The Book of the Courtier (Penguin Classics)

There really was a Camelot. But it was in Italy. Urbino in northern Italy to be exact, in the 1500s. Perched on top of a couple of hills in the region Le Marche, Urbino was ruled by the Montefeltro family. From 1444 to 1482 Federigo de Montefeltro skillfully steered his tiny domain through the rough storms of Italian Renaissance realpolitik. Federigo was a successful soldier of fortune yet maintained one of the largest libraries in Italy, spoke Latin, read Aristotle, helped orphans and in general earned the love of his people. He built a beautiful fairy-tale palace and had Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca decorate it. His less fortunate son Guidobaldo inherited this charming and well-run dukedom. Guidobaldo married the cultivated Elisabetta of the Gonzaga family from Mantua. He was an invalid and not made of his father's stern military stuff. A victim of the brilliant military campaigns of Cesare Borgia that so enchanted Machiavelli, Guidobaldo was temporarily deposed. When the Borgias (Cesare and his father Pope Alexander VI) died, the people of Urbino rose up, drove out Borgia's soldiers and cheered Guidobaldo and Elisabetta upon their return. For the next few years the court of Elisabetta and Guidobaldo was the most beautiful, enlightened, genteel place on earth. They attracted musicians, scholars and artists. Conversation was honed into a fine art. Into this paradise strode our Lancelot, Baldassare Castiglione, a diplomat descended from minor Italian nobility. He loved Elisabetta, but as far as we know the devotion remained platonic It is because of Castiglione that we believe we have a sense of what the court of Montefeltro was like, or at least how they would have like to have been remembered. His "The Book of the Courtier" (Il Cortigiano) painstakingly analyzes the attributes of a gentleman through conversations (probably highly idealized) of refined visitors to Urbino. It's a long, slow, but thoroughly enjoyable book. It is a window into the renaissance mind. It does not describe how the Italians of the sixteenth century were, Machiavelli and Cellini are probably more useful there. But it tells how they wanted to be. The book was read and studied by nobility all over Europe. It's also how I wanted them to be. Urbino is one of my favorite places. It's a crowded student city now. But on a quiet morning when only a few people are about and the sun has made its way over the hills from the Adriatic, I can imagine that I can see the ghosts of Elisabetta and Guidobaldo walking on the cobbled streets outside their beautiful palace. Fussy, snobbish, yet kind and gentle Castiglione and his wonderful book help make that fantasy more real. Oh, and for you bike people, Castiglione married Ippolita Torelli. - Bill McGann, author of "The Story of the Tour de France"

Castiglione's "Courtier" is one of many books outlining protocol and proper behavior of the sophisticated elite. It might suffice to say that he was in some way the Emily Post of his era however, it seems that this work was more far reaching than this. The Courtier is a fascinating book that is actually more useful in studying the renaissance than Machiavelli's "The Prince" (which I do recommend as well) since its detail on why people should act as proscribed is directly taken from real events and people and it is less a work of philosophy and more a work centered about real action in living. I recommend this work highly to everyone wishing to learn more about this age. This version is far better than the one I first read and it offers decent commentary to help elucidate the reader. Castiglione was extraordinarily fond of Federigo the duke of Urbino with whom he fictitiously converses in this work. I am inclined to believe, though possibly naively, that the fictitious conversations outlined in this work, though not actual, may have been a summation of actual conversations that Castiglione and Federigo actually had. We should remember that Federigo was a model duke and Urbino was the model court of renaissance Italy. Federigo was a lover of learning and the arts and an able ruler willing to give audience to any of his subjects. He also was a more than able military commander who was just in to his men and equally just to those whom he fought against. In short he was the finest example of a renaissance prince. Urbino, though far smaller than Florence, Venice, Genoa or Rome was a very well organized and lovely court that was a favorite place, not only for Castiglione, but also for many artists including Leonardo Da Vinci. Putting all of this in context it is understandable why it made sense for Castiglione to use Federigo as his model in writing this book and it also explains one reason why it was such an immediate success among all of the Italian nobility. Naturally they read it for different reasons than you will but this book had lasting appeal and should be regarded as a classic work. One reason this book is so interesting is that it is the outline of protocol for courtiers of the Italian Renaissance. Pondering this one might ask the question "why did Castiglione feel he had to write this work?" I can assure you his aims were quite different from those of the handbag maven Kate Spade who has recently issued a series of books along the same vein as The Courtier for today's yuppie elite and their "wannabee" counterparts. I surmise simply that this book needed to be written because their was an essential break in culture of the nobles of the Renaissance and those of the Middle Ages. However this break was by no means sudden and the crudeness and bad manners of the Middle ages did not die quickly especially among the rural nobility. Even so Castiglione saw a benefit from everyone "working off of the same page" and thus he wrote t

