The essay first of all discusses whether we can speak of a specific ‘philology of the Classics’, that is, if the texts of the Classics require their own and particular ecdotic procedures, and what they consist of. It then examines the case of the pri- vate letters of Niccolò Machiavelli, which, unlike the other works by this author, have not had a critical edition to date, and focuses above all on the textual, exe- getical, linguistic and graphic problems that the new edition (currently in press as part of the National Edition of Machiavellian works) has had to deal with.