The Book of the Courtier
Castiglione (with what truth remains uncertain) as having visited the
French court shortly before the date of the Courtier dialogues. Writing
in 1515, the Venetian ambassador describes the young king as being
really handsome (the evidence of our nearly contemporaneous medal
illustration to the contrary), courageous, an excellent musician, and
very learned for one of his age and rank. Under his rule, relations
between France and Italy became closer and more active, and there began
to penetrate beyond the Alps that Italian influence which he later
greatly increased by marrying his son to Giuliano de' Medici’s
great-niece Caterina. His education had included a study of Italian
literature and customs, and besides Federico Fregoso and Ludovico da
Canossa he received and honoured many other illustrious Italians, among
whom were Leonardo da Vinci and Benvenuto Cellini. He caused search to
be made in Italy for rare MSS., and had them copied for his library. His
reign, although clouded by defeats and humiliations, began a true
literary and artistic Renaissance in France.
Note 112 page 57. The reference here is to the famous Sorbonne (founded
by Robert Sorbon in 1253) towards which Francis was for religious
reasons hostile during the early years of his reign, and to which he
raised up a rival by founding the Collège de France in 1530.
Note 113 page 58. LUCIUS LICINIUS LUCULLUS, a Roman general and Consul
(74 B.C.), noted chiefly for his wealth, luxury, and patronage of art
and letters. LUCIUS CORNELIUS SULLA, a Roman general, Consul (88 B.C.),
and dictator, was the first Roman to lead an army against the city, and
the first to publish lists of his enemies, proscribing them and offering
a reward for their death. CNEIUS POMPEIUS, or POMPEY, (born 106; died 48
B.C.), a member of the Triumvirate with Cæsar and Crassus, and the
finally unsuccessful champion of the conservative party against the
power of Cæsar. MARCUS JUNIUS BRUTUS, (born 85; died 42 B.C.), a
statesman and scholar, who adhered to Pompey, joined Cassius in the
assassination of Cæsar, and was finally defeated by Mark Antony.
HANNIBAL, (born 247 B.C.), the famous Carthaginian general who conquered
Spain, crossed the Alps, overran Italy, was defeated by Scipio the
Elder, became chief magistrate of Carthage, and committed suicide in
exile about 183 B.C.
Note 114 page 59. In the last chapter of his “Prince,” Machiavelli (who
was Castiglione’s contemporary) says: “Although military excellence
seems to be extinct in Italy, this arises from the fact that the old
methods were not good and there has been no one who knew how to devise
new ones. We have great excellence in the members, if only it were not
lacking in the heads. In duels and engagements between small numbers,
see how superior the Italians are in strength, in dexterity, in
resource. But when it comes to armies, they make no showing; and it all
proceeds from the weakness of the heads. Whence it arises that in so
much time, in so many battles fought in the last twenty years, when an
army has been purely Italian, it has always succeeded ill.” Compare this
opinion with Montaigne’s remark (_Essais_, II, c. 24) that the officers
of Charles VIII ascribed their easy Italian conquests to the fact that
“the princes and nobility of Italy took more pleasure in becoming
ingenious and learned than in becoming vigorous and warlike.”
Note 115 page 59. In 1524 Castiglione wrote to his mother at Mantua
regarding the education of his son, who had just begun to study the
Greek alphabet, as follows: “As to Camillo’s learning Greek, I have had
a letter also from Michael, who says so many things that he seems to me
a flatterer. It is enough that the boy shows good capacity and
inclination, and good pronunciation. As for Latin, I should be glad to
have him attend more to Greek at present, for those who know are of
opinion that one ought to begin with Greek; because Latin is natural to
us, and we almost acquire it even though we spend little labour upon it;
but Greek is not so.”
Note 116 page 59. The reader will hardly need to be reminded that the
habit of versification was very prevalent in all ranks of Italian
society in Castiglione’s day. Varchi (1502-1565) informs us that the
vernacular was generally despised in the Florence of that time, and
adds: “And I remember, when I was a lad, that the first and most
important command which fathers usually gave to their children, and
masters to their pupils, was that they must on no account whatever read
anything in the vulgar tongue.”
Note 117 page 59. In the _Vita Nuova_ (c. 25), Dante says: “And the
first who began to speak like a native poet was moved thereto because he
would have his words understood of woman.”
Note 118 page 59. ARISTIPPUS, (_flor._ 400 B.C.), was a Greek
philosopher, whose school took its name from his birthplace, Cyrene in
Africa. He was for some time a follower of Socrates, and afterwards
lived at the court of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse. Diogenes Laertius
relates that when Aristippus was asked what was the greatest thing he
had gained from philosophy, he replied: “The power to meet all men with
confidence.”
Note 119 page 60. Among Plutarch’s works is a tract entitled “How to
Tell Friend from Flatterer.” In 1532 Erasmus published a Latin version
of it dedicated to Henry VIII of England.
Note 120 page 61. The first quatrain of a well-known sonnet by Petrarch:
_Giunto Alessandro alla famosa tomba
Del fero Achille, sospirando disse:
O fortunato, cite sì chiara tromba
Trovasti, e chi di te sì alto scrisse!_
of which Mr. John Jay Chapman has kindly furnished the following
translation:
When Alexander reached the sacred mound
Where dread Achilles sleeps, “O child of Fame,”
He sighed. “Thy deeds are happy that they found
Old Homer’s tongue to clarion thy name.”
