The Book of the Courtier

Renaissance Europe was ruled by a combination of monarchical and commercial elites, such as the members of the Hanseatic League. Marsilio Ficino’s translations of Plato’s Republic stirred debate among the intellectuals of the age including the one that takes place in The Book of the Courtier. Plato’s text explores the nature of a just city-state and just rule. While the most just system of rule is under a philosopher king, the work also discusses other, less just systems. The term “republic” is derived from res publica, as discussed by Cicero in relation to the Greek concept of politeia.

Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy was the most influential contemporary treatise on republicanism. It asserts that imitation of classical political systems is not impossible, delving into Livy’s representation of Rome and an exemplar republic. Corruption is the enemy of the republic, and a lowering cloud on the horizon throughout the work, claiming “good emerges in republics either through the virtue of a man or through the virtue of an order.”

The discussion of republicanism in Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier is highly derivative and for the most part generalized. As Ottaviano Fregoso states: “Some princes become drunk with the power they wield […] they pass from ignorance to extreme conceit” (286). The courtiers mildly exchange their thoughts on the question, “In what way are men to be ruled who are judicious and intelligent in the way you said, and not essentially slaves?” (298). Like Plato’s Republic, conceptions of proper government revolve around the notion of justice: “A far truer image of God is provided by those good rulers who love and reverence Him and display to their people the resplendent light of his justice” (298); “All the responsibilities that fall to a prince , the most important is justice” (307).

Both Desiderius Erasmus and his friend Thomas More were sceptical about the realities of implementing classical political models such as those Machiavelli advocates. More’s impossible Utopia comes to mind when Frigio quips, “I am afraid that he is like Plato’s republic, and that you shall never see the like of him, except perhaps in heaven” (315). It is through a generalised and conventional appeal to the Neoplatonic idea of divine order that this debate is resolved: “Since it is sunk in as the prison and deprived of spiritual contemplation, the soul cannot of itself clearly perceive the truth” (327).

While More was ultimately executed for his views, Castiglione maintains ambivalence within The Book of the Courtier, true to his assertion in it that “The courtier easily can and should seek to gain the goodwill of his prince” (288). The debate was still contentious in 1649 when Charles I was executed by Parliament. Milton’s fervent support of Republicanism seethes in the seductive voice of Satan in Paradise Lost, but like Satan, Milton knew he was playing with fire.

The opening words of The Book of the Courtier—in which Castiglione wrestles with whether to accede to Alphonso Ariosto’s request that he write the book—are taken directly from the Roman orator Cicero’s Deii Officiis, a treatise on moral duty which Cicero begins by debating whether to acquiesce to a request of Brutus’. Castiglione was not concerned with originality, but with decorum.

The Book of the Courtier espouses the view that naturalism should be found within the most studied behaviour, and that this ability is intrinsic to an ideal courtier. The courtier should “practice in all things are set in nonchalance which conceals all artistry” (67). In contrast, Count Ludovico makes light of orators who: “pronounce the words in such a gruelling way it would seem as though they were about to expire on the spot” (61). He praises “orators of the ancient world [who], dissembling their knowledge made the speeches appear to have been composed very simply and according to the promptings of nature and truth rather than effort and artifice” (67).

Sprezzatura, the ability to appear nonchalant even in highly practiced scenarios, was the ultimate defense against the accusations of insincerity that beset the courtier. Courtiers and stylish men sought to adopt this studied carelessness, appearing effortless in all their actions.

Thus it is through simulacrum or cultivation, that culture gains the appearance of naturalism. Castiglione uses a similar metaphor “I would like him to use certain words in a metaphorical sense, whenever it is appropriate, putting them to normal use like a gardener grafting a branch onto a healthier trunk, and so increasing their attractiveness and beauty” (p. 78).

Verbal dexterity is also an essential skill for the courtier, and the Duke enumerates several literary devices of utility to him: “When words are set off against each other, with one sentence in antithesis to another, the result is extremely agreeable” (171); “Well returned metaphors are also very useful” (172). Yet the courtier should guard against verbosity and pride, lest he become ridiculous and appear to brag “as one of our own did the other day, who, after his thigh had been run through with a spear at Pisa, said he thought a fly had stung him” (59). For the courtier, words are weapons, and can be dangerous as well as useful.