Lehal Library

xlvii Translator’s Note Let me say at this point that I have the greatest respect for both these earlier translations and indeed various others. I owe a lot to them, because, although I have always translated directly from the original, I have then gone to these and to the modern Italian translations to see where they disagree and to mull over what I can learn from them. The original text is such that on occasion all four of the translations I have been looking at, two English and two Italian, offer different interpretations. In these cases one really must attune oneself to Machiavelli’s mental pro- cesses, his insistence on logic, reason and deduction, and remember that every clause, if not every word, is there for a purpose. Here is a small example. Having stated that rulers must at all costs avoid being hated by their subjects, and that such hatred is almost always the cause of a leader’s down- fall, Machiavelli foresees that some people will object that this wasn’t the case with many Roman emperors who either held on to power despite being hated by the people, or lost it despite being loved. ‘To meet these objections’, he tells us, ‘I shall consider the qualities of some of these emperors, showing how the causes of their downfall are not at all out of line with my reasoning above.’ So far so good, but this sentence then ends: . . . e parte metterò in considerazione quelle cose che sono notabili a chi legge le azioni di quelli tempi. xlviii