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The Italian author, courtier, and diplomat Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) is known primarily for his "Book of the Courtier." This work, which portrays the ideal courtier, was a chief vehicle in spreading Italian humanism into England and France.
Baldassare Castiglione was born on Dec. 6, 1478, in Casatico in the province of Mantua of an illustrious Lombard family. After receiving a classical education in Mantua and in Milan, he served at the court of the Milanese duke Lodovico Sforza from 1496 to 1499. Castiglione then entered the service of Francesco Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. In 1503 he fought with Gonzaga's forces against the Spanish in Naples. On his way north he visited Rome and Urbino; both cities fascinated him. His request to transfer to the court of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro at Urbino was grudgingly granted in 1504 by Gonzaga.
At Urbino, Guidobaldo's wife, Elizabetta, presided over the noble company depicted in the Libro del cortegiano (Book of the Courtier). Castiglione's service there gave him an entree into the court of Pope Julius II, where he became a friend of the artist Raphael. He was sent as ambassador to Henry VII of England and in 1513 was made Count of Nuvolara by Guidobaldo's successor, Francesco Maria della Rovere. Castiglione married in 1516 but became a cleric in 1521 after the death of his wife. In 1524 he was sent by Pope Clement VII as ambassador to Charles V in Spain - an unfortunate mission in that Castiglione reported wrongly the Emperor's intentions in the period leading up to the sack of Rome in 1527. Castiglione died in Toledo, Spain, on Feb. 7, 1529.
"Book of the Courtier"
Published in 1528, though it was begun in 1507 and written mainly from 1513 to 1516, Castiglione's Book of the Courtier was a huge and immediate success. His idealized picture of society at the court of Urbino quickly became a book of etiquette for both the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy even beyond the confines of Italy. Translated into Spanish (1534), French (1537), English (1561), and German (1566), The Courtier saw some 40 editions in the 16th century alone and a hundred more by 1900. Through it, the broad values of Italian humanism - the ideal of the fully developed, well-rounded man, itself the rebirth of a classical ideal - were helped to spread throughout western Europe. Yet it must be admitted that in The Courtier the high qualities of humanitas - culture and virtue - are exalted not for themselves but as tools of self-advancement.
Dignified, melancholy, and idealistic (qualities that Raphael captured in his famous portrait), Castiglione tended not only to soften society's rough edges but also to avoid thorny practical and moral issues. For instance, he says of the Italians' recent poor reputation in arms, "It is better to pass in silence that which cannot be recalled without pain." As to the question of what a courtier should do when ordered by his prince to commit an immoral act such as murder, he states, "There would be too much to say; it must all be left to your discretion." Nevertheless, there is much that is positive in The Courtier; there is a lofty concept of human personality and dignity and of man's creative possibilities.
Castiglione's classical learning is deftly blended into the polite conversation of the courtiers and their ladies. His arguments in favor of literature are derived from those of Cicero in Pro Archia, and his description of the ideal courtier is strongly influenced by Cicero's Deoratore. The courtier should be noble, witty, pleasant, agile, a horseman and a warrior (his principal profession), and devoted to his prince. He should know Greek, Latin, French, and Spanish, and he should be skilled - though not ostentatiously so - in literature, music, painting, and dancing. The courtier's behavior should be characterized by grace and nonchalance (sprezzatura), and he should carefully avoid any affectation. As in Machiavelli and Guicciardini, there is a certain moral relativism: seeming is frequently more important than being.
Only a modest poet in both Italian and Latin, Castiglione wrote a fine sonnet on the ruins of Rome, Superbicolli e voi sacre ruine, which reappears in the Antiquités de Rome of Joachim du Bellay and in Edmund Spenser's Ruines of Rome. His poetry was published in 1760 and his letters in 1769 and 1771.
Further Reading
The most famous translation of The Book of the Courtier is by Sir Thomas Hoby (1561; many later editions); the most recent and readable, by Charles S. Singleton (1959). Castiglione's contribution to the Renaissance is described in Ralph Roeder, The Man of the Renaissance: Four Lawgivers, Savonarola, Machiavelli, Castiglione, Aretino (1933). See also Julia Cartwright, Baldassare Castiglione, the Perfect Courtier: His Life and Letters, 1478-1529 (2 vols., 1908), and Ernest Hatch Wilkins, A History of Italian Literature (1954).
