Niccolò Machiavelli, Mandragola: an online English translation
Notes on this online English translation of Machiavelli’s Mandragola (Mandragola_Translation.pdf, 340 KB)
I have enjoyed reading this comedy with students for many years but have usually found that they need assistance in reading it in Italian. I hope that this translations will be used principally as an adjunct to a close reading of the Italian text, and perhaps as a point of reference for the preparation of a performance text.
I have based my translation on the edition prepared by Pasquale Stoppelli from the 1519 manuscript: La “Mandragola”: storia e filologia. Con l’edizione critica del testo secondo il Laurenziano Redi 129, ed. Pasquale Stoppelli (Rome: Bulzoni, 2005). I have also drawn on his notes in Niccolò Machiavelli, Mandragola, ed. Pasquale Stoppelli (Milan: Mondadori, 2006).
Some of my thoughts on the play are published in “Machiavelli, Pirandello, and Their donne di virtù,” Pirandello Studies 28 (2008): 48–67.