In
Folio: Rare Volumes in the Stanford University Libraries
Baldassare
Castiglione, 1478-1529.
Il libro del cortegiano.
Venetia: Nelle case
d'Aldo Romano, & d'Andrea d'Asola, 1528.
Castiglione’s
The Courtier offers a portrait of the model Renaissance aristocrat,
and as such stands as one of the most influential of all Renaissance
books. Renaissance Humanism featured a reawakened interest in
Platonic philosophy, an interest epitomized by Marsilio Ficino
(1433-1499), his studies and translations, and the establishment
in the middle of the fifteenth century of the Platonic Academy
in Florence under the patronage of Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464).
The renewed interest in Plato ushered in a concern for the contemplative
rather than active life; this development is celebrated in Castiglione’s
famous work.
Published only a year
after the sack of Rome in 1527, it was based on Castiglione’s
own experience early in the sixteenth century when he was himself
a courtier at Urbino, that most refined of all Italian courts.
Translated into many European languages, The Courtier was published
in more than 100 editions by the early seventeenth century. The
book is written as a discussion among members of the court, a
popular literary genre of the Renaissance. The consensus is that
a man should develop himself as fully as possible in terms of
faculties, moral sense, a love of art, proficiency with weapons,
skill at sports, and should cultivate the finest sense of honor
and cultivated speech. The similar prescribed development for
ladies is discussed in another chapter, and the famous disquisition
on Platonic love by Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) ends the book. The
Courtier was hugely successful, its ideas and ideals spreading
quickly to the Continent and England; it spawned a long and rich
tradition of courtesy books in many languages and many countries.
In 1561, Sir Thomas Hoby published his famous translation of Castiglione
into English, and it became one of the most influential and popular
books in Elizabethan England.
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