The Book of the Courtier
collect coins and inscriptions as sources of accurate historical
information, and to urge the preservation of ancient monuments. Had he
never written a line of verse, he would still be venerated as the
apostle of scholarship, as the chief originator of humanistic impulses
based upon what Symonds describes as “a new and vital perception of the
dignity of man considered as a rational being apart from theological
determinations, and ... the further perception that classic literature
alone displayed human nature in the plenitude of intellectual and moral
freedom.”
Note 80 page 41. In an age when grammatical and rhetorical treatises, in
the modern sense of the word, hardly existed, it was natural that the
study of classic models should take the form of imitation.
Note 81 page 42. It will be remembered that Giuliano de' Medici was a
native Tuscan.
Note 82 page 43. This Tuscan triumvirate was called “the three
Florentine crowns:” Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio.
Note 83 page 44. EVANDER was a mythical son of Hermes, supposed to have
founded a colony on the Tiber before the Trojan War. TURNUS was a
legendary king of an Italian tribe, who was slain by Æneas.
Note 84 page 44. The Salian priests were attached to the worship of Mars
Gradivus. On the occasion of their annual festival, they went in
procession through Rome, carrying the sacred shields of which they were
custodians and which they beat in accompaniment to dance and song. The
words of their chaunts are said to have become unintelligible even to
themselves, and appear to have set forth a kind of theogony in praise of
all the celestial deities (excepting Venus), and especially of one
Mamurius Veturius, who is by some regarded as identical with Mars.
Note 85 page 44. MARCUS ANTONIUS (143-87 B.C.) and LICINIUS CRASSUS
(140-91 B.C.), the two most famous orators of early Rome, were regarded
by Cicero as having been the first to rival their Greek predecessors.
QUINTUS HORTENSIUS HORTALUS (114-50 B.C.), the great advocate of the
aristocratic party at Rome, yielded the palm of oratory only to CICERO
(106-43 B.C.). MARCUS PORCIUS CATO (234-149 B.C.), a Roman soldier,
author and reforming statesman, sought to restore the ancient purity and
simplicity of the earlier republic. QUINTUS ENNIUS (239-169 B.C.), a
Roman epic poet and annalist, imparted to the language and literature of
his nation much of the impulse that affected their growth for centuries.
VIRGIL was born 70 B.C., and died 19 B.C.
Note 86 page 44. HORACE was born 65 B.C., and died 8 B.C. PLAUTUS died
184 B.C.
Note 87 page 44. SERGIUS SULPICIUS GALBA was Roman Consul 144 B.C.;
Cicero praised his oratory, but found it more old-fashioned than that of
Lælius (_flor._ 200 B.C.) and Scipio Africanus the Younger (died 129
B.C.).
Note 88 page 46. In his _Prose_, Bembo says that courtly Italian,
especially during the pontificate of the Spaniard, Alexander VI
(1492-1503), was full of Spanish expressions,—an assertion amply
confirmed by contemporary letters, which are rich also in Gallicisms.
Note 89 page 46. The Spanish _primor_ has failed to win Italian
citizenship. _Aventurare_ has become naturalized in Italy; as also have
_acertare_ (in the sense, however, of to assure, to make certain, to
verify), _ripassare_ (to repass, to repeat, to rebuff), _rimproccio_ or
_rimprovero_, and _attilato_ or _attillato_, which is recognizable in
the Spanish _atildado_. _Creato_ (Spanish _criado_) is now replaced by
_creatura_ in the sense mentioned in the text; in Sicily _creato_ is
used to mean servant.
Note 90 page 47. The reference here is of course to the Attic, Doric,
Ionic and Æolic dialects.
Note 91 page 47. TITUS LIVIUS was born at Padua 59 B.C., and died there
17 A.D. Of the one hundred and forty-two books of his History (which
covered the period from the founding of Rome in 750 B.C. down to 9 B.C.,
and upon which he spent forty years of his life), only thirty-five have
survived, together with an anonymous summary of the whole.
Note 92 page 48. Of the four forms here condemned by Castiglione as
corrupt, three (_Campidoglio_, _Girolamo_, and _padrone_) have become
firmly established in Italian. _Campidoglio_ had been used by Petrarch
(_Trionfo d'Amore_, i, 14),—an “old” but certainly not an “ignorant”
Tuscan.
Note 93 page 49. Oscan was a pre-Roman language spoken by the Opici, an
Italian tribe inhabiting the Campanian coast. Much of the mist that
shrouded it for centuries has now been dispelled by the epigraphists.
Both Dante and Petrarch were great lovers of Provençal, with which in
Castiglione’s time his friend Federico Fregoso was familiar.
Note 94 page 50. BIDON was a native of Asti, and one of the most famous
choristers in the service of Leo X.
Enlarged from a part of Alinari’s photograph (no. 18657) of the bronze
relief, surmounting Mantegna’s tomb in the Church of Sant'Andrea at
Mantua, variously attributed to Bartolommeo di Virgilio Melioli
(1448-1514), to Giovanni Marco Cavalli (born 1450), and, with less
reason, to Sperandio di Bartolommeo de' Savelli (1425?-1500?).
Note 95 page 50. MARCHETTO CARA, a native of Verona, entered the service
of the Gonzagas in 1495 and lived nearly thirty years at Mantua, where
he was made a citizen by the Marquess Federico. He frequented also the
court of Urbino, and is known to have been sent by the Marchioness
Isabella to relieve the tedium of her friend and sister-in-law the
Duchess Elisabetta’s exile at Venice in 1503. In his time he was among
the most prolific and successful composers of profane music, especially
of ballads and madrigals, and a number of his popular pieces have been
preserved.
