analyses of the various works. Admittedly, they go hand-in-hand for Pedullà, a reading of any one of Machiavelli's works must take into account its situatedness. I was only familiar with a couple of the other works and appreciate the way looking at these helped flesh out the larger story.

In looking at how The Prince has been read over the centuries, Pedullà again gave us the historical context for where each of the major (mis)readings originated. Just as the initial work was written for a specific person at a specific time, these readings grew from very specific historical dynamics as well.

Highly recommended for both readers new to Machiavelli and those revisiting him. The writing is accessible and the entire book is just amazingly interesting, from history and politics to the works themselves and their interpretations.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (más)