The Book of the Courtier

Baldassare Castiglione

Courier Corporation, 2003 - History - 456 pages

An insider's view of court life and culture during the Renaissance, 'The Book of the Courtier' is the handiwork of a diplomat who was called upon to resolve the differences in a war of etiquette among the Italian nobility. Set in 1507, when Castiglione was an attaché to the Duke of Urbino, the book consists of a series of fictional conversations between members of the Duke's retinue, who discuss the virtues and conduct of the ideal courtier. Translated into many languages after its 1528 publication, it became the ultimate resource on aristocratic manners, offering sixteenth-century readers a manual on how to behave. Today, it remains the most definitive account of life among the Renaissance nobility.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - asukamaxwell - LibraryThing

This "entertaining comedy of manners" might read like it's entirely fiction, but in fact took place over the course of four evenings, beginning as game between about 30 people, some quite famous in ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - baswood - LibraryThing

The English translation of this book made in 1561 was subtitled "Very necessary and profitable for young gentlemen and gentlewomen abiding in Court Palace or Place. A Courtier is a person who was in ...

Contents

• I: 1
• II: 7
• III: 73
• IV: 169
• V: 240

About the author

Baldassare Castiglione is chiefly known for his prose dialogues titled The Book of the Courtier, which passed through more than 40 editions in the century after its original publication in 1528. Written in Italian based on Dante's Tuscan, it helped to establish Tuscan as the national literary language. The book was celebrated throughout Europe as a manual of courtly manners. However, the attentive reader senses the peculiarly Italian atmosphere that envelops the four main participants in the dialogue as they avoid talking of the political realities that had prompted Machiavelli to write The Prince just a few years before.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Book of the Courtier; Dover Books on the American Indians; Dover Value Editions
• Author: Baldassare Castiglione
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, revised
• Publisher: Courier Corporation, 2003
• ISBN: 0486427021, 9780486427027
• Length: 456 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Italy; History / Renaissance