Details
CASTIGLIONE, Baldassare (1478-1529). Il libro del Cortegiano. Venice: heirs of Aldus Manutius and Andrea Torresano d'Asola, April 1528.
2° (302 x 205 mm). Collation: *4 a-o8 p6. 122 leaves. Roman type. 5- and 6-line initial spaces with guide letters. Aldine anchor device on title and final verso. (Early marginal annotations and underlining washed.) Modern vellum over pasteboard.
FIRST EDITION. The Courtier is the prototype of the courtesy book, written as conversation between members of the court. At the time of its composition Castiglione was at the court of Guidobaldo de Montefeltre and Elizabetta Gonzaga at Urbino, together with Bembo, Giuliano de' Medici, Federico Fregoso and other Renaissance luminaries; members of that court feature as speakers in the conversation. The Courtier embodies the highest social and moral ideas of the Italian Renaissance, and was immensely influential, being translated into most European languages. Its influence can be seen in the work of Cervantes, Corneille and Shakespeare, and "its conversational form had a great impact on the development of English drama and comedy" (PMM 59).
Adams C-924; PMM 59; Renouard Alde, p.102.3.
2° (302 x 205 mm). Collation: *4 a-o8 p6. 122 leaves. Roman type. 5- and 6-line initial spaces with guide letters. Aldine anchor device on title and final verso. (Early marginal annotations and underlining washed.) Modern vellum over pasteboard.
FIRST EDITION. The Courtier is the prototype of the courtesy book, written as conversation between members of the court. At the time of its composition Castiglione was at the court of Guidobaldo de Montefeltre and Elizabetta Gonzaga at Urbino, together with Bembo, Giuliano de' Medici, Federico Fregoso and other Renaissance luminaries; members of that court feature as speakers in the conversation. The Courtier embodies the highest social and moral ideas of the Italian Renaissance, and was immensely influential, being translated into most European languages. Its influence can be seen in the work of Cervantes, Corneille and Shakespeare, and "its conversational form had a great impact on the development of English drama and comedy" (PMM 59).
Adams C-924; PMM 59; Renouard Alde, p.102.3.