TREASURE ROOM SHOWS WORKS OF MACHIAVELLI

There is being shown this week in the Memorial Room at Widener Library a collection of various editions of the works of Nicholas Machiavelli, the Florentine statesman who died in 1527, 400 years ago.

The first prize of the exhibition is a letter written in 1501, and signed with the initials N. M. This is believed to be a genuine letter by the great diplomat.

There are also copies of early editions of his works; two printed in Florence in 1531 and 1532, an English edition dated 1595, two copies of an edition published by the Aldine Press in 1540, and four volumes printed in Leyden in 1647.

In the year 1550 five editions of Machavelli's complete works were struck off, three of which are represented in the present exhibition.

One very interesting exhibit was unearthed from the open shelves at Widener, its existence having previously been unknown. It is a copy of an edition of Machiavelli's unpublished works printed in London in 1760, presented by the publishers to Thomas Hollis of Lincoln's Inn, who gave it to the College Library a few days later. In it he inscribed "Felicity is freedom, and freedom is magnanimity. Thucyd," Thomas Hollis was called "of Lincoln's Inn" to distinguish from the two other Thomas Hollises, all of whom were members of a family that was one of the greatest of Harvard's early benefactors.

In the Memorial Room this week is showing several early editions of the Spectator, and also a collection of autographs and letters. In this collection appear the signatures of Abraham Lincoln and his whole cabinet, besides those of Gladstone, Thackeray, Browning, Dickens, Mrs. Gaskell, Disraeli, and Wilkie Collins.