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Bibliography
See studies by W. A. Rebhorn (1978) and R. W. Hanning and D. Rosand (1983).
| History 1450-1789: Baldassare Castiglione |
Castiglione, Baldassare (1478–1529), Italian writer and diplomat. The fame of Baldassare Castiglione rests with his dialogue-treatise Il cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier), first published in 1528 and immediately acclaimed in Italy and throughout Europe. For centuries it served as the model "courtesy" book, a guide, both ethical and aesthetic, for the social relations of gentlemen and ladies.
Castiglione was born in Casatico, near Mantua, on 6 November 1478, the son of Cristoforo, a professional soldier in the service of the Marquis of Mantua, and Aloisa Gonzaga, who was related to the ruling family. In 1490 he was sent to Milan to pursue humanistic studies. When his father died in 1499 he returned to Mantua and began a military and diplomatic career, first in the service of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, then in 1504 with Guidobaldo Della Rovere, later with Francesco Della Rovere, dukes of Urbino. In 1516, he married a Bolognese noblewoman, Ippolita Torelli, who died in 1520 in childbirth. He had by then returned to the service of the duke of Mantua and in 1521 he took minor orders. In 1524 Clement VII named him papal nuncio to the court of Charles V in Spain, where he was received in 1525 and where he spent the rest of his life. The pope blamed him for not preventing the sack of Rome at the hands of imperial troops in 1527, but contemporaries tended to blame the vacillating Clement, who was unable to ally himself firmly with either the French or the Spanish. Castiglione died of plague fevers in Toledo on 8 February 1529.
Besides The Courtier (1528), Castiglione wrote a dramatic eclogue, the Tirsi (1506), for Carnival at Urbino in 1506 in which he also performed, a Latin letter in praise of his patron, the De vita et gestis Guidubaldi Urbini Ducis (The life and deeds of Guidobaldo, duke of Urbino; 1508), and the prologue, now lost, to the Calandria (1513), a comedy written by Bibbiena (Bernardo Dovizi), whose first performance he organized in Urbino. Castiglione also wrote conventional poetry in the Petrarchist mode and humanistic verse in Latin. He left a large and important correspondence.
Castiglione had begun writing The Courtier by 1513–1514, and it occupied him for most of the rest of his life. The book is a dialogue that follows the classical models of Plato and Cicero, both in its proposal of an ideal type to be imitated, the perfect courtier, and in its choice of dialogic form, for which it is especially indebted to the Ciceronian model. Like Cicero, Castiglione chooses as interlocutors contemporary historical figures, known for the attitudes and actions they represent, who take different sides in the discussion of subjects of contemporary debate, thus lending verisimilitude to the dialogue and giving the conversations a lively, dramatic quality. The book is also autobiographical. The conversations it depicts are set at the court of Urbino in 1506, and the interlocutors are courtiers and ladies many of whom Castiglione met during the years he spent there. He remembers them and those days with nostalgia.
In Book 1 the assembled courtiers and ladies propose games for their entertainment and decide upon one in which they will have to "form in words a perfect courtier." The courtier they envision must be a nobleman, whose principal profession is arms and who engages and excels in physical activities, always maintaining his dignity. He is a connoisseur and a practitioner of the arts and letters, who exhibits moderation in all he does, avoids affectation, and performs with grace (grazia) and seemingly without effort (with sprezzatura). Outward appearance is of the utmost importance. Book 1 includes digressions on the current debates regarding the vernacular language, on the relative importance of arms and of letters for the courtier, and on the question of the preeminence of painting or sculpture. Book 2 treats the ways and circumstances in which the ideal courtier might demonstrate his qualities and argues the importance of decorum and of conversational skills, especially his ability to entertain with humorous language. Examples are given that constitute a collection of witty stories and practical jokes. Book 3 imagines a suitable female companion for the courtier, who has many of his same qualities and talents, though physical beauty is more important for her, as is her good reputation. The virtue of women is both discussed and demonstrated through examples, ancient and modern, which provide another collection of entertaining stories. In Book 4 we come to the courtier's raison d'être, his service to his prince, and after long discussion the topic of conversation turns to love, a theme introduced in Book 3, and centers on how the courtier, no longer young, should love. The theory of Neoplatonic love is proposed, following closely Marsilio Ficino's Christianizing commentary on Plato's Symposium.
