The Book of the Courtier

“For if one is too forgiving with a transgressor, one injures the innocent.” 

The topic of justice was central to the political discussions in Europe at the time that The Book of the Courtier was written. 

“Steer away from affectation at all costs, as if it were rough and dangerous brief, and to practice in all things a certain nonchalance which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one does or says uncontrived and effortless.” 

The ultimate proof of a courtier is his capacity for sprezzatura, the capacity to make it appear that one’s talents are entirely natural, though in reality they have been honed through many years of effort. 

“True art is what does not seem to be art.” 

Central to the identity of the perfect courtier for Castiglione is the notion of ease or grace, qualities intrinsic to the successful orator. Figures like Desiderius Erasmus had demonstrated that cultivated spontaneity was a necessary weapon for the knight turned courtier in navigating the tribulations of public life. in diplomacy and thus necessary for any successful courtier. 

“I am certain that [any man of good judgement] would go out of his way to avoid using these old Tuscan words.” 

Castiglione’s choice not to write in the local Tuscan language reflected his stance that the divisions within Italy would be minimized by using a universal language rather than remaining divided by its various regional dialects. The Book of the Courtier, like the courtier himself, was designed to inscribe itself into the world of the northern Renaissance. Its elegance and high estimation of both military and literary attainments were perfectly calibrated to attractively embody Italian civility. 

“What does the genius of language consist in? In carefully observing its proprieties.” 

The notion that there are proper forms of speech and oration is a classical one, but the reciprocal relationship between oration and public status that existed in Early Modern Europe is almost entirely absent today. It is important to remember when reading texts of this period that it was not the originality of your ideas but the originality of your replication of classic models that mattered. The dense intertextuality and sense of irony that pervade many Early Modern works can seem at odds with our modern taste for authenticity. Yet the genius of The Book of the Courtier is that Castiglione keeps both sprezzatura and decorum in play. Bembo’s meditation on Divine Love for instance is grounded by Emilia Pia’s pragmatism, and rhetorical arguments are spliced by comical repartee. Propriety for Castiglione is not slavish but highly creative.

“How much more attractive than all the others is a pretty woman who is quite clearly wearing no make up on her face?” 

The contemporary investment in the authentic is to some extent a reaction against the courtly exhibitionism negotiated by our Renaissance forebears. In turn, the Early Modern emphasis on manners may have resulted from a glacial yet palpable move away from feudalism, necessitating more overt demonstrations and enactments of one’s rank in the social hierarchy. Etiquette thus became an important marker of power. Yet the anxiety that this power was unfounded and ultimately fragile was never far away. Due to its focus on the specular and performative, the court gained a reputation as a place of superficiality and deception. The application of makeup also had unsettling connotations—with prostitution, the acting profession, and the ultimate dissembler, the devil. 

“Obey your Lord in everything that redounds to his profit and honour, but not as regards things that bring him loss and shame.” 

The concept of honor was a complex one in Renaissance Europe. Here, Castiglione uses the word “vergogna,” which can be translated as either “honor” or “shame,” although the gradations of its meaning encompass self-respect and the awareness of how one is valued by others. In Book 4, Castiglione writes that vergogna is brought to earth by Mercury, God of communication, to civilize humanity. Castiglione’s ideal courtier is careful to manage his position in the court sensitively, with a keen awareness of honor. 

“He should always be well prepared for everything he has to do or say, though giving the impression that it is off the cuff.” 

The Italian Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari has an influential role in popularizing the concept of courtly decorum, or elegance. In his discussion of architecture, Vasari describes the proper proportions of certain figures within a frame, advocating compositions displaying covenvolezza, or a sense of harmonious propriety. This concept for Vasari was closely connected with the notion of obedience. Vasari also applied the concept of decorum to the human body, which, according to patristic conceptions of divine order, was “decently and fittingly composed,” as part of God’s plan. Meanwhile, Protestant reformers debated the subject of predestination. The Count would design the courtier “to be well built, with finely proportioned members” (61). The physical being of Castiglione’s courtier then, follows the pattern that the art historian Vasari describes. 

