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  • Published: 2 January 2001
  • ISBN: 9780140441925
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $30.00

The Book of the Courtier




The Italian Renaissance man's handbook, defining the virtues essential for a man of the Court

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.

  • Published: 2 January 2001
  • ISBN: 9780140441925
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $30.00

Other books in the series

Maldoror and Poems
On Sparta
Love
Annals
Military Dispatches

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