Castiglione, Baldassare, The Book of the Courtier, trans. Thomas Hoby. London : J.M. & Sons Ltd., 1948.
Collington, Philip D. Stuffed with All Honourable Virtues": "Much Ado about Nothing" and "The Book of the Courtier". Studies in Philology Vol. 103, No. 3 (Summer, 2006), pp. 281-312. http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/stable/4174852
Hanning, Robert W. and Rosand, David, ed. Castiglione, The Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
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The Book of the Courtier, although written as a fictional account between several courtly figures, summarizes well what is accepted as the general experience by the Italian and by extension European courtly classes of the Renaissance (14th-15th centuries), as well as Castiglione's views and criticisms of the same.
The narrative itself follows four evenings at the court of Urbino, and the discussions that take place amongst several high lords and their ladies; these include one Count Baldesser Castilion, Maister (Master) Alfonsus Ariosto, the 'central' characters of the work. Also introduced are Duke Duke Guidubaldo (the lord of the court), and the Ladies Elizabeth Gonzaga and Emilia Pia, and numerous others: "Among which (as you know) were most famous the Lord Octavian Fregoso, Sir Frederick his brother, the Lord Julian de Medicis, M. Peter Bembo, the Lord Cesar Gongzaga, ... and infinite of other most worthy knights and gentlemen" (21).
The First Book of the Courtier establishes the scene and context of the following Books, as well as discusses the identity and role of the ideal courtesan in the activities of the characters themselves:
'...the manner of the gentlemen in the house was immediately after supper to assemble together where the Dutchesse. Where among other recreations, music and dancing, which they used continually, sometime they propounded feate questions, otherwhile they invented certain witty sports and pastimes at the device sometime of one sometime of another, in the which under sundry coverts oftentimes the standersby opened subtly their imaginations unto whom they though best" (21).
These seem to be the traditional courtly entertainments; free from constraints of the lower working classes, courtesans could afford to engage in 'certain witty sports', it seems.
Castiglione's own personal influence was staggering; even before his first draft of The Courtier was finished, his friendships with powerful individuals were serving him well. Latin poet Guido Postumo Silvestri published Epicedium in matrem in 1517 which featured Castilgione himself as a central character alongside Andrea Navergo and Marcantonio Flaminio. After his death in SPain, February 1529, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V claimed 'I tell you that one of the best gentlemen in the world has died!'
Regarding The Courtier itself, the effect it had on scholarly thought extended far beyond the Italian states. The earliest English translation by a Sir Thomas Hoby appeared in 1561, only thirty-two years after Castiglione's death (and three years after the ascension of Queen Elizabeth Tudor to the English throne). The Courtier saw great praise in Hoby's translated words:
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| Sir Thomas Hoby |
"Whether read in Italian, English, or Latin, The Courtier also had tremendous impact on English literature, influencing Elyot's conception of the ideal "governor" and Spenser's of the ideal courtier, informing the poetical style employed by Sydney and Ralegh, and directing the flurry of literary activity of courtiers and poets around Elizabeth. Without Castiglione's book and without Thomas Hoby's readily accessible English version of it, the Renaissance in England would have been very different indeed" (Rebhorn 266).
Even some of the most prominent Elizabethans, whose own influences have had huge effect on the modern world, were 'indebted' to Castiglione's views on high society, including William Shakespeare:
Castiglione's book was widely read by Shakespeare's contemporaries ... and figures as varied as Roger
Ascham, Francis Bacon, John Florio, King James I, Ben Jonson, John
Marston, Thomas Nashe, George Puttenham, and Thomas Whythorne
read and/or owned The Courtier...As Daniel Javitch explains,
for Elizabethans seeking self-improvement, "Castiglione's perfect
courtier had become an important and appealing model of civilized
conduct"; and Walter Raleigh notes that, for writers in particular, The
Courtier "proved an excellent book to steal from". Recent studies have
uncovered indebtedness to Castiglione in a host of other plays, ranging
from Love's Labor's Lost and Measure for Measure to Hamlet and Othello (Collington 281-282).
Thus, Castiglione's writings have no suffered from the inaccessibility that time can often impose upon anciet and medieval texts. His Book of the Courtier reflected both the strengths and weaknesses of courtly life in medieval Italy, yet reached far beyond that one time and place. High society in the Cinquecento, it seems from what can be gleaned from Castiglione's writings, had similar characteristics to the modern day's.
A controversial theme explored in The Courtier, is what role women have in the courtly scene. Castiglione takes a rather self-contradictory stance on occasion regarding this question; he begins with stating that women can hold the same courtly distinction that men can, although for seemingly different reasons than those for men:
"And albiet stayednesse, noblenesse of courage, temperance, strength of the minde, wisedom, and the other vertues ... yet will I have her endowed with them all, not so much to entertaine (although notwithstanding they may serve thereto also) as to be vertuous..." (195).
Later on, however, Castiglione backtracks; indeed, he goes on to fully subordinate women (and not just courtesans, it seems) beneath men:
"Now that women are unperfect creatures, and consequently of less worthinesse than men, and not apt to conceive those vertues that they are, I purpose not to affirme it, because the prowes of these Ladies were inough to make me a lyar. Yet this I say unto you, that most wise men have left in writing, that nature, because she is alwaies set and bent to make things most perfect, if she could, would continually bring forth men, and when a woman is borne, it is a slackenesse or default of nature, and contrarie to that she would doe" (196).
Castiglione here seems to be freely admitting that while women are of equal worth to men, in a perfect world only men would be 'brought forth' (although, interestingly, he claims that Nature whom is supposedly bringing forth these men is female). He still seems fully aware of the historical injustice of perception women have felt:
"In case you will then consider the auncient histories (albiet men at all times have been verie sparing in writing the prayses of women) and them of latter daies, ye shall finde that continually vertue hath raigned as well among women as men: and that such there have beene also that have made warre and obtained glorious victories, governed Realmes with great wisedome and justice, and done what ever men have done"(198)".
Thus there seems to be a dichotomy of perception regarding women in The Courtier; Castiglione allows that women are and have been eggective courtesans, warriors and political leaders, but are still apparently 'imperfect' when compared to men.
