The Book of the Courtier

An evening game at the court of Urbino gives Baldassarre Castiglione's speakers a demanding task: describe the perfect courtier. Their discussions turn social accomplishments into matters of judgment, weighing skill with arms alongside learning, music, painting and graceful conversation. How a person displays an ability matters as much as possessing it, with affectation, boasting and badly timed wit among the faults under examination.

Written as a dialogue, the work also considers the qualities of a court lady and the courtier's responsibility toward a prince. In the passage on love, speakers disagree over whether public knowledge helps an attachment or exposes it to danger. Such exchanges let readers hear competing views rather than a single set of rules. Leonard Eckstein Opdycke's annotated English translation offers a way into Renaissance ideas about reputation, conduct and the relationship between personal polish and public duty.