Castiglione's Allegory: Veiled Policy in the Book of the Courtier

290 Pages·2014·1.93 MB·English

by  W. R. Albury

Castiglione’s allegory
Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (Il libro del cortegiano, 1528), a dialogue in
which the interlocutors attempt to describe the perfect courtier, was one of the most
influential books of the Renaissance. In recent decades a number of postmodern
readings of this work have appeared, emphasizing what is often characterized as
the playful indeterminacy of the text, and seeking to detect inconsistencies which
are interpreted as signs of anxiety or bad faith in its presentation.

In contrast to these postmodern readings, the present study conducts an experiment.
What understanding does one gain of Castiglione’s book if one attempts an early
modern reading? the author approaches The Book of the Courtier as a text in
which some of its most important aspects are intentionally concealed and veiled
in allegory. W. R. Albury argues that this early modern reading of The Book of the
Courtier enables us to recover a serious political message which has a great deal of
contemporary relevance and which is lost from sight when the work is approached
primarily as a courtly etiquette book, or as a lament for the lost influence of the
aristocracy in an age when autocratic nation-states were coming into being, or
as an impersonal textual field upon which a free play of transformations and
deconstructions may be performed.
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Castiglione’s allegory
Veiled Policy in The Book of the Courtier (1528)
W.R. AlbuRy
The University of New England, Australia
© W.R. Albury 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
W.R. Albury has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identified as the author of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the british library
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Albury, W. R.
Castiglione’s allegory : veiled policy in the book of the courtier (1528) / by W. R. Albury.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISbN 978-1-4724-3263-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISbN 978-1-4724-3264-3 (ebook)—
ISbN 978-1-4724-3265-0 (epub)
1. Castiglione, baldassarre, conte, 1478–1529. libro del cortegiano. 2. Courts and
courtiers—Early works to 1800. 3. Courtesy—Early works to 1800. I. Title.
bJ1604.A43 2014
170’.44—dc23
2014005019
ISbN: 9781472432636 (hbk)
ISbN: 9781472432643 (ebk – PDF)
ISbN: 9781472432650 (ebk – ePub)
V
Contents
List of Tables and Figures vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Texts and Translations xiii
1 introduction: audience, interpretation, and allegory 1
2 Castiglione’s Francescopaedia: Pope Julius ii and Francesco
Maria della rovere 27
3 Philosophers on the ladder of love?: Pietro Bembo
and ottaviano Fregoso 61
4 incitements to Folly: gaspar Pallavicino and Cesare gonzaga 99
5 Medicine and statecraft: the Courtier as Physician 129
6 the Courtier and the Statesman: structural relations 159
7 Castiglione’s Impresa and the Veiled Policy of the Courtier 191
epilogue: the silence of the archive 231
Works Cited 235
Index 267
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list of tables and Figures
Tables
1.1 insiders, peripherals, and outsiders at the court of Urbino 21
2.1 alcibiades and Francesco Maria della rovere 47
2.2 Francesco Maria della rovere and ottaviano Fregoso 51
2.3 socrates and alcibiades 52
2.4 socrates and ottaviano Fregoso 52
2.5 educators and potential rulers in the Symposium and the Courtier 53
4.1 Comic stories about women unrelated to lack of chastity 109
5.1 the good and bad Urbino physicians 156
6.1 events at the beginning and ending of books in the Courtier 160
6.2 elements of the prince’s contemplative and active life 174
6.3 Dynamic relations of the prince’s contemplative and active life 176
Figures
7.1 the medal of Baldassare Castiglione. obverse (left)
and reverse (right). British Museum, london.
© the trustees of the British Museum. all rights reserved.
37mm diameter, cast bronze. 191
7.2 reverses of two specimens of Castiglione’s medal.
7.2a (left): national gallery of art, Washington DC. samuel
H. Kress Collection. open access. 37mm diameter, cast bronze.
7.2b (right): British Museum, london.
© the trustees of the British Museum. all rights reserved.
37mm diameter, cast bronze. 202
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Preface
this study has been some 10 years in preparation, only about half the time that
Castiglione devoted to preparing The Book of the Courtier (Il libro del cortegiano)
for the press; but if the outcome in this case is anywhere near half as good as it was
in Castiglione’s, bearing in mind that we both experienced similar interruptions to
our writing, then I will be satisfied that my time has been well-spent.
i have approached Castiglione’s text as someone with a background
predominantly in history and philosophy rather than literary studies, initially
having had a particular interest in the history and philosophy of renaissance
medicine. This orientation led me to focus on the analogy between statecraft and
medicine, which, as i argue in Chapter 5 below, is central to the political position
developed in Castiglione’s work. It also brought to my attention the issue of “love-
sickness,” which is important for the argument I present in Chapters 3 and 4.
Taken as a whole, however, this study is not limited to medically-related topics
but spans a broad range of fields relevant to intellectual history, including literature,
politics, philosophy, and art history. I make no claim of being a specialist in all these
areas and ask the indulgence of readers who may have devoted their professional
lives to the study in depth of one or another of these fields, especially for any over-
simplifications I may have introduced when characterizing material about which
they have far more detailed knowledge than I do. But I hope the present attempt at
synthesis will have some appeal to specialists and non-specialists alike.