Modern critical debate on The Courtier has centered on the ethics of its excessive concern with outward appearance, the author's unwillingness to dwell on politics, and on some issues of coherence. However, no one disputes the status of The Courtier as a masterpiece, a brilliant original that was never surpassed by any of its many imitators, and a "portrait" of the culture of Italian Renaissance court society in the early sixteenth century.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Castiglione, Baldassare. The Book of the Courtier. Translated by Charles S. Singleton. New York, 1959. Reprinted in the Norton Critical Edition. Edited by Daniel Javitch. New York, 2002.
——. The Book of the Courtier. Translated by George Bull. London, 1967. Reprint 1976.
——. Il libro del cortegiano con una scelta delle Opere minori. Edited by Bruno Maier. 2nd ed. Turin, 1964.
——. Lettere. Vol. 1. Edited by Guido La Rocca. Milan, 1978.
Secondary Sources
Burke, Peter. The Fortunes of the Courtier: The European Reception of Castiglione's Cortegiano. Cambridge, U.K., 1995.
Hanning, Robert W., and David Rosand, eds. Castiglione: The Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture. New Haven and London, 1983.
Quondam, Amedeo. "Questo povero Cortegiano": Castiglione, il libro, la storia. Rome, 2000.
Rebhorn, W. A. Courtly Performances: Masking and Festivity in Castiglione's Book of the Courtier. Detroit, 1978.
Woodhouse, J. R. Baldesar Castiglione: A Reassessment of "The Courtier." Edinburgh, 1978.
—ELISSA B. WEAVER
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Baldassare Castiglione, count of Novilara (December 6, 1478 – February 2, 1529)[1], was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.[2]
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He was born into an illustrious Lombard family near Casatico, near Mantua, where his family had constructed an impressive palazzo. The signoria (lordship) of Casatico (today part of the commune of Marcaria) had been assigned to an ancestor, one Baldasare da Castiglione, a friend of Ludovico II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, in 1445.[3] The later Baldasare was related to Ludovico through his mother, Luigia Gonzaga.
In 1494, at the age of sixteen, Castiglione began his humanist studies in Milan, which would eventually inform his future writings. However, in 1499, after the death of his father, Castiglione left his studies and Milan to succeed his father as the head of their noble family. Soon his duties seem to have included representative offices for the Gonzaga court; for instance, he accompanied his marquis for the Royal entry at Milan of Louis XII. For the Gonzaga he traveled quite often; during one of his missions to Rome, he met Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, and in 1504 a reluctant Francesco Gonzaga allowed him to leave and take up residence in that court.
Urbino was at that time the most refined and elegant among Italian courts, a meeting point of culture ably directed and managed by duchess Elisabetta Gonzaga and her sister-in-law Maria Emilia Pia. The most constant guests included: Pietro Bembo, Giuliano de' Medici, Cardinal Bibbiena, Ottaviano and Federigo Fregoso, and Cesare Gonzaga, a cousin of both Castiglione and the duke. The hosts and guests organized intellectual competitions which resulted in an interesting, stimulating cultural life producing brilliant literary activity.
In 1506, Castiglione wrote (and played in) a pastoral play, his eclogue Tirsi, in which allusively, through the figures of three shepherds, he depicted the court of Urbino. The work contains echoes of both ancient and contemporary poetry, recalling Poliziano and Sannazzaro as well as Virgil.
Castiglione wrote about his works and of those of other guests in letters to other princes, maintaining an activity very near to diplomacy, though in a literary form, as in his correspondence with Ludovico da Canossa.
Francesco Maria della Rovere succeeded as duke of Urbino at Guidobaldo's death, and Castiglione remained at his court; with Francesco Maria, he took part in Pope Julius II's expedition against Venice, an episode in the Italian Wars: for this he received the title of Conte di Novilara[4], a fief near Pesaro. When Pope Leo X was elected, Castiglione was sent to Rome as an ambassador of the duke of Urbino. In Rome he formed friendships with many artists and writers; among these, Raphael, a native of Urbino, soon became a close friend, frequently asking for his suggestions. Raphael gratefully painted a famous portrait of Castiglione, now at the Louvre.
