Essay
The Book of the Courtier
Il Cortegiano
Baldassare Castiglione · 1528
Opening lines
Fra me ſteſſo lungamente ho dubitato M. Alfonſo cariſsimo, qual di due coſe piu difficil mi fuſſe, o il negarui quel, che con tanta iſtãza piu uolte m'hauete richieſto, o il farlo […]
I have long doubted within myself, my dearest Messer Alfonso, which of two things would be the harder for me, either to refuse you what you have so often and so insistently asked of me, or to do it […]
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
In 1507, at the court of Urbino, gentlemen and ladies gather on four successive evenings to sketch, as a game, the portrait of the perfect courtier. They discuss nobility, skill at arms, the cultivation of letters, eloquence and the art of jesting, then the court lady and love. Grace is also discussed, that ease which must conceal effort and make what has been learned appear natural.
Context
Long revised and corrected, the dialogue appeared in Venice, from Aldus, in 1528. In it he coins the word “sprezzatura” to name a studied nonchalance that conceals art. The book was quickly translated into Spanish, German, French, Polish and English; Thomas Hoby's English version, in 1561, shaped the idea the English nobility had of the well-born man. Alain Pons gave the French edition at Flammarion; in English, the translations by Charles Singleton and George Bull are the standard references.
Who it is for
A dialogue in four books, one for each evening, read in sections, for those curious about court life in the Renaissance.
Prizes and reception
According to Flammarion's presentation, the book enjoyed nearly three centuries of success and left its mark on Rabelais, Montaigne, Cervantes and Shakespeare.
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