The Book of the Courtier
Page 42
Solomon, 257, n23, 357; 336, n25, 361
Spaniards, and courtiership, 129; instinctively witty, 152
Speech and writing, their merits discussed, 71–7 passim
Speech-making, form and fashion in, 82
Sports, 117–19
Stesichorus, 330, n23, 361
Stoic philosophy, 114
St Francis, 343, n4, 361
St Jerome, n4, 353
St Paul, and the power of love, 344, n28, 361
Temperance, virtue of, 295
Themistocles, 108, n1, 350, received by the King of Persia, 312, n13, 359
Theophrastus, 35, n1, 347
Theodora, Greek Empress, 35, n16, 355
Troy, conquest of, 233, 329
Tyrants, in fear of the people they rule, 301
Tuscan language, cult of, 83
Tuscan words, use of, 71–2
Tuscans, their sharpness, 152
Urbino, favoured by nature, 40; palace built by Duke Federico, 41; court of, everyday life at, 42–5; its standing among other courts, 111; 207; 282; State of, seized by Pope Alexander, 179
Venus Armata, 235, n14, 355
Virgil, 73, 81, 85
Virtue, can be learned, 291; defined, 292; never harmful, 313; consists in the happy mean, 314
Vital spirits, 268, n25, 357
War, nature of, 303; Scythians, custom in, 303
Witticisms, 167; the unexpected answer, 171; inspire praise, 172; examples of, 173
Woman, deceits of, 48; every one anxious to be beautiful, 86; use of face make-up, 86; her beauty a source of pleasure, 101; possessing her soul rather than her body, 199; a mistake of nature, 217; brave deeds of, 227; who betrayed Rome, 235, n13, 355
Women whom they favour, 144; use of obscene words in their presence, 175; respect for, 195, 199; their presence at court, 210; need for beauty, 211; their honesty universally appreciated, 213; can understand all that men can understand, 218; imperfections of, 218–22, n2, 353; their characteristics compared with those of men, 222–4; who torment their husbands, 229; they go to harmful extremes, 232; of Sparta, 236; who achieved fame, 237–41; not afraid to die, 250; ways they can be seduced, 254; provocative, 263; how to win their favour, 265; souls of, 343
Xenophon, and reverence for God, 307, n9, 359
Young people, 111
Zeuxis, 102, n22, 349
* Cartwright, Julia: Baldassare Castiglione (2 vols), John Murray, 1908.
* Cartwright: Baldassare Castiglione, pp. 374, 376.
† Cicero: Brutus, Orator, Loeb Classical Library.
* The Italian Renaissance in its Historical Background, Cambridge University Press, 1961, p. 197.
* The concept of honour, as expressed in The Courtier, is a very complex one, alive throughout the world in the various honour codes that still persist. In this context, a key word is Castiglione’s vergogna, mentioned in the Fourth Book as having been brought to earth by Mercury to make men civilized. Vergogna may be translated as either honour or shame; in Italian, as in other Romance languages, packed into it are fine shades of meaning, ranging from self-respect to an awareness of the regard in which one is held by others. It shows itself ‘not only as chastity and modesty, as the blush which lewd speech or actions bring to the face, but also as respect for parents and elders, which prevents one from doing certain things in their presence, and as humility, reserve and respect for the laws and their representatives’. (Cf. Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society, ed. J. G. Peristiany, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965.)
* Barzini, Luigi: The Italians, Hamish Hamilton, 1964.
* The pun, untranslatable into English, relies on the use of the same word tavola for both table and board or panel.
* Namely, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Dante (1265–1321).
* The meaning of these words or phrases, some of which became fully accepted in Italian, was: primor, excellence or goodness; accertare, to hit the mark, to turn out well; avventurare, to venture; un cavalier senza rimprocio, a man of honour; attillato, attired; creato, a servant or dependent. Ripassare now has the meaning of ‘to rebuff’.
* The Italian words cited by Count Lodovico mean: satisfied, honourable cause and people.
* The first quatrain of a sonnet by Petrarch, literally: ‘When Alexander reached the famous tomb of fierce Achilles, he sighed and said: O happy man, who found so illustrious a trumpet, and one to write of you so nobly!’