In 1516, Castiglione was back in Mantua, where he married Ippolita Torelli, descendant of another ancient noble family; two passionate letters he wrote to her, expressing deep sentiment, have survived, but she unfortunately died only four years later. At that time Castiglione was in Rome again as an ambassador, this time for the Duke of Mantua. In 1521 Pope Leo X conceded to him the tonsura (first sacerdotal ceremony), and thereupon began Castiglione's second, ecclesiastical career.
In 1524, Pope Clement VII sent him to Spain as Apostolic nuncio (ambassador of the Holy See) in Madrid, and in this role he followed Charles V to Toledo, Seville and Granada. At the time of the Sack of Rome (1527), the Pope suspected him of a "special friendship" for the Spanish emperor Charles: in effect Castiglione should have informed the Holy See about the intentions of Charles V, for it was his duty to investigate what Spain was planning against the Eternal City. On the other side, Alonso, brother of Juan de Valdés and secretary of the emperor, publicly declared that the Sacco was a divine punishment for the too many sins of the clergy.
Castiglione, in an undoubtedly uncomfortable position, answered both the Pope and Valdés, in two famous letters from Burgos. Valdés received a very long and severe letter in which the nuncio used hard terms to define the Sacco and Valdés' comments. The Pope, on the other hand, received a letter (dated December 10, 1527) in which the sense of Castiglione's daring argument was that several aspects of Vatican politics were ambiguous and contradictory, not at all a valid support in his action of pursuing a fair agreement with the Empire; this lack of coherence in the Church's actions had therefore irritated Charles V.
Against any expectation, he received the excuses of the Pope and great honors by the emperor. Today it seems quite certain that Castiglione had no responsibility in the Sacco, and he had played honestly his role in Spain. Also, a popular story about his death from remorse found no confirmation: he died of the plague.
In 1528, the year before his death, the book by which he is most famous, The Book of the Courtier (Il libro del Cortegiano), was published in Venice by the Aldine press[5] run by Andrea d'Asolo, father-in-law of Aldus Manutius. The book is based on a nostalgic recreation of Castiglione's experience at the court of Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro of Urbino at the turn of the sixteenth century. It describes the ideal court and courtier, going into great detail about the philosophical and cultured and lively conversations that occurred at Urbino, presided over by Elisabetta Gonzaga. Castiglione himself does not contribute to the discussion, the book is his tribute to his friendship with the participants of the discussion, all of whom all went on to have important positions.
The conversation, which takes place over a span of four days in the year 1507, addressed the topic, proposed by Elisabetta Gonzaga, of what constitutes an ideal Renaissance gentleman. In the Middle Ages, the perfect gentleman had been a chivalrous knight who distinguished himself by his prowess on the battlefield. Castiglione's book changed that; now the perfect gentleman had to also have a classical education in Greek and Latin letters as well. The Ciceronian humanist ideal of the perfect orator (which Cicero called "the honest man"), on which The Courtier is based, prescribes for the orator an active political life of service to country whether in war or peace.[6] Since republics were dying out when Castiglione wrote, this meant in practice that the perfect gentleman had to win the respect and friendship of his peers and of a ruler, i.e., be a courtier, so as to be able to offer valuable assistance and advice on how to rule the city. To do this, he must be accomplished -- in sports, telling jokes, fighting, poetry, music, drawing, and even dancing -- but not too much. To his moral elegance (his personal goodness) must be added the spiritual elegance conferred by familiarity with good literature (i.e., the humanities, including history). He must excel in all without apparent effort and make everything look easy. In a famous passage, Lodovico da Canossa explains "the mysterious source of courtly gracefulness, the quality which makes the courtier seem a natural nobleman":[7] sprezzatura.[8]
Theoretically, noble birth is not necessary and anyone can be a perfect courtier, even if lowly born; but in practice, it is easier if one is born into a distinguished family. In any case, the ideal courtier should be able to speak appropriately with people of all stations in life. Ideally, the courtier should be young, about twenty-seven at least mentally, but should give the appearance of being graver and more thoughtful than his years. To do this he should wear subdued rather than bright colors, though in general attire he should follow the prevalent customs of his surroundings.
