ABSTRACT
This chapter reconstructs, applies and assesses the reception model of interpretation that recommends determining the meaning of a text indirectly by examining, comparing and ordering the interpretations of its readers. This interpretive model, which is of interest for students of politics not least because it is concerned with real effects, is applied to the earliest readings of Machiavelli’s The Prince, that is, those that preceded the posthumous publication in 1532. It is fascinating to observe how the early readership, far from passively consuming the text, proactively expanded its meaning and contributed much to transforming it from a letter of application into a classic of political theory.
