The Book of the Courtier
the ‘drawings’ mentioned at the beginning of this letter were designs
for a medal that Castiglione meant to wear. Raphael is said to have
painted two portraits of Castiglione, one of which (1516) is in the
Louvre and appears as the frontispiece to this volume. His epitaph was
written by Bembo, while Castiglione composed a Latin elegy in his
honour.
Note 99 page 50. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, (born 1475; died 1564), was a
native of Caprese, a village about forty-seven miles south-east of
Florence, and the son of Ludovico Buonarroti Simoni and Francesca,
daughter of Neri del Sera. His first schoolmaster seems to have come
from Urbino. Apprenticed at the age of thirteen to Ghirlandajo, he soon
came under the protection of Lorenzo de' Medici. In 1496 he removed to
Rome, and remained there five years. From 1501 to 1504 he was working
upon the great statue of David at Florence, and prepared his cartoon for
a vast fresco on the Battle of Cascina, which, although never executed,
was often copied, and is said to have exerted a greater influence on the
art of the Renaissance than any other single work. In 1505 he was called
to Rome to design a colossal mausoleum for Julius II. The anxieties and
disappointments connected with this project became the continual tragedy
of his long life. “Every day,” he wrote, “I am stoned as if I had
crucified Christ. My youth has been lost, bound hand and foot to this
tomb.” The matter was finally ended by the placing of his statue of
Moses in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli at Rome. In the spring of
1506 he was present at the unearthing of the Laocoön, and at the date of
the Courtier dialogues he was engaged in casting a great bronze statue
of Julius II at Bologna. Duke Guidobaldo’s collection at Urbino seems to
have included a Cupid made by Buonarroti in imitation of the antique,
originally owned by Cesare Borgia, regained by him when he captured
Urbino in 1502, and soon presented by him to Guidobaldo’s sister-in-law,
the Marchioness Isabella d'Este of Mantua. The famous tomb statue of
Giuliano de' Medici at Florence is hardly to be regarded as a portrait,
and was of course executed long after the period of THE COURTIER. In
1519 the Marquess of Mantua wrote to Castiglione, who was his ambassador
at Rome, regarding a monument to his father that he hoped to have the
master design. In 1523 Castiglione brought to Mantua a sketch made by
Buonarroti for a villa which the marquess intended to build at
Marmirolo.
Note 100 page 50. GIORGIO BARBARELLI, known as GIORGIONE or “Big
George,” (born about 1478; died 1511), was a native of Castelfranco, a
town about forty miles north-west of Venice, and was reputed to be a
natural son of one Giacopo Barbarelli, a Venetian, and a peasant girl.
Lack of data renders a consecutive account of his life and work
impossible. He was brought up in Venice, and bred as a painter in the
school of the Bellini. Vasari says that he played upon the lute and sang
well, and was of a gentle disposition. Although he seems to have been
exceptionally independent of great people, he enjoyed the especial
favour of the Marchioness Isabella d'Este of Mantua. In a letter written
from Venice in the year before that of the Courtier dialogues, Albert
Dürer declared Giorgione to be the greatest painter in the city, which
could then boast of the Bellini, Palma Vecchio, Carpaccio and Titian.
One of the most acute of recent critics, Mr. Bernhard Berenson, ascribes
to him only seventeen existing pictures, of which the best known is the
_Fête Champêtre_ in the Louvre, while the only one whose authenticity is
entirely free from doubt is the “Madonna and Saints” in the Duomo at
Castelfranco. The Urbino collection comprised two portraits by
Giorgione, one of which is supposed to have represented Duke Guidobaldo,
but unfortunately is lost.
Note 101 page 51. ISOCRATES, (born 436; died 338 B.C.), an Athenian
orator, was a pupil of Socrates, and became the instructor of many
famous orators. His diction was of the purest Attic, and his writings
were highly prized by the Alexandrian grammarians. The first printed
edition of his works (1493) was edited by Castiglione’s Greek master,
Chalcondylas. LYSIAS, (died about 380 B.C.), an Athenian orator,
abandoned the stilted monotony of the older speakers, and employed the
simple language of every-day life, but with purity and grace. ÆSCHINES,
(born 389; died 314 B.C.), was the rival and finally unsuccessful
antagonist of Demosthenes.
Note 102 page 51. CAIUS PAPIRIUS CARBO, (Consul in 120 B.C.), was an
adherent of the Gracchi, but became a renegade and finally committed
suicide. He was generally suspected of murdering Scipio Africanus the
Younger. While abominating the man’s character, Cicero praises his
oratory. CAIUS LÆLIUS SAPIENS was Consul in 140 B.C. His friendship with
Scipio is commemorated in Cicero’s _De Amicitia_. While he was in his
own time regarded as the model orator, later grammarians resorted to his
works for archaisms. SCIPIO AFRICANUS THE YOUNGER, (died 129 B.C.),
captured Carthage in the Third Punic War, and was leader of the
aristocratic party at Rome against the popular reforms of the Gracchi.
His works, of which only a few fragments survive, are praised by Cicero
and were long held in esteem. GALBA, see note 87. PUBLIUS SULPICIUS
RUFUS, (born 124; died 88 B.C.), was a tribune of the plebs. Cicero
says: “Of all the orators I ever heard, Sulpicius was the most
dignified, and, so to speak, the most tragic.” CAIUS AURELIUS COTTA,
(Consul 75 B.C.), is characterized by Cicero, who had argued a cause
against him, as a most acute and subtle orator, but his style seems to
have been dry and unimpassioned. CAIUS SEMPRONIUS GRACCHUS, (died 121
B.C.), a son of the famous Cornelia, and brother-in-law of Scipio
Africanus the Younger, is noted chiefly for his vain struggle in behalf
of popular rights. Only fragments of his oratory have survived. MARCUS
ANTONIUS and CRASSUS, see note 85.