In addition to the formation of the perfect courtier, the participants (who do not always agree by any means, for in Ciceronian fashion the conversation is open ended, leading the reader to draw his or her own conclusions) also address a variety of other questions, such as which form of government is best, a republic or a principality; what constitute appropriate topics for joking; whether painting or sculpture is superior, the role of music. They also deplore the rude and uncultivated manners of the French, who know more about fighting than literature and look down with disdain on what they call a "clerk" (though hope is expressed for Francis of Valois, the future king of France). This is a bitter topic, since the French, who had just invaded Italy, had shown themselves clearly superior in fighting to the Italians. Another topic is that of the Court Lady, which brings up the topic of the equality of the sexes. One character, Gaspare Pallavicino, aged twenty, is depicted as a misogynist who attacks women, but the others rush to their defense, affirming the equality of women to men in every respect. Most eloquent is Giuliano de' Medici, a more mature man. Giuliano points out that throughout history some women have excelled in philosophy and others have waged war and governed cities, and he lists the heroines of classical times. Pallavicino, piqued, hints that Giuliano is indulging in insincere praise, but in the end he concedes that he has been wrong to disparage women. Ironically, the affable Giuliano (a lover of women and famous as a philanderer) is the very person to whom Machiavelli planned to address his book The Prince.[9]Giuliano later was given the title of Duc de Nemours by Francis I. He died soon after.
The book ends on an very elevated note with a long speech about love by the humanist scholar Pietro Bembo (later a Cardinal). Bembo, who is older than the others, talks about an old man's love, which is of necessity Platonic. Bembo's speech is based on that of Socrates in the Symposium, except that the object of love is heterosexual not homosexual as in Plato. He describes how the experience of sublimated love leads one to the contemplation of ideal beauty and ideas. He talks about the divine nature and origin of love, the "father of true pleasures, of all blessings, of peace, of gentleness, and of good will: the enemy of rough savagery and vileness", which ultimately lifts the lover to the contemplation of the spiritual realm, leading to God (however Bembo does say that it is all right for the platonic lover to kiss his beloved on the lips, describing the kiss as the union of two souls).[10] When Bembo has finished, the others notice that they have all become so enraptured by his speech that they have lost track of the time and the night has passed and the sun is rising over the hills.
The Book of the Courtier caught the "spirit of the times" and was soon translated into Spanish, German, French, and English. One hundred and eight editions were published between 1528 and 1616 alone. (Pietro Aretino's La cortigiana is a parody of this famous work.) Castiglione's depiction of how the ideal gentleman should be educated and behave remained, for better or for worse, the touchstone for all the upper classes of Europe for next five centuries.
Castiglione's minor works are less known, yet still interesting, including love sonnets and four Amorose canzoni which he wrote about his Platonic love for Elisabetta Gonzaga, in the style of Francesco Petrarca's and Pietro Bembo's. His sonnet Superbi colli e voi, sacre ruine, written more by the man of letters than by the poet in Castiglione, still contains a pre-romantic inspiration.
He also produced a number of Latin poems, together with an elegy for the death of Raphael entitled De morte Raphaellis pictoris, and another elegy in which he imagined his dead wife was writing to him. In Italian prose, he wrote a prologue for Bibbiena's Calandria.
His letters are another, perhaps greater, point of interest, describing not only the man and his personality but also details about the famous people he met and visited, or about his diplomatic activity; they are considered very important for political, literary, and historical studies.
Baldasare Castiglione, at the age of 50, died of a violent fever in Toledo, Spain on 2 February,' 1529.[1]
"I have found a universal rule . . . valid above all others in all human affairs whether in word or deed: and that is, to avoid any kind of affectation as though it were a rough and dangerous reef; and (to coin a new word, perhaps), to practice in all things a certain sprezzatura [nonchalance], so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says seem effortless, and almost unpremeditated." (The Courtier 32)
I have composed a little work De principatibus . . . . And if ever you liked any of my whims, this one should not displease you, and to a prince, especially a new prince, it should be welcome; therefore I am addressing it to his magnificence Giuliano. --Machiavelli, Letter to Francesco Vettori, December 10, 1513, in Nicolo Machiavelli’s The Prince: New Interdisciplinary Essays, Martin Coyle, editor, Manchester University Press, 1995, 1999.
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