Doctors, Ambassadors, Secretaries

Preface
Introduction: Humanism and Professions in Renaissance Italy
1. Petrarch's Profession and His Laurel
Doctors
2. Three Reactions to Plague: Marvels and Commonplaces in Medicine and Literature
3. Fracastoro as Poet and Physician: Syphilis, Epic, and the Wonder of Disease
Ambassadors
4. Exemplary Work: Two Venetian Humanists Writing on the Resident Ambassador
5. The Importance and Tragedy of Being an Ambassador: The Performance of Francesco Guicciardini
Secretaries
6. Open Secrets: The Place of the Renaissance Secretary
7. The Secretarial Profession among Others: Tasso's Enabling Analogies
Bibliography
Index