SILVIA RUFFO-FIORE (ED.

)
NICCOL
MACHIAVELLI:
AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MODERN CRITICISM
AND SCHOLARSHIP
Bibliographies and Indexes in Law and Political Science Number 13
New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. 810 pp.

This is a magisterial work of bibliography. Building on Achille Norsa's

Il principio della forza nel pensiero politico di Niccol Machiavelli
(Milan, 1936), Silvia Ruffo-Fiore has produced an exhaustive listing
with annotation and indexes of all material relating to Machiavelli and
his work published since 1935. It supersedes Franco Fido's Machiavelli
(Palermo, 1965) by recording and annotating articles and reviews as
well as books and by bringing up to date the large industry of
Machiavelli scholarship developed during the last quarter century.
The listings themselves appear complete, the result of computerassisted searches and meticulous scholarship. The random entries I
checked chosen from bibliographies and footnotes found in works on
Machiavelli all appear and are correctly entered. Moreover, the detail
and consistency in the annotation is truly extraordinary.
Indeed, the two great elements of this bibliography which will
ensure its use for years and which will require it only to be brought up
to date on occasion rather than redone is the quality and thoroughness
of the annotations and the superb system of indexes. Not only are books
annotated chapter by chapter but also articles and even reviews are
prcised. Equally, editions and translations of Machiavelli's works,
bibliographies, and even new primary sources such as manuscripts are
all included. Assessments of the works are not made this is not a
critical bibliography but the appending of review prcis after major

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books serves to guide the reader to the best scholarship on Machiavelli.

Theses are listed but not annotated.
There are four indexes arranged by author, title, subject/ name, and
which of Machiavelli's works is studied. There are cross-references and
the subject/name index is particularly useful because it consists not
merely of names but also of key words and phrases, concepts, terms,
and subjects. This index alone is worth the price of the volume.
Therefore, this bibliography will prove invaluable to both students
and scholars who wish a key to unlock the vast published work on
Machiavelli produced since 1935 in every discipline. The amount of
labour represented in this volume is enormous and the compiler, RuffoFiore, and her contributors recorded at the end of the book deserve our
appreciation. There are a few typographical errors, and the typeface,
which is produced by word-processor, is not the most attractive; but
these are insignificant flaws in comparison with the great contribution
to Machiavelli studies made by this bibliography.
KENNETH R. BARTLETT
University of Toronto (Victoria College),
Toronto, Ontario

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