The most important literary dispute of the Renaissance pitted those writers of Neo-Latin who favored imitation of Cicero alone, as the single best exemplar of Latin prose, against those who preferred to follow an eclectic array of literary models. This Ciceronian controversy is the subject of the texts collected for the first time in this volume: exchanges of letters between Angelo Poliziano and Paolo Cortesi; between Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola and Pietro Bembo; and between Giovambattista Giraldi Cinzio and his mentor Celio Calcagnini. A postscript by Lilio Gregorio Giraldi and writings by Antonio Possevino comment further on this correspondence.

Because they address some of the most fundamental aspects of literary production, these quarrels shed light on similar debates about vernacular literature, which also turned on imitation and the role of the author. The Ciceronian controversy can also be seen as part of larger cultural movements, such as the choice of vernacular language over Latin, the development of Jesuit pedagogy, and the religious conflicts that characterized much of the Renaissance.

Contents
Introduction
Ciceronian Controversies
The Poliziano-Cortesi Exchange (mid-1480s)
1. Angelo Poliziano to Paolo Cortesi
2. Paolo Cortesi to Angelo Poliziano
The Pico-Bembo Exchange (1512/13)
3. Gianfrancesco Pico, On Imitation, to Pietro Bembo
4. Pietro Bembo to Gianfrancesco Pico
5. Gianfrancesco Pico to Pietro Bembo
The Cinzio-Calcagnini-Lilio Exchange (1532/37)
6. Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio to Celio Calcagnini
7. Celio Calcagnini to Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio
8. Celio Calcagnini, On Imitation, to Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio
9. Lilio Gregorio Giraldi to Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio
The Possevino Treatises (1593/1603)
10. From the Cicero: On the Technique of Writing Letters. 
On the Art of Speaking, including Ecclesiastical Speech
11. From the Bibliotheca Selecta, Book 18: 
On the Art of Composing Letters
Note on the Text and Translation
Notes to the Text
Notes to the Translation
Bibliography
Index