Writing of the early criticism of the work, L. Arthur Burd noted that while The Prince was circulating in manuscript, it aroused some opposition. The purpose of this chapter is to go back beyond the deforming readings of The Prince and to look at the reactions of its early Italian readers, chiefly in the two decades before it appeared in print, in order to see how it was perceived in the intellectual world in which and for which it was created. The chapter explores who were first readers of The Prince and at what readership Machiavelli was probably aiming. It looks at two sorts of evidence: the surviving manuscripts and the literary form and style of the work. By examining the influence of The Prince on contemporary written works, the chapter considers which aspects of it attracted most attention and how it was appropriated in Florence and elsewhere.