Some years ago, Felix Gilbert observed that alone among Machiavelli's writings the Florentine Histories had not yet found a defined place in the interpretations of their author's intellectual development. This is less true today than it was then, owing in part to the work of Gilbert himself but also to that of other interpreters of Machiavelli storico, such as Carlo Dionisotti, Marina Marietti, Gian Mario Anselmi, and still others. Whereas Gilbert then rightly claimed that “the case of the Istorie Fiorentine is peculiar because the judgments about this work vary so fundamentally that they cannot even be narrowed down to issues on which a dispute could focus,” the very paper in which this observation was made proceeded admirably to identify several important issues on which future discussions of the Florentine Histories would have to turn.

The theory and practice of imitation have been explored in both ancient and modern times. Ancient and Renaissance writers focused on theoretical problems; recent studies have tended to examine imitation as practiced by specific authors, including Petrarch, Erasmus, Ben Jonson, and others. Another author who might profitably be studied from the point of view of his relationship to classical models is Joannes Secundus, the Renaissance poet best known for his Basia—“kiss poems” after Catullus—and Elegiae, three books of Latin love elegies. In these elegies, Secundus draws heavily upon the Roman elegiac poets, especially Propertius and Ovid, for themes, figures, and turns of phrase. In his work we find such Propertian and Ovidian topics as the poet's refusal to write epic verse, the intervention of a god to turn the poet from epic to elegy, and the power of carmina as both songs and magic charms.