Acknowledgements Introduction 1 On the Earliest Reception of Machiavelli's Ideas 2 Machiavelli: More Than a Republican Hero 3 Machiavelli and Early Modern 'Science' 4 Machiavelli the 'Scientist'? 5 The Structure and Rationale of This Book1 What Was Science in Renaissance Florence? 1 The Sciences and the Arts 2 Medicine versus Law in Humanist Debates 3 Res et Verba 4 Science in the Florentine Chancery2 Machiavelli's Science 1 From Machiavelli's Letter to Becchi to the Discourse on Valdichiana 2 The Ghiribizzi to Soderini 3 Machiavelli's Correspondence with Vettori 4 History and Reason 5 Machiavelli's Historical Revolt 6 The Perspective of Art 7 Machiavelli's Language and Method 8 Scientia, Authorities, and Humanism3 Science and Method in Machiavelli's Early Reception 1 Guicciardini on Machiavelli's Method 2 Aristotelian Machiavelli / Machiavellian Aristotle? 3 Aristotle's Method in the Politics 4 The Question of Averroism 5 Machiavelli's First Aristotelian-Averroist Enthusiast: Agostino Nifo 6 Nifo's Plagiarism of The Prince 7 Girolamo Cardano Reads Machiavelli 8 Cardano's Views on Science4 Experience, Reason, and History: Machiavelli Gains a Name for Himself 1 Cardinal Pole Grapples with 'Experience' 2 Machiavelli Read for Action 3 Machiavelli's Science in Le Prince: Gaspar d'Auvergne and the Cappel Family 4 Jacques Gohory's Microcosm and Macrocosm 5 Science and Experience Meet historia: Machiavelli's Latin Translations 6 Historia and Francesco Patrizi 7 Machiavelli and the ars historica in France5 Machiavelli Goes Underground and Triumphs 1 The Tragedy of Saint Bartholomew 2 Gentillet's Anti-Machiavel (1576) 3 The Rise of a New Awareness 4 A Wealth of Political Literature 5 Machiavelli Triumphs in Language: the Medical Metaphors 6 Machiavelli Triumphs in Genre: the Hippocratic Aphorisms6 The Advancement of Politics and Science 1 New Perspectives: the Global View 2 Botero's Comparative Vision of Greatness 3 The Perspective of Work and Action in Botero 4 The Perspective of Work and Action in Bacon 5 Facts, Information, and Numbers: New Knowledge for Politics 6 Bacon's Science: Power and Happiness?7 Conclusions Bibliography Index.