| Preface | |
| Abbreviations | |
| Introduction: The Letters in Machiavelli Studies | 3 |
| Ch. 1 | Renaissance Epistolarity | 18 |
| The Social Worlds of Florentine Letter Writing | 19 |
| Petrarch and the Ancients | 25 |
| Humanists and Their Letter Collections | 30 |
| Letters and Literature | 33 |
| Manuals and Theory | 42 |
| Ch. 2 | Contexts Personal and Political | 58 |
| The Secretary and His Letters | 58 |
| Francesco Vettori | 71 |
| Friendship and Politics in the Republic's Crisis | 82 |
| Ch. 3 | "Formerly Secretary" | 95 |
| "Discorsi et concetti" in Exile | 95 |
| "A spirited maker of beginnings" | 117 |
| Ch. 4 | Speaking like Romans | 136 |
| "Some of it we just imagine" | 136 |
| "Naturale affectione o passione" | 152 |
| The Swiss and "the sweetness of domination" | 156 |
| The Invention of Redemptive Virtu | 167 |
| Ch. 5 | The Prince "Addressed" to Francesco Vettori | 176 |
| What Text Did Vettori See? | 177 |
| "Verita effettuale" and "Imaginazione" | 185 |
| Security and Power | 197 |
| Intelligibility, Power, Love | 201 |
| Ch. 6 | Geta and the "Antiqui Huomini" (The Letter of 10 December 1513) | 215 |
| "Sed fatis trahimur" | 215 |
| Maestro Geta and His New "Scienza" | 221 |
| "Tucto mi transferisco in loro" | 230 |
| Ch. 7 | "A Ridiculous Metamorphosis" | 241 |
| "What kinds of writers could not be criticized?" | 241 |
| As worthy of being recited to a prince as anything I have heard this year" | 253 |
| Desire in the Text | 271 |
| Ch. 8 | "After a Thousand Years" | 277 |
| "These princes are men like you and me" | 277 |
| "To me alone Troy remains" | 287 |
| "To enlist you again in the old game" | 295 |
| Ch. 9 | Poetry and Politics | 313 |
| Corydon in San Casciano | 313 |
| Metamorphosis in the Text | 319 |
| Epilogue: The Poets of the Discourses | 335 |
| Index | 351 |