Note 96 page 50. LEONARDO DA VINCI, (born 1452; died 1519), was the
natural son of a notary, Pietro Antonio, of the village of Vinci,
situated about fourteen miles east of Florence. He studied some three
years with Donatello’s pupil Verocchio at Florence. Meeting small
pecuniary success there, he removed to Milan about 1483 and entered the
service of Duke Ludovico Sforza, who is said to have paid him the
equivalent of £4000 a year while painting the “Last Supper,” and for
whom he completed in 1493 the model of a colossal equestrian statue of
Duke Francesco Sforza, never executed in permanent form. He was employed
by Cesare Borgia as military engineer, and in that capacity visited
Urbino in July 1502. His famous portrait known as the “Monna Lisa” or
“La Gioconda,” upon which he worked at times for four years, was
finished about 1504 and afterwards sold by him to Francis I. In 1507, he
had been appointed painter to Louis XII, but did not visit France until
1516. On the election of Leo X in 1513, he journeyed to Rome in the
company and service of Giuliano de' Medici, who paid him a monthly
stipend of £66. Although he was received with favour by the new pope and
lodged in the Vatican, his stay in Rome was artistically unprolific, his
interest at the time being chiefly confined to chemistry and physics,
and nature attracting him more than antiquities, of which he spoke as
“this old rubbish” (_queste anticaglie_). Three years before his death
he was visited at Amboise in France by Cardinal Ludovico of Aragon, who
is mentioned later in THE COURTIER (p. 159), and whose secretary left an
interesting account of an interview with him, describing the painter as
then disabled by paralysis of the hand.
Note 97 page 50. ANDREA MANTEGNA, (born 1431; died 1506), was a native
of Vicenza and probably of humble origin. When a mere child he became
the pupil and adopted son of the noted painter and instructor, Francesco
Squarcione of Padua, and was soon enrolled in the painters’ guild of
that city. In 1449 he began painting for the d'Este at Ferrara, and
between 1453 and 1459 he married Niccolosa, a daughter of Squarcione’s
rival Giacopo Bellini, and sister of the more famous brothers Gentile
and Giovanni Bellini. He painted also at Verona, and about 1460 entered
the service of the Gonzagas at Mantua, where the remainder of his life
was chiefly spent, although he worked for Pope Innocent VIII at Rome
about the year 1488, before which date he was knighted by the Marquess
of Mantua. By one writer he is affirmed to have cast the fine bust which
ornaments his tomb at Mantua, and which is said once to have had diamond
eyes. He is known to have understood bronze casting, and besides the
brush and the engraver’s burin, he handled modelling tools, while a
sonnet of his has been preserved. Although praised by Vasari as kindly
and in every way estimable, he is shown by contemporary letters to have
been rather irritable and litigious in private life. Albert Dürer tells
us that one of the keenest disappointments of his life was occasioned by
the great painter’s death before he was able to make an intended journey
to Mantua for the purpose of visiting Mantegna.
Note 98 page 50. RAFFAELLO SANTI or SANZI,—euphonized by Bembo as
SANZIO,—(born 1483; died 1520), was a native of Urbino and the son of
Giovanni Santi and Magia Ciarla. The father was himself a painter of no
mean skill, and wrote a quaint rhymed chronicle of the Duchy of Urbino,
which is preserved in the Vatican and contains much interesting
information. Having lost both parents when he had reached the age of
eleven years, and probably having first studied at Urbino under Timoteo
della Vite, Raphael was sent by a maternal uncle to the studio of
Perugino at Perugia. The rest of his short life was an unbroken course
of happy labour and brilliant success. In 1499 he seems to have been at
Urbino for the purpose of arranging for the welfare of a sister, and
again in 1504, when, after executing several works (including, it is
believed, portraits of the duke and duchess) for the ducal family, he
went to Florence with a letter of commendation from Guidobaldo’s sister.
From 1504 to 1508 he resided chiefly at Florence, although he again
visited Urbino twice, just before and probably soon after the date of
the Courtier dialogues. His friendship with so many members of the
Urbino court (Giuliano de' Medici, Bibbiena, Bembo, Canossa, and
Castiglione), and even his acquaintance with Julius II, probably began
during these later visits to his native city. In 1508 he was called to
Rome by Julius, and resided there until his death. On succeeding
Bramante as architect of St. Peter’s in 1514, he wrote to Castiglione:
“Sir Count: I have made drawings in several manners according to your
suggestion, and if everyone does not flatter me, I am satisfying
everyone; but I do not satisfy my own judgment, because I dread not
satisfying yours. I am sending them to you. Pray choose any of them, if
you deem any worthy. Our Lord [i.e. Leo X] in honouring me has put a
great burden on my shoulders,—that is, the charge of the fabric of St.
Peter’s. I hope, however, not to fall under it; and the more so, because
the model I have made for it pleases his Holiness and is praised by many
choice spirits; but in thought I soar still higher. I fain would renew
the beautiful forms of ancient buildings, but know not whether my flight
will be that of Icarus. Vitruvius affords me much light on the subject,
but less than I need. As to Galatea, I should hold myself a great master
if she possessed half the fine things you write me; but in your words I
recognize the love you bear me: and I tell you that to paint one
beautiful woman, I should need to see several beautiful women and to
have you with me to choose the best. But as there is dearth of good
judgments and of beautiful women, I am using a certain idea that has
occurred to my mind. Whether this has any artistic excellence in it, I
know not,—but I am striving for it. Command me.” Passavant affirms that