Those witticisms are also very telling which rely on our giving to someone’s words an interpretation other than what was intended 

Such was the importance of verbal de termite and oratorical skill in the Early Modern era, that several prominent literary figures of the day compiled encyclopaedias of literary figures. One such is George Puttenham, who composed The Art of English Poesie and who argued that comedy and satire were two ways in which “vice was reproved”. Classical literary masters were prized for their use of devices, such as catachresis (inappropriate use of a term or phrase either intentionally or unintentionally), to alter or augment the meaning of their words.

“It is very entertaining and piquant, especially on the part of serious    and important people, to say the opposite of what the person being spoken to would wish.” 

The reversal of hierarchies, or bathos, is one of the characteristics of classical comedy. The bathetic mode plunges “high” characters into “low” situations and pastiches “serious” topics drawn from political and social life. 

If a joke is to be really elegant, it must be flavoured with deceit

Castiglione emphasizes deceit and appearance throughout the text in his attempt to record for posterity. He is not interested in what Desiderius Erasmus urged: to go inward and reflect on the “impulses of the soul” in order to curb and redirect them toward virtue. Rather, Castiglione is playing at what Shakespeare does in his many comedies, which also revolve around deceit—and the theme of appearance versus reality.

Under the cloak of pleasure, no matter what the time, or place, or pursuit, the courtier will always achieve his objective. 

The Book of the Courtier demonstrates the artistry, or artifice, of performing the role of courtier. Elements of that art include wit and deceit. For instance, Sir Philip Sidney, who was widely considered to embody the ideal courtier in the Castiglione mould, opened his influential The Defense of Poesy by reporting that he has studied “the Italian wit” and the nature of the “serviceable courtier without flattery.” Castiglione and Sidney concur that artful presentation is an essential capability for the successful Renaissance courtier.

“There is a great deal to say about practical jokes […] there are many amusing ones to be found in Boccaccio’s stories.” 

Boccaccio’s Decameron chronicles a number of stories over the course of 10 days that show the extremes of human nature. On the fourth day, Boccaccio announces that his intent is to entertain the women who suffered during the Black Plague. On the seventh day, a jealous husband locks his wife out of the house; then she tricks him into believing she has committed suicide and reverses the situation, locking him out. On the sixth day, Boccaccio tells the story of Madonna Filippa, who overturns charges brought against her in court by her husband, who has caught her cheating. An even bawdier tale is that of a lover, who sleeps with a woman quite literally behind her husband’s back. 

“Believe for certain that the Court of Urbino was far more outstanding and far more adorned than our writing has been able to convey.” 

The Book of the Courtier represented an idealized and palliative version of the Italian court as it might have been in its heyday, before the impact of foreign invasions disrupted its harmony. In particular, Castiglione’s later drafts were closer to a romance than an accurate portrayal of court life in 16th century Italy. For instance, Castiglione was a soldier himself and disliked war, yet he glorifies conflict in the text. In addition, he omits the underhanded and at times criminal behaviour of some of the courtiers present. Likewise the politics discussed by the group in classical terms is utopian and utterly unrealistic. 

“We are born capable of acquiring virtues, and similarly vices, and therefore we become habituated to the one or the other through the behaviour we adopt.” 

This argument is reminiscent of similar ideas in the works of Roman satirists such as Horace, Juvenal and Petronius, who remarked upon the vices of society. The discussion of morality is also common to Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies, whose influence pervaded the writings and ideologies of the Renaissance age. Castiglione was aware of these writings. For instance, when Ottaviano Fregoso propounds that knowledge prevents vice, he is explaining an essentially Platonic idea (Plato named four cardinal virtues: wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice). Ottaviano also parrots Aristotle’s idea that virtue is the mean between two vices when he advocates for the “golden mean” (a concept that also recurs throughout Horace).

