The Book of the Courtier
by Baldesar Castiglione, George Bull (Translator), George Bull (Introduction)
Paperback
(Reprint)
- ISBN-13: 9780140441925
- Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
- Publication date: 10/28/1976
- Series: Classics Series
- Edition description: Reprint
- Pages: 368
- Sales rank: 164,424
- Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.89(d)
- Age Range: 18Years
.
‘The courtier has to imbue with grace his movements, his gestures, his way of doing things and in short, his every action’
In The Book of the Courtier (1528), Baldesar Castiglione, a diplomat and Papal Nuncio to Rome, sets out to define the essential virtues for those at Court. In a lively series of imaginary conversations between the real-life courtiers to the Duke of Urbino, his speakers discuss qualities of noble behaviour – chiefly discretion, decorum, nonchalance and gracefulness – as well as wider questions such as the duties of a good government and the true nature of love. Castiglione’s narrative power and psychological perception make this guide both an entertaining comedy of manners and a revealing window onto the ideals and preoccupations of the Italian Renaissance at the moment of its greatest splendour.
George Bull’s elegant translation captures the variety of tone in Castiglione’s speakers, from comic interjections to elevated rhetoric. This edition includes an introduction examining Castiglione’s career in the courts of Urbino and Mantua, a list of the historical characters he portrays and further reading.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
-
- Two Lives of Charlemagne
- by EinhardNotker the StammererLewis ThorpeLewis Thorpe
-
- The Age of Empire, 1875-1914
- by Eric HobsbawmE. J. Hobsbawm
-
- The Age of Capital, 1848-1875
- by Eric HobsbawmEric HobsbawmE. J. Hobsbawm
-
- The Worst Journey in the World
- by Apsley Cherry-GarrardCaroline Alexander
-
- The Romantic Revolution: A…
- by Tim Blanning
-
- Five Days in London, May 1940
- by John Lukacs
-
- South: The Endurance…
- by Ernest ShackletonGretchen Legler
-
- The French Revolution: A…
- by Thomas CarlyleJohn D. Rosenberg
-
- Histories of Nations: How…
- by Peter Furtado
-
- The Quest for El Cid
- by Richard FletcherR. A. Fletcher
-
- The History of the…
- by ThucydidesRichard Crawley
-
- A Hero of Our Time
- by Mikhail LermontovPaul Foote
-
- Gargantua and Pantagruel
- by Francois RabelaisM. A. Screech
-
- Lost to Time: Unforgettable…
- by Martin W. Sandler
-
- The Charterhouse of Parma
- by StendhalRichard HowardRobert Andrew Parker