In his oration _Pro Archia_, Cicero describes Alexander as exclaiming:
“O fortunate youth, who found Homer as herald of thy valour!” (_O
fortunate, inquit, adulescens qui tuæ virtutis Homerum præconem
inveneris!_).
Note 121 page 62. In an earlier version, this passage reads: “Grasso de'
Medici will in this matter have the same advantage over Messer Pietro
Bembo that a hogshead has over a barrel.” Bembo was slender, while
_Grasso_ (fat man) was probably the nickname of a corpulent soldier in
the service of the Medici, possibly identical with a certain Grasso to
whom Bembo desired to be commended in a letter to Bibbiena, 5 February
1506.
Note 122 page 63. The instrument used in Socrates’s time κιθάρα was
certainly not the modern cithern, but more probably a kind of large
lyre, supported by a ribbon and played with a plectrum of metal, wood or
ivory.
Note 123 page 63. In a note to this passage, Cian says: “_Abito_
[rendered ‘habit of mind’] is a special condition or habitual quality of
the mind, which manifests itself outwardly in a special _costume_
[rendered ‘habitual tendency’], or equally habitual behaviour, which in
turn reacts upon the disposition and moral attitude of the individual.”
Note 124 page 64. LYCURGUS probably lived in the 9th century B.C., and
was the reputed author of the Spartan laws and institutions.
Note 125 page 64. EPAMINONDAS, a Theban general, defeated the Spartans
at Leuctra in 371 B.C. and at Mantinea in 362 B.C., and lost his life in
the latter battle.
Note 126 page 64. THEMISTOCLES, the Athenian statesman and general,
persuaded the Greeks to resist the second Persian invasion by naval
force at Salamis in 480 B.C.
Note 127 page 64. One of the finest of the Pompeian frescoes represents
the centaur Chiron teaching Achilles to play upon the lyre.
Note 128 page 64. The reference here is of course to the familiar story
of Orpheus and the beasts.
Note 129 page 64. Castiglione doubtless had in mind the legend of Arion,
a Greek poet of Lesbos, who probably flourished about 700 B.C. We have a
fragment of his verse addressed to Poseidon and telling of the dolphins,
who had wafted the poet safely to land when he had lost his course.
Note 130 page 65. As we shall see, the Magnifico’s request was not
complied with until the second evening (page 81).
Note 131 page 65. QUINTUS FABIUS PICTOR was a Roman general who served
in the Second Punic War, and wrote a Greek history of Rome, much
esteemed by the ancients, but now lost. Pliny affirms that Fabius
painted the temple in the 450th year after the founding of Rome (i.e.
300 B.C.), and that the painting was still extant about the beginning of
our era.
Note 132 page 66. The Apollo Belvedere was discovered in 1503, the
Laocoön group in 1506, and other famous antique statues only a few years
earlier.
Note 133 page 66. The comparative merits of painting and sculpture were
a frequent subject of discussion during this period. The Renaissance
writers had inherited from antiquity a fondness for seeking superiority
or inferiority in matters between which there exists such a diversity of
character as to render comparison unprofitable. According to Vasari,
Giorgione maintained “that in one picture the painter could display
various aspects without the necessity of walking round his work, and
could even display, at one glance, all the different aspects that could
be presented by the figure of a man, even though the latter should
assume several attitudes,—a thing which could not be accomplished by
sculpture without compelling the observer to change his place, so that
the work is not presented at one view, but at different views. He
declared, further, that he could execute a single figure in painting, in
such a manner as to show the front, back, and profiles of both sides at
one and the same time.... He painted a nude figure, with its back turned
to the spectator, and at the feet of the figure was a limpid stream,
wherein the reflection of the front was painted with the utmost
exactitude: on one side was a highly burnished corselet, of which the
figure had divested itself, and wherein the left side was reflected
perfectly, every part of the figure being clearly apparent: and on the
other side was a mirror, in which the right profile of the nude form was
also exhibited. By this beautiful and admirable fancy, Giorgione desired
to prove that painting is, in effect, the superior art, requiring more
talent and demanding higher effort.”
In one of his letters, Michelangelo wrote: “My opinion is that all
painting is the better the nearer it approaches to relief, and relief is
worse in proportion as it inclines to painting. And so I have been wont
to think that sculpture is the lamp of painting, and that the difference
between them might be likened to the difference between the sun and
moon.... By sculpture I understand an art which operates by taking away
superfluous material; by painting, one that attains its result by laying
material on. It is enough that both emanate from the same human
intelligence, and consequently sculpture and painting ought to live in
amity together, without these lengthy disputations. More time is wasted
in talking about the problem than would go to the making of figures in
both species.”
Note 134 page 68. In his “Treatise on Painting,” Leonardo da Vinci says:
“The first marvel we find in painting is the apparent detachment from
the wall or other plane, and the cheating of keen perceptions by
something that is not separate from the surface.”
Note 135 page 68. “Grottoes,” i.e. the Catacombs. Speaking in his
autobiography of the remains of ancient art found in the Catacombs,
Benvenuto Cellini says: “These grotesques have received this name from
the moderns because they were found by scholars at Rome in certain