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.
'...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.
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