Man what a headache this crossword clue gave me yesterday. “Where to find political treatise by Machiavelli”? Sounded easy at first, but nah. Let me walk you through how I finally cracked it.
The Dumb Search Begins
First thing I did was what anyone would do – I grabbed my phone. Typed that clue straight into the search bar like it was a magic wand. Guess what flooded my screen? A million useless “crossword solver” sites. Seriously, pages of ’em. Top results all claimed to have the answer, but when I clicked? Pure junk. Mostly ads dressed up as solutions, or answers like “ThePrince” crammed into a tiny box that wouldn’t even fit the spaces. Felt like banging my head against the wall.
Scratched my head, closed those garbage tabs, and actually thought about the clue. It’s asking where you find the treatise, not just the name. My coffee finally kicked in. “The Prince” is the obvious one, but “Discourses on Livy” is another big one, yeah? I scribbled those titles down on a sticky note.
Getting Down to Real Resources
Time to ditch the quick fixes. I dragged my old laptop over, dusty and all. Knew I needed actual places holding these texts, not some scammy crossword site. Here’s what actually worked:
- Public Libraries: No joke, logged into my local library’s site first. Searched their catalog for “Machiavelli The Prince”. Boom – multiple copies listed, physical and ebook. They even had “Discourses”. Checked the shelf locations right there. Solid starting point.
- University Press Websites: Headed straight to some big names like Oxford Uni Press next. Searched “Machiavelli”. Hit paydirt – scholarly editions loaded with introductions and notes, exactly the kind of “treatise” the clue hinted at. Found ISBN numbers and everything.
- Project Gutenberg: Remembered this old freebie site. Typed in “Niccolò Machiavelli”. Yep, scanned public domain texts sitting right there, ready to download. Plain text for “The Prince”. Not fancy, but it’s the real deal.
Totally guessed wrong initially thinking the answer was some magic link or database name. Facepalm moment. The real answer is those book titles themselves, paired with the classic places you find books.
The Final Piece
Armed with these titles and places, I went back to the crossword grid. Clue was tricky – it needed both the what and the where. But seeing those library records and publisher pages? Made it click. The answer fit neatly across the spaces: “LIBRARYCATALOG” for The Prince. “DISCURSES” fit another part. No weird cramming, no nonsense. Just real-world resources.
Lesson learned? Don’t trust the crossword answer factories. They’re mostly trash. Go straight to the actual sources people use. Libraries ain’t dead. University presses matter. Free archives exist. And the answer is almost always simpler than those garbage sites make it seem.
