Political theory as textual criticism -- How to teach kings to read history : humanist culture and the disenchantment of absolutist power -- Political power in the archives : from reason of state to critical history -- In the workshop of politics : Amelot de La Houssaye and the methods of unmasking Venice -- How to read a subversive : decoding reason of state of the self -- The Machiavellian reformation : critical technologies of reading and the culture of personal prudence -- An enlightened prince reads Machiavelli, and a philosophe publishes The prince.