“Temperance is the cause of many other virtues; for when a man’s soul is attuned to this harmony, reason makes it readily receptive to true fortitude, which in turn makes it intrepid and unassailable, and immune to human suffering.” 

Castiglione’s stance here echoes that of the Roman satirist Horace, whose writings famously advocate the auream mediocritatem—the “golden mean” or “middle way.” Within the figure of the Renaissance courtier, it is possible to see how intrinsically linked questions of aesthetics were with those of power.

“It is not the number of their subjects but their worth that makes princes great.” 

Quite literally this was the case. Only highly educated and skilled courtiers could produce the kind of propaganda that would inflate their monarch’s prestige for centuries to come. Whether it be Lorenzo de Medici’s employment of Raphael and Michelangelo, or Elizabeth I’s skilled propagandist Edmund Spenser, the monarch was only as secure as his or her subjects were shrewd and skilful. 

“After a hubbub of conversation, during which some contradicted and others praised what had been said, it was pointed out that it was not yet time for sleep.” 

The discussions in the book take place over the course of four days. This is still another way in which Castiglione employs conventions and decorum to induce a pleasing sense of harmony and familiarity in its readers. The relaxed, after-dinner discussions are bounded by a sense of the classical structures that were so central to the Italian Renaissance. The conversations are also ensconced within the conventional time-frame of a day, with each debate taking place on a different occasion. Castiglione’s attentiveness to the rhythms of nature confers an apparent realism and immediacy on the work. Yet there is also the sense that the action and discussions are held within the bounds of day. 

“We may say that the courtier’s final aim is to become his prince’s instructor.” 

One of the key reasons that the concept of an ideal courtier was so pertinent was that the courtier was a locus of the embattled state of power in Renaissance Europe. The diverse threats to the integrity of Holy Roman Empire are palpable in the above definition of the courtier as a pedagogue. 

Love is simply a longing to possess beauty. 

Influenced by Platonic aesthetic theory, numerous Early Modern works explore the idea that beauty is closest to the ultimate good—and that longing for worldly beauty is dangerous. Plotinus and Plato contrast worldly beauty with the perfect form. Shakespeare’s poems too discuss the tension and dangers of longing for worldly beauty. 

We shall argue that this beauty is an influx of the divine goodness which, like the light of the Sun, is shed over all created things. 

The overtly Neoplatonic sentiment of this passage brings to mind translations of Plato by the Renaissance scholar Marsilio Ficino. Ficino’s Academy in Florence was an attempt to recreate the Platonic Academy described in the Republic. It would be some years before Galileo’s heliocentric conception of the universe would shock Renaissance Europe, but for Ficino the study of the classics and of science were sources of illumination. In The Republic, Socrates is asked to define the Good, and draws the analogy that just as the sun illuminates the world, so to does the Good reveal truth. Neoplatonism differed from Plato’s original ideas in being influenced by Christian thought. Within the Holy Roman Empire, classical Phoebus Apollo had been supplanted by the “son”, the “Light” of God. 

“Celestial, adorable and true beauty which lies hidden in the secret recesses of the Almighty where profane eyes may not see it.” 

When this passage appears in The Book of the Courtier, the Court of Urbino itself is about to be shrouded from the gaze of the reader, who is ejected from this Eden like first parents. Just as the book is about to close, the reader is reminded of the hidden nature of truth within the court. The court by association is idealized and compared with the kingdom of heaven. At the conclusion of a book that deals chiefly with the survival skills necessary for the courtier to navigate the trials of court life, Castiglione appeals to divine order and leaves us with the final word “justice.” 

Those Ancient fathers whose souls, by the searing power of contemplation, you ravished from their bodies to unite with God. 

More than a hundred years later, John Donne’s poem would use the polysemy within the word “ravish” even more explicitly. Conflating the sacred with the sensual or profane, Donne represents his zealous wish for communion with the divine in worldly, almost sacrilegious terms. Castiglione’s image recalls both the tendency of classical gods to ravish mortals and imbue them with special abilities, and the reified body of Christ. Such “contemplation” however is explicitly Neoplatonic.