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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 1520, 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 Castiglione to leave his service in Mantua and take up residence at Guidobaldo's court at Urbino.
Urbino was at that time the most refined and elegant among Italian courts, with a magnificent library of illuminated incunambula. Duke Guidobaldo was an invalid whose fragile health barred him active participation in society. Its cultural life was therefore directed and managed by his wife, duchess Elisabetta Gonzaga and her sister-in-law, Maria Emilia Pia. Activities included intellectual contests and the reading and composition of poetry and plays. Among the most frequent guests were: Pietro Bembo,Giuliano de' Medici, Cardinal Bibbiena, Ottaviano and Federigo Fregoso, and Cesare Gonzaga, a cousin of both Castiglione and the duke. All of these were to appear as characters in Castiglione's famous dialogue, The Courtier.
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 (the presence of such allusions was part of the Renaissance aesthetic and flattered the knowledge of the audience).
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.
Upon Guidobaldo's death in 1508, his adopted son, Francesco Maria della Rovere, succeeded him as duke of Urbino. 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 the youthful Ippolita Torelli, descendant of another ancient noble family; two passionate letters he wrote to her, expressing deep sentiment, have survived. 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 conferred on 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 ought to 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 Sack of Rome was a divine punishment for the many sins of the clergy.
Castiglione, who was in an awkward position, responded to both the Pope and Valdés in two famous letters written from Burgos. In his lengthy letter to Valdés, the nuncio deplored the Sack and harshly criticized Valdés' comments about it. Castiglione's letter to the Pope, dated December 10, 1527, on the other hand, argued rather daringly that several aspects of Vatican policy had been ambiguous and contradictory, undermining Castiglione's attempts to pursue peaceful and fair agreement with the Empire, and that this lack of consistency on the part of the Church's actions had provoked Charles V to attack.
Castiglione unexpectedly received the Pope's apologies and was greatly honored by the emperor. In retrospect, it is virtually certain that Castiglione had not been negligent in his diplomatic duties in Spain and bore no responsibility for the Sack of Rome. The popular legend that he died of remorse is without foundation: he died of the plague.
In 1528, the year before his death, the book for 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, which Castiglione is thought to have begun in 1508 and worked on for twenty years, is a nostalgic recreation of a lively and cultured philosophical conversation that took place over a span of four consecutive evenings in 1507 and was presided over by Elisabetta Gonzaga and Emilia Pia at Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro's court at Urbino. Cast in the form of a philosophical dialogue, it is retrospective tribute to Castiglione's friendships with the participants in the discussion, all of whom all went on to have important positions. But more importantly, it is an elegiac valediction to the ideals of the High Italian Renaissance, now waning as Italy was overrun by foreigners. The topic proposed by Elisabetta is the question of what constitutes an ideal courtier. Castiglione himself does not take part in the discussion; his opinions are voiced (ostensibly) by his friend Lodovico da Canossa, who warns at the outset that no rules can be given as to what makes a perfect courtier, for it is something that cannot be taught by precept. Ludovico (as a character in a fictional work) can only attempt to describe an ideal for others to imitate, if they are able to. Thus, though Ludovico/Castiglione declines to teach, those who wish to learn are free to do so.
The Courtier embodies the Ciceronian humanist ideal of the perfect orator (whom Cicero called the "honest man"), for whom Cicero prescribes an active political life of service to country whether in war or peace.[6] In the Middle Ages, the perfect gentleman had been a chivalrous knight who distinguished himself on the battlefield. Castiglione's book changed that; now the perfect gentleman, though still above all a skillful fighter, also had to be educated in Greek and Latin.
Cicero's orator had been active in a republic, but republics were dying out in Italy when Castiglione wrote. This meant in practice that the perfect gentleman of the Italian Renaissance had to win the respect and friendship of his peers and especially of a ruler, i.e., be a courtier, so as to be able to offer the ruler 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. Above all, he must be good, but 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 this 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.
I have found a universal rule . . . valid in all human affairs, whether in word or deed: and that is, to avoid all 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.[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, allowing readers to draw their 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, and the role of music. They also deplore the rude and uncultivated manners of the French, who know more about fighting than literature and look with disdain on those whom they call "clerks" (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 Pallavicino concedes that he has been wrong to disparage women. Interestingly, the affable Giuliano (a friend and lover of women) 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).[10] 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 conclusion of Plato's Symposium, except that here the object of love is female and not a boy as in Plato. Bembo describes how the experience of sublimated love leads the lover to the contemplation of ideal beauty and noble ideas. Bembo 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.[11] 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 day is breaking 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 less known, but still interesting, minor works include love sonnets and four "Amorose canzoni" ("Amorous Songs" ) in the style of Petrarch and Bembo, about his Platonic love for Elisabetta Gonzaga, . His sonnet "Superbi colli e voi, sacre ruine" ("Proud Hills and Sacred Ruins"), shows Castiglione's learned humanism but is not without pre-romantic inspiration.
Castiglione also wrote 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 also of considerable interest for what they reveal not only the man and his personality but also historical information about the famous people he met and visited, and about his diplomatic activity.
Baldasare Castiglione, died of a fever in Toledo, Spain, on February 2, 1529, at the age of 50.[1]
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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