The first Latin translator, Turler, (born 1550; died 1602), was a Doctor Juris, and became burgomaster of his native town of Lössnitz, near Leipsic. Besides The Courtier, he translated several of Machiavelli’s works into Latin.
NOTES TO THE DEDICATORY LETTER
Note [1] page 1. Dom Miguel de Silva, (born about 1490; died 1556), was the second son of Diego de Silva and Maria de Ayola, Count and Countess of Portalegre, a province of central Portugal. Having studied at the universities of Paris, Siena and Bologna, he was soon called to the court of Emanuel of Portugal, held various ecclesiastical posts, and was made Bishop of Viseu in the Province of Beira. As ambassador to Popes Leo X, Adrian VI and Clement VII, he paid long visits to Rome, where his friendship with Castiglione probably began. During the twenty years that followed 1521 he served John III of Portugal as Escribano de la Puridad; then, having been made a cardinal by Paul III, he spent the remainder of his life in the papal service, died in Rome, and was buried in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Eminent as a prelate and a diplomatist, he also enjoyed no small repute as an author and an elegant Latinist.
Note [2] page 1. Guidobaldo di Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, (born 1472; died 1508), was the only son of Duke Federico di Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, an accomplished niece of the first Sforza duke of Milan. Precocious as a child, he was elaborately yet judiciously educated, and much of the praise bestowed upon him in The Courtier is shown by contemporary evidence to have been just. On his father’s death in 1482, both he and his State were confided to his cousin Ubaldini (see note [273]), who seems to have been loyal to the trust, although next heir to the duchy. From records that have survived, Dennistoun extracts some details of the young duke’s court: “To all persons composing the ducal household, unexceptionable manners were indispensable. In those of higher rank there were further required competent talents and learning, a grave deportment, and fluency of speech. The servants must be of steady habits and respectable character; regular in all private transactions; of good address, modest and graceful; willing and neat handed in their service. There is likewise inculcated the most scrupulous personal cleanliness, especially of the hands, with particular injunctions as to frequent ablutions, and extraordinary precautions against the unpleasant effects of hot weather on their persons and clothing; in case of need, medical treatment is enjoined to correct the breath. Those who wore livery had two suits a year, generally of fustian, though to some silk doublets were given for summer use.”
In 1489 Guidobaldo married Elisabetta Gonzaga, a sister of the Marquess of Mantua. All hopes, however, of an heir were soon abandoned, apparently owing to the young duke’s physical infirmities, which were increased by over exercise and in time unfitted him for all active occupations. Nevertheless he was able to take part in the vain resistance to Charles VIII's invasion of Italy, and later in the expulsion of the French from the kingdom of Naples. While fighting in the service of Pope Alexander VI in 1497, he was taken prisoner and forced to pay a ransom of 30,000 ducats, a sum then equivalent to about twice that number of modern pounds sterling, and raised only at the sacrifice of his duchess’s jewels. In 1501 he aided rather than opposed Louis XII's invasion of Naples.
In 1502 the pope’s son Cesare Borgia treacherously seized the Duchy of Urbino. To spare his people bloodshed and ruin, Guidobaldo fled in disguise to his brother-in-law at Mantua, and after a vain appeal to Louis XII, found an honourable asylum at Venice. In the same year he regained his dominions for a short time, but was again forced to take flight. On the death of Alexander VI (August 1503), Cesare’s power crumbled, Guidobaldo easily recovered his duchy, and his position was soon assured by the election of Julius II, who was not only his personal friend, but also the brother of his sister Giovanna’s husband. In 1504 he formally adopted as his heir this sister’s son, Francesco Maria della Rovere, and (as we have seen) took into his service the future author of The Courtier. His learning, amiability and munificence attracted choice spirits to his court, which came to be regarded as the first in Italy. Pope Julius was splendidly entertained there on his way both to and from his Bologna campaign, and the Courtier dialogues are represented as taking place immediately after his departure for Rome in March 1507.
Long an invalid, Guidobaldo became more and more a martyr to his gout, which was aggravated by a season of exceptional drought and cold and brought him final relief from suffering in April 1508. His fame rests, not upon his military and political achievements, but upon the beauty of his character, the variety of his intellectual accomplishments, the patience with which he endured reverses, illness and forced inaction, and upon the culture and refinement that characterized his court.
Note [3] page 1. Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, (born 1490; died 1538), was the son of Giovanni della Rovere and Duke Guidobaldo’s sister Giovanna di Montefeltro. Giovanni was a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV (who had made him Prefect of Rome), and a younger brother of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, afterwards Pope Julius II.
On his father’s death in 1501, Francesco was brought to the court of his uncle Guidobaldo, who secured for him a renewal of the Prefecture and superintended his education. In The Courtier he appears as “my lord Prefect.” During the Borgian usurpation of the duchy, he found refuge at the court of Louis XII; and soon after the fall of the Borgias and his uncle Julius II's accession, he was adopted as Guidobaldo’s heir, while through the mediation of Castiglione a marriage was arranged for him with Eleanora, daughter to the Marquess of Mantua and niece to the Duchess of Urbino. He now resided chiefly with his uncle, acquainting himself with his future subjects and duties. Although he possessed many of the good qualities ascribed to him in The Courtier, his temper was ungovernable, and before reaching the age of eighteen he slew one of the members of the court, who was accused of seducing his sister.
Having become duke in 1508, he was married on Christmas Eve of that year. In the following spring he commanded the papal forces in the League of Cambray, and despite the obstacles put in his way by his colleague Cardinal Alidosi (see note [268]), he soon reduced the Romagna towns, the recovery of which from Venice was Julius II's chief object in forming the league. In a later campaign against the French, Bologna was lost to the Church (1511) through the treachery of Alidosi, who craftily contrived to have the blame fall upon Francesco, and was murdered by the latter at Ravenna. After a long trial before six cardinals, in which ample proof of the dead man’s treason was presented, and an eloquent appeal made by Beroaldo (see note [235]),—the young duke was acquitted and restored to the pope’s favour.