DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0013
PREFACE
vii
Even Roger Ascham, that stern Puritan who
looked on these ' fonde bookes ' by foreign authors
as ' enchantments of Circe, brought out of Italy to
mar men's manners in England,' has a good word
for the 'Cortegiano.' 'To join learning with comely
exercises, Count Baldesar Castiglione doth truely
teach; which book, advisedly read and diligently
followed but one year at home in England, would
do a young gentleman more good, I wiss, than three
years' travel spent abroad A
The modern revival of interest in the Italian
Renaissance has naturally led students to turn once
more to Castiglione's ' Courtier,' in whom they justly
recognise the ideal representative of that great age.
No less than three new versions of the ' Cortegiano'
have appeared in English during the last few years.
In 1900 Hoby's translation was reprinted in Nutt's
' Tudor Classics,' with an excellent Introduction by
Professor Raleigh, and another handsome edition,
with woodcuts by Mr. Ashbee, was issued by the
Essex House Press, to be followed in 1908, by a new
translation, richly illustrated and carefully annotated
from the pen of Mr. Opdyke.
But while the ' Cortegiano ' has been widely read
and highly esteemed in England, it is curious how
little is known of its author. A few notices of Cas-
tiglione in the works of Hallam, Roscoe, Dennistoun,
and John Addington Symonds, a memoir in a transla-
tion of the ' Cortegiano ' published in 1727, two short
biographical studies from the pen of Professor Raleigh
and Mr. Opdyke, and a spirited sketch by Miss Scott,
are all that have been written about him in English.
Yet Count Baldassare is an exceedingly interesting
and attractive figure. He himself, as his contem-
i 'The Scholemaster,' iii. 141.
vii
Even Roger Ascham, that stern Puritan who
looked on these ' fonde bookes ' by foreign authors
as ' enchantments of Circe, brought out of Italy to
mar men's manners in England,' has a good word
for the 'Cortegiano.' 'To join learning with comely
exercises, Count Baldesar Castiglione doth truely
teach; which book, advisedly read and diligently
followed but one year at home in England, would
do a young gentleman more good, I wiss, than three
years' travel spent abroad A
The modern revival of interest in the Italian
Renaissance has naturally led students to turn once
more to Castiglione's ' Courtier,' in whom they justly
recognise the ideal representative of that great age.
No less than three new versions of the ' Cortegiano'
have appeared in English during the last few years.
In 1900 Hoby's translation was reprinted in Nutt's
' Tudor Classics,' with an excellent Introduction by
Professor Raleigh, and another handsome edition,
with woodcuts by Mr. Ashbee, was issued by the
Essex House Press, to be followed in 1908, by a new
translation, richly illustrated and carefully annotated
from the pen of Mr. Opdyke.
But while the ' Cortegiano ' has been widely read
and highly esteemed in England, it is curious how
little is known of its author. A few notices of Cas-
tiglione in the works of Hallam, Roscoe, Dennistoun,
and John Addington Symonds, a memoir in a transla-
tion of the ' Cortegiano ' published in 1727, two short
biographical studies from the pen of Professor Raleigh
and Mr. Opdyke, and a spirited sketch by Miss Scott,
are all that have been written about him in English.
Yet Count Baldassare is an exceedingly interesting
and attractive figure. He himself, as his contem-
i 'The Scholemaster,' iii. 141.