* VI is either ‘the Sixth’ or the ablative of the Latin vis, meaning ‘by force’.
† Meaning ‘the Pope is worthless’. Rather inappropriate as a comment on either Pope Nicholas V – a saintly man and a notable theologian and patron – or indeed on the worthy Pope Pius III, who admittedly reigned for only two months.
* The story (the second of the Eighth Day of the Decameron) is about the affair between the priest of Varlungo and Belcolore, the wife of a farmer, and the trick played by the priest to get back the cloak he left her in lieu of payment for her favours.
† The painter Calandrino (Giovannozzo di Perino) occurs in four of Boccaccio’s stories as a simple-minded soul brilliantly exploited by practical jokers.
* The pun is on letto, which means either ‘bed’ or ‘read’.
* matto nato means a ‘born fool’ and mattonato a ‘brick floor’.
* This is a play on Virgil’s ‘Furiarum maxima iuxta accubat’ (Aeneid VI, 605-6), meaning ‘Lying nearby the greatest of the Furies…’, to give the sense ‘The greatest of the Furies sleeps with me,’
† The line from Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (Art of Love) running ‘Your Rome has as many girls as the sky has stars’ is answered by: ‘Your Rome has as many homosexuals as the meadows have kids.’
* Namely, God will say: ‘Give an account of your stewardship’ (Luke xvi, 2) and the bishop should answer: ‘Lord, you delivered five talents to me: see, I have gained over and above them five more.’ (Matthew xxv 20.)
* Giovanni Calfurnio was a humanist who held the chair of rhetoric at the University of Padua in 1486. The allegation of a rival that he was the son of a charcoal-burner and used to stoke ovens relies on the Latin meaning of calescit furnos.
† ‘Let us pray for heretics and schismatics.’
‡ Camillo’s answer is ‘Sia gran peccato’ meaning either ‘a great shame’ or ‘a great sin’.
* More puns. The Duke says ‘Passa’, meaning ‘Cross now’ and the trumpeter answers ‘Passí la Signoria Vostra’ or ‘After you…’
† The German muddles up his Latin and says ‘God give you good late’ instead of ‘good morning’ getting the reply: ‘And evil quickly to you.’
‡ Vino in Spanish means either ‘wine’ or ‘he came’ and receives the New Testament answer: ‘And you knew him not.’
* The implication was that Palla Strozzi (a wealthy Florentine aristocrat, exiled by Cosimo de’ Medici in 1434) was plotting revenge.
* Dama meaning lady, asca repulsive.
* This letter is to be delivered to the one who causes my suffering.
† A name associated with fairly formidable personalities, such as the great condottiere, Bartolomeo Colleoni.
‡ Stalla means stable.
* The Secret, or Secrets, is the name given to prayers said inaudibly by the priest during mass immediately after the Offertory and before the Preface.
* Montefiore, a little village to the north-east of Urbino, was notorious at this time and earlier for an infamous inn. Most country inns were bad, but this, being on a busy route, was singled out for abuse.
* Boccaccio’s Calandrino has already been mentioned. Bruno and Buffalmacco in four of Boccaccio’s stories (Eighth Day, Third and Sixth; Ninth Day, Third and Fifth) convince him that he has found a way to make himself invisible; steal his pig; incite Simone to convince him that he is pregnant; and give him a magic scroll to make the girl he fancies fall in love with him.
* In the Sixth Story of the Fourth Day of the Decameron, Boccaccio describes how Minutoli gets Filippello’s wife, Catell
a, to meet and sleep with him in the bagnio by pretending that her husband has an assignation there himself. In the Seventh Story of the Seventh Day, Anichino fell in love with Beatrice, took a job as a servant to her husband, Egano, who was tricked by his wife into wandering into the garden dressed in her clothes, while Anichino slipped into his bed.
* The Bacchantes were the Thracian women who tore Orpheus to death during one of their Bacchanalian orgies.
† The Italian is una licenzia braccesca, literally, ‘Braccesque leave’. The phrase is derived from the name of the condottiere Braccio Fortebraccio, whose followers, the Bracceschi, were notorious for their violence.
* Evident in Italian – la virtù and il vizio – but not in English.
* This means roughly: ‘If you can’t be chaste be careful.’