Product Description

In The Book of the Courtier (1528), Baldesar Castiglione, a diplomat and Papal Nuncio to Rome, sets out to define the essential virtues for those at Court. In a lively series of imaginary conversations between the real-life courtiers to the Duke of Urbino, his speakers discuss qualities of noble behaviour - chiefly discretion, decorum, nonchalance and gracefulness - as well as wider questions such as the duties of a good government and the true nature of love. Castiglione's narrative power and psychological perception make this guide both an entertaining comedy of manners and a revealing window onto the ideals and preoccupations of the Italian Renaissance at the moment of its greatest splendour.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #157307 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-29
• Original language: Italian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Castiglione was born in 1478 and a member of an ancient aristocratic family. A courtier throughout his life, his writings were always a secondary affair. George Bull was an author and journlaist who translated six books for the Penguin Classics, including The Prince by Machiavelli. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was made a Knight Commander in 1999.

Customer Reviews

The Book of the Courtier
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, Baldasare 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.
-Bill McGann, author of "The Story of the Tour de France"

Engaging, witty insight into C16th Italy
One of the `bestsellers' of the European Renaissance, Castiglione depicts, debates and has fun with articulating the virtues of the ideal Renaissance courtier. Engaging, witty, and entertaining, this is set up as a series of discussions set over four evenings at the court of Urbino, with the various characters agreeing, disagreeing and contesting each others' assertions. Everything from the courtier's ability to play tennis (really!) to his love life is up for debate, and this at least purports to give a female as well as male view.

The translation is now an old one, but it is elegant and unobtrusive. The introduction is probably a little slight as are the notes, but this is still a good price for an unexpectedly engaging read.

Above and beyond the call of the perfect Courtier
Baldesar Castiglione, writing at the beginning of the fifteen hundreds, shows a game held at the Court of Urbino where the lords, and to an extent the ladies, decide to play a game where they have to create the 'perfect courtier'. The first two books are devoted to the courtier, where the lords discuss humour, physical activities to be adopted by a courtier, how a courtier should be the best at everything and love.

Book three debates the lady of the court, they ladies act against what the Magnifico says, and when defended against ignorance they ask him to explain what he means because they do not understand. So I am not sure what Castiglione's point was at this juncture. For he is not consistant in this arguement

Though despite the minor blip in the sense of Book three (which was very intertaining) this book is well worth reading. Gives a great insight in to the attitudes and values of the medieval world. Is also helpful in the modern day, giving a model for perfect politeness.