The Book of the Courtier is one of those books that you hear frequently cited, but rarely actually read. It seems a shame to me if it remains unread. I expected it to take me a while to wade through it. I expected it to be dense and difficult to penetrate. Instead, it read very quickly and easy. The prose was modern, lucid, and nearly compulsively readable. The book is structured as a conversational game carried out the court of the Duke of Urbino in the rooms of his wife Elisabetta Gonzaga. In four books, different members of the court sketch out the ideal Courtier and the ideal Lady. The books treat various subjects, including the nature of grace, love, humor, gender equality, and necessary skills. The unfamiliar details of the time are mixed with the quite familiar and recognizable human foibles that are still relevant today. Castiglione is perceptive and witty and quite loving in the way he draws the people in the book. Both the "real" people having the conversation, and the imaginary ideal people being described are well developed. I enjoyed it, and I recommend it. You don't need to be a scholar to enjoy it as well.

Whether or not this work can be considered relevant in today's society is not a factor here. As a testimony to fifteenth century Italian Court Life it is unparalleled.This delightful four-part book at the social nobility of the Italian Renaissance opens with an apology by Baldesar on the quality of his writing. Something that was clearly debated after Petrarch, Dante and Boccaccio as there is somewhat of a lengthier side discussion on the merits of using the vernacular in written speech partway through the first `book'.The `handbook' opens with the matriarchal Duchess ordering that a game be played and that signora Emilia decide the nature of it. It is first set to Count Lodovico to describe those qualities best attributed to a courtier with the rest of the `players' questioning or discussing his points further. The Count states that a good courtier should possess charm, be handsome, be of noble birth, modest, physically fit, be good at sports, should both observe and imitate those good qualities of other courtiers, be a good dancer, have an appreciation of music, letters and art, not be affectatious, be an above average scholar in the humanities and that his first and truest profession be that of arms. Quite a long section is taken with a development on the theory of writing and letters which has many references to the desired quality of those in the ancient world. Indeed, Castiglione holds up those practices of the ancient world in high esteem as being worthy of the perfect courtier.The second book is to be continued by Duke Federico as to how and when the courtier should put the desired courtier qualities into practice. Castiglione prefaces the second book with a justification of why old people see the future as a depraved version of their golden era - almost a youth's retort to the aged question of rebelliousness.Federico opens by stating he believes the courtier should be considered, virtuous and adhere to certain rules. Above all else he must have good judgment. The second book is frequently `territorial' in nature, particularly in the section espoused by Bernardo Bibbiena on the three types of pleasantries. Namely: long and amusing narrative ; spontaneous thrust of a cutting remark (including puns) ; practical jokes. It is in the latter, which includes tales, that the poking of fun at inhabitants of various cities (for example, Sienans, Fiorentines, Brescians) occurs. Federico earlier makes mention that no young man should attempt wisdom and that no courtier should socialize overly with those beneath his station taking care in choosing your associates. The second `book' is effectively in two parts - Duke Federico's discussion on the rules of courtiership, Bernardo's discussion of the three types of pleasantries with many anecdotes to prove his points and then finishes with a epilogue discussing those practical jokes played by women after Gaspare denounces the practice.This proves a neat lead in to the third book for the Magnifico Giuliano

Wouldn't it be great if several people had gathered together in one of the 16th century Italian states to hash out exactly what was proper behavior for a gentle person at that time and place? And wouldn't it be better if they were led by a gracious lady who demanded that they stay on track? And wouldn't it be helpful if somebody had written down what was said, so that we could read it? And wouldn't it be wonderful if the book earned praise all over Europe at that time, so we'd know that its teachings were generally accepted? And wouldn't it be convenient if it were currently in print in English translation?They did. We can. It is.