A review by bluestjuice
The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione

4.0

Excellent discussion of what the ideal courtier would look like, circa 1510 or so, from the perspective of a lot of Italian gentlemen and women who entertain themselves of an evening with this sort of thought-provoking speculation and debate. Although fictionalized, the characters who undertake this discussion are all based on actual court figures with whom Castiglione was familiar, and the entirety reads more as a sort of philosophical treatise than actual fiction, however much the individual attributes or opinions of these persons may have been changed in the writing. The work begins by describing the attributes of the perfect courtier (mostly focusing on which virtues and social graces are important for him to have, and which ones are more important than others), then moves in the second section into a lengthy analysis of humor and how to incorporate it into your conversation in a pleasing manner. This part in particular I found overly long and tedious. The third section digresses into a discussion of a matching ideal court lady to pair with the courtier, and allows itself some considerable argument over the merits of women as compared to men, whether or not they can be as worthy of praise, etc, which was pretty fascinating as an insight into the 16th century mindset. The fourth section spends some time discussing the occupation of the courtier and the attributes of the ideal prince (whom the imaginary courtier is imagined to be instructing), before veering into another argument about whether it is appropriate for old men to fall in love. This debate morphs into a spiritual lyric in praise of intellectual love which is poetic and very moving, albeit a bit removed from the original intention of the work. As a window into sixteenth-century thought and manners among the elite of Italy, it's very interesting, although it skims the surface for the most part and won't give details of good manners in the way of a manners-guide or anything of that sort. This is a book that deals with theory, but you can read a lot between the lines if you want to.