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Prof. Silvia Shannon and Librarian Jeff Waller
Spring 2007
This guide is designed to tie in with the class assignment to write short biographical essays on historical figures referenced in Machiavelli's The Prince. The reference resources and books listed on this guide should provide sufficient information on major figures such as popes and monarchs. For more obscure figures, you may need to consult multiple books to piece together your profiles, or ask your instructor for assistance. For general research help, please take advantage of the reference services available to you in the Geisel Library. Stop by the Reference Desk in person or online at Ask a Librarian.
These reference materials include profiles (varying in length) of many of the historical figures and places mentioned by Machiavelli. Consult the indexes at the back of each volume (or in the last volume of a multi-volume set) to find the page numbers on which a particular person is discussed. Some reference resources provide bibliographies at the ends of each entry, which may point you to additional books worth exploring.
Concise Encyclopedia of the Italian Renaissance
Ref DG445 .C66
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Online version of the Britannica
Encyclopedia of the Renaissance
Ref CB361 .B43 (6 volumes)
Great Popes Through History: An Encyclopedia
Ref BX955.3 .G74 (2 volumes)
The Papacy: An Encyclopedia
Ref BX955.2 .D53 (3 volumes)
Renaissance and Reformation, 1500-1620: A Biographical Dictionary
Ref CT759 .R46
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To find biographical information on a particular person, start by conducting a Keyword search on his or her name in the
Geisel Library catalog.
However, this strategy will only retrieve books for which the person's name appears in the title, the subject headings, or (possibly) the chapter titles. You will also need to examine more general books about Renaissance France, Italy, Florence, or other regions of Italy. One approach is to browse the bookshelves in the following call number sections. Check the indexes of books to look for information about your person of interest.
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DC33.3
DC108 – DC111
DG445
DG533 – DG537
DG737 – DG738
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Renaissance France
Renaissance France
Renaissance Italy
Renaissance Italy
Renaissance Florence
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You may locate additional books by searching the following subjects as Subject Headings.
- Florence (Italy) – History
- Florence (Italy) – History – 1421-1737
- France - History – 16th Century
- Italy – History – 1268-1492
- Italy – History – 1492-1559
- Renaissance – France
- Renaissance – Italy
The following books represent a sampling of titles that may be useful to your research. All contain good biographical material on several of the people mentioned in The Prince.
The Borgias: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Dynasty
General Collection DG463.8 .B7M3
Condottieri, Soldiers of Fortune
Reserve Desk DG533 .T7
The French Monarchy (1483-1789)
General Collection DC110 .G7 (2 vols.)
The History of Florence
General Collection DG737.5 .G813
The History of France from the Earliest Times to 1848 (Guizot)
General Collection DC38 .G975 (8 vols.)
The History of Italy
General Collection DG539 .G8l3
The Italian Renaissance: A Concise Survey of its History and Culture
General Collection DG445 .P6
John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy
Reserve Desk DG536.H4 C34
Mercenaries and their Masters; Warfare in Renaissance Italy
General Collection DG537 .M34
The Most Illustrious Ladies of the Italian Renaissance
General Collection DG533 .A5
The Renaissance [in France]
General Collection DC111 .F83
The World of the Italian Renaissance
General Collection DG445 .C46
If you fail to locate sufficient information, you may wish to try searching the person's name as a keyword in WorldCat (an online catalog encompassing the holdings of thousands of libraries worldwide). If you identify a relevant book, click on the Request ILL link in the book's record, enter your name and contact information, and the book will be delivered to Geisel Library within 1-2 weeks for you to check out and use.
In addition to checking the websites below, you may also want to conduct keyword searching on your historical figures in a search engine such as Google. But be sure to look for indications that the site's information is authoritative, objective and reliable. For help with this, please see the library's guide about evaluating Web sources, Judging What You Find.
Biographies of Popes (Catholic Encyclopedia)
This online version of the venerable encyclopedia includes lengthy profiles of every pope.
Guide to The Prince
This website, compiled by an Italian history scholar named Gino Casagrande, includes the full text of Machiavelli's The Prince along with Casagrande's own biographical profiles of many of the people mentioned in the work.
Google Image Search
Search for portraits, illustrations, and busts of historical figures from the Renaissance using Google's well-known keyword search engine. You will also find pictures of many of these individuals in the books listed above. Be sure to cite the source of your image, whether you photocopy it from a book or download it from a website.
See the library's How To Cite Your Sources guide for resources on how to properly cite research materials. Always confirm the style required by your instructor.
The Library Liaison contact for this course is Jeff Waller.
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