Anti-Machiavel: A Discourse Upon the Means of Well Governing

Born around 1532 in Vienne France Innocent Gentillet was a Huguenot lawyer who fled to Geneva after the Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre of 1572. In 1576 he published Discours sur les moyens de bien gouverner & maintenir en paix un Royaume ou autre Principaute Contre Nicolas Machiavel Florentin popularly known as Anti-Machiavel. Despite a papal ban in 1605 Anti-Machiavel went through twenty-four editions in French Latin English German and Dutch; it was read and used by Montaigne and Shakespeare. This edition presents Simon Paterickes 1602 English translation revised for modern spelling and grammar and explores Anti-Machiavels connections with other works of the period.