Effects of Castiglione and The Courtier on modern thinking

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:

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.