CASTIGLIONE, BALDASSARE (1478–1529)

CASTIGLIONE, BALDASSARE (1478–1529), Italian writer and diplomat. The fame of Baldassare Castiglione rests with his dialogue-treatise Il cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier), first published in 1528 and immediately acclaimed in Italy and throughout Europe. For centuries it served as the model "courtesy" book, a guide, both ethical and aesthetic, for the social relations of gentlemen and ladies.

Castiglione was born in Casatico, near Mantua, on 6 November 1478, the son of Cristoforo, a professional soldier in the service of the Marquis of Mantua, and Aloisa Gonzaga, who was related to the ruling family. In 1490 he was sent to Milan to pursue humanistic studies. When his father died in 1499 he returned to Mantua and began a military and diplomatic career, first in the service of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, then in 1504 with Guidobaldo Della Rovere, later with Francesco Della Rovere, dukes of Urbino. In 1516, he married a Bolognese noblewoman, Ippolita Torelli, who died in 1520 in childbirth. He had by then returned to the service of the duke of Mantua and in 1521 he took minor orders. In 1524 Clement VII named him papal nuncio to the court of Charles V in Spain, where he was received in 1525 and where he spent the rest of his life. The pope blamed him for not preventing the sack of Rome at the hands of imperial troops in 1527, but contemporaries tended to blame the vacillating Clement, who was unable to ally himself firmly with either the French or the Spanish. Castiglione died of plague fevers in Toledo on 8 February 1529.

Besides The Courtier (1528), Castiglione wrote a dramatic eclogue, the Tirsi (1506), for Carnival at Urbino in 1506 in which he also performed, a Latin letter in praise of his patron, the De vita et gestis Guidubaldi Urbini Ducis (The life and deeds of Guidobaldo, duke of Urbino; 1508), and the prologue, now lost, to the Calandria (1513), a comedy written by Bibbiena (Bernardo Dovizi), whose first performance he organized in Urbino. Castiglione also wrote conventional poetry in the Petrarchist mode and humanistic verse in Latin. He left a large and important correspondence.

Castiglione had begun writing The Courtier by 1513–1514, and it occupied him for most of the rest of his life. The book is a dialogue that follows the classical models of Plato and Cicero, both in its proposal of an ideal type to be imitated, the perfect courtier, and in its choice of dialogic form, for which it is especially indebted to the Ciceronian model. Like Cicero, Castiglione chooses as interlocutors contemporary historical figures, known for the attitudes and actions they represent, who take different sides in the discussion of subjects of contemporary debate, thus lending verisimilitude to the dialogue and giving the conversations a lively, dramatic quality. The book is also autobiographical. The conversations it depicts are set at the court of Urbino in 1506, and the interlocutors are courtiers and ladies many of whom Castiglione met during the years he spent there. He remembers them and those days with nostalgia.

In Book 1 the assembled courtiers and ladies propose games for their entertainment and decide upon one in which they will have to "form in words a perfect courtier." The courtier they envision must be a nobleman, whose principal profession is arms and who engages and excels in physical activities, always maintaining his dignity. He is a connoisseur and a practitioner of the arts and letters, who exhibits moderation in all he does, avoids affectation, and performs with grace (grazia) and seemingly without effort (with sprezzatura). Outward appearance is of the utmost importance. Book 1 includes digressions on the current debates regarding the vernacular language, on the relative importance of arms and of letters for the courtier, and on the question of the preeminence of painting or sculpture. Book 2 treats the ways and circumstances in which the ideal courtier might demonstrate his qualities and argues the importance of decorum and of conversational skills, especially his ability to entertain with humorous language. Examples are given that constitute a collection of witty stories and practical jokes. Book 3 imagines a suitable female companion for the courtier, who has many of his same qualities and talents, though physical beauty is more important for her, as is her good reputation. The virtue of women is both discussed and demonstrated through examples, ancient and modern, which provide another collection of entertaining stories. In Book 4 we come to the courtier's raison d'être, his service to his prince, and after long discussion the topic of conversation turns to love, a theme introduced in Book 3, and centers on how the courtier, no longer young, should love. The theory of Neoplatonic love is proposed, following closely Marsilio Ficino's Christianizing commentary on Plato's Symposium.

Modern critical debate on The Courtier has centered on the ethics of its excessive concern with outward appearance, the author's unwillingness to dwell on politics, and on some issues of coherence. However, no one disputes the status of The Courtier as a masterpiece, a brilliant original that was never surpassed by any of its many imitators, and a "portrait" of the culture of Italian Renaissance court society in the early sixteenth century.

CASTIGLIONE, BALDASSARE (1478–1529)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources