Baldassare Castiglione - The Book of the Courtier (Big Book List)

I hope that every book in this project will be as fascinating a item to think about as have been in the course of this project so far. Certainly, there are a few that have not revolutionized my life as have some in this project, but some have been a revelation to me that will sit with me for a long time. The Book of the Courtier is a book that may be with me awhile, almost despite itself at times, but fascinating. Baldassare Castiglione was a courtier in the northern Italian court of Urbino and seemed to have had a transformative experience during this time and that he brought with him throughout his life. He, then, goes onto serve in other courts and accumulates the accolades due to someone in his station in life through grit and a good nature, and ends up in Spain where he writes this book. Castiglione yearns for his life in in his home court, even his home court, Urbino and drafts this work shortly before his death in Spain which would serve as a handbook of sorts for courtly life hereafter. It is fascinating to think of this humble gesture forming the backbone of the life of letters and perceptions from thence forth. These principles were already in play before Castiglione puts them into words here but to have these formalized in this fashion I think is fascinating. 

The conceit is that Castiglione creates several characters through whom he will present the fashionable ideas of the time to debate the nature of courtly life. A caveat here is necessary to say that I am not a courtly person, I am not of noble birth, I was born into a working class family in rural America. What I think is applicable about this text to many is that doesn't try to set a stricture of rules of courtly life, but through this conversation and game they express the ideals of this life, what is good and appropriate, what is in appropriate and they do so by trying to define the best virtues a Courtier, so not the king or the duke have, but the hangers on of the court, how they should conduct themselves and there by shaping the climate of the court. This is handbook for the professional life or the public life. As a college professor, there is a general sense of decorum that no one is taught explicitly that sets the parameters of polite behavior among colleagues that you learn tacitly through conversation and modeling, but it is never explained and I think this book went along way in shaping how Westerners conduct themselves in public.

The whole thing starts with a game that one of the women of the court propose that those gathered, after the Duke goes to bed, of trying to pick - if one could - the chief virtue and the chief vice that their perfect mate would have. I think this original game is much more interesting than how it devolves into the project of the rest of the text, as this task gets turned into what is the best nature of a courtier. What attributes should they have and how then can future courtiers be trained to achieve these aims. 

I have proposed this first game to friends since reading this and we have had some very good conversations because of it. I like these little things, these little thought experiments, this way of fostering conversations. 

Chapter 1 sketches out the parameters of this task, and goes a good bit of the way towards defining the courtier and the gentleman and the professional as we understand these things today. Chapter 2 is the nature of the sense of humor a courtier should enjoy and exude. Chapter 3 is an argument about the role of women in courtly life and whether a woman could even be a courtier. The review here is that the results are mixed though there is a surprising advocate for the role of women in this conversation but the overwhelming opinion is the spirit of the age that women and men have separate and unequal roles. Chapter 4 is how the courtier should influence the court in political, governing, and religious affairs. I appreciated a great deal of the last bit of Chapter 4, and the whole of Chapter 1. Chapter 2 is obscure in some senses to the point of absurdity. Chapter 3 has some useful ideas but is largely a morass of outdated sensibilities. 

Overall, I found the context and the construction of this text fascinating that has inspired me in many different affairs since reading it. I love this project and I hope that it keeps delivering to me these types of full revelations.