Note 103 page 51. “In a certain place,” i.e., _De Oratore_, II, xxiii,
97.
Note 104 page 51. The Italian _virtù_ has here its Latin meaning of
natural vigour. See also note 330.
Enlarged from a negative, specially made by Alinari through the courtesy
of Professor I. B. Supino, of a medal, in the National Museum at
Florence, by Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1429-1498).
Note 105 page 51. ANGELO POLIZIANO, (born 1454; died 1494), was a native
of Montepulciano (about twenty-seven miles south-east of Siena), of
which his name is a Latinized form. To English students he is better
known as POLITIAN, and as the author of the oft-cited line, “Tempora
mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.” His father Benedetto Ambrogini died
poor, leaving a widow and five young children almost destitute. At the
age of ten, Angelo studied at Florence, and composed Latin poems and
Greek epigrams while yet a boy. At thirteen, he published Latin
epistles; at sixteen, he began his Latin translation of the Iliad; at
seventeen, he distributed Greek poems among the learned men of Florence;
and at eighteen, he edited Catullus. He was received into Lorenzo de'
Medici’s household, and before he was thirty years old, he was professor
of Latin and Greek at the University of Florence and was entrusted with
the care of Lorenzo’s children. His pupils included the chief students
of Europe. A born poet, entitled to the middle place of honour between
Petrarch and Ariosto, he was the first Italian to combine perfect
mastery of Latin and a correct sense of Greek with genius for his own
native literature. Towards the close of his life, he entered holy orders
and became a canon of the Cathedral at Florence. He was ill formed, and
had squinting eyes and an enormous nose. His morals were lax. He was
succeeded by Bembo as dictator of Italian letters.
Note 106 page 51. LORENZO DE' MEDICI, (born 1448; died 1492), was the
grandson of Cosimo, _Pater Patriæ_, and father of Giuliano of THE
COURTIER. On the death of his father Pietro in 1469, he succeeded
jointly with his brother Giuliano to the family wealth and political
predominance. Giuliano’s assassination in the Piazzi conspiracy of 1478
(which Poliziano witnessed and narrated in Latin) left Lorenzo sole
ruler, but like his predecessors, he governed the republic without any
title, by free use of money and great adroitness in securing the
elevation of his adherents to the chief offices of state. He was a man
of marvellous range of mental power,—an epitome of Renaissance
versatility. Never relaxing his hold on public affairs, among
philosophers he passed for a sage; among men of letters, for an original
and graceful poet; among scholars, for a Hellenist sensitive to every
nicety of Attic idiom; among artists, for a connoisseur of consummate
taste; among libertines, for a merry and untiring roysterer; among the
pious, for an accomplished theologian. “He was no less famous for his
jokes and repartees than for his pithy apothegms and maxims, as good a
judge of cattle as of statues, as much at home in the bosom of his
family as in the riot of an orgy, as ready to discourse on Plato as to
plan a campaign or to plot the death of a dangerous citizen.” (Symonds.)
Note 107 page 51. FRANCESCO CATTANI DA DIACCETO, (born 1466; died 1522),
was a native of Florence, studied at Pisa, and returning to his native
city became intimate with Ficino, of whose philosophy he may be said to
have been the heir. For many years he lectured at Florence with such
success that the Venetians tried to entice him to the University of
Padua, in vain. A partisan of the Medici, he enjoyed the favour of Leo X
and of Cardinal Giulio, afterwards Clement VII. All his works (written
in Latin) are of a philosophical character. His style is said to be
sprightly and correct, and despite the ridicule then cast upon the
vulgar tongue, he himself translated several of his books into Italian,
notably the _Tre Libri d'Amore_, with which Castiglione shows
familiarity in the Fourth Book of THE COURTIER.
Note 108 page 52. CAIUS SILIUS ITALICUS, (died 100 A.D.), was Consul
under Nero and a follower of Cicero in the art of oratory. After a
prosperous public career, he retired to a life of literary ease. His
most important work was a long epic poem on the Second Punic War, and
soon sank into oblivion. CORNELIUS TACITUS, (died probably after 117
A.D.), was Consul and orator as well as historian.
Note 109 page 54. MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO, (born 116; died about 27
B.C.), was somewhat older than Cæsar, Cicero and Sallust, but outlived
them all. He was regarded as the most learned of the Romans, and was
made director of the public library by Cæsar, although he had been a
partisan of Pompey. Of his seventy-four works, which embraced nearly all
branches of knowledge, only two survive. They were much esteemed by the
Christian Fathers.
Note 110 page 55. CATULLUS was born about 87 B.C. His 39th ode begins:
“Because Egnatius has white teeth, he smiles wherever he goes”
(_Egnatius, quod candidos habet dentes, renidet usque quaque_). Later in
the same ode, he says: “Nothing is more pointless than a pointless
laugh” (_Nam risu inepto res ineptior nulla est_).
Note 111 page 57. MONSEIGNEUR D'ANGOULÊME, afterwards FRANCIS I, (born
1494; died 1547), was the son of Count Charles d'Angoulême and Louise of
Savoy. His governor, Sieur de Boisy, strove to inspire him with a taste
for arms and a love of letters and art, and it was from romances of
chivalry that he derived much of his education and many of his ideas of
government. He succeeded his cousin Louis XII in January 1515, and one
of the earliest functions at his court was the marriage of his aunt
Filiberta of Savoy to Giuliano de' Medici, who is here represented by