Concentrating on William Fowler's Scottish translation and the Queen's College (Oxford) English version, this book investigates four early translations of Niccolò Machiavelli's Prince, surviving in manuscript form, to analyze the impact of this book in sixteenth-century Britain. Petrina traces the history of each manuscript's circulation and readership, presenting annotated editions of the Fowler and Queen's College translations, with comparisons to the original Italian as well as French and Latin versions

Alessandra Petrina is Professor of English Literature at the Università di Padova, Italy. She has published The Kingis Quair of James I of Scotland (1997) and Cultural Politics in Fifteenth-century England. The Case of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (2004).

Machiavelli's Principe and its early appearance in the British Isles. English manuscript translations. The burgess humanist: a life of William Fowler. The Fowler translation: the state of the manuscripts. The Queen's College translation: the state of the manuscript. A critical reading and commentary on the translations.