Note [19] page 6. In the letter quoted in note 13, Vittoria Colonna wrote: “I do not marvel at your portraying a perfect courtier well, for by merely holding a mirrour before you and considering your inward and outward parts, you could describe him as you have; but our greatest difficulty being to know ourselves, I say that it was more difficult for you to portray yourself than another man.”
FEDERICO DI MONTEFELTRO
DUKE OF URBINO
1422-1482
Reduced from Alinari’s photograph (no. 2686) of a marble bas-relief, in the National Museum at Florence, by some attributed to Mino da Fiesole (1431-1484).
Note [20] page 6. More than 140 editions of The Courtier have been published. Most of these are mentioned in the list printed before the Index of this volume. A few of the editions there set down differ from one another only in title-page; a few others, perhaps, exist only in some bibliographer’s erroneous mention. Deductions to be made for such reasons, however, are probably offset by other editions that the present translator has failed to bring to light.
In the bibliographical notes appended by the brothers Volpi to their (1733) edition, The Courtier is said to have been translated into Flemish; while in his preface to the Sonzogno (1890) edition, Corio speaks of the introduction of the book into Japan in the 17th century, and also of a Russian translation by Archiuzow.
NOTES TO THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COURTIER
Note [21] page 7. “Courtiership” is a sadly awkward rendering of the Italian cortegiania, which implies not only courtesy and courtliness, but all the many other qualities and accomplishments essential to the perfect Courtier or (what in Castiglione’s time was the same) the perfect Gentleman.
Note [22] page 8. The extreme dimensions of the Duchy of Urbino were 64 miles from east to west, and 60 miles from north to south. Its population did not much exceed 150,000.
Note [23] page 8. The first of the four dialogues is represented as having been held on the evening of the day after the close of a certain visit paid by Pope Julius II to Urbino on his return from a successful campaign against Bologna. This visit is known to have lasted from 3 March to 7 March 1507. Castiglione returned from England as early as 5 March, on which date he wrote to his mother from Urbino: “We have had his Holiness here for two days.” It seems probable that this fictitious prolongation of his absence in England was simply a graceful excuse for not himself appearing in the dialogues.