Auteur: Baldassare Castiglione

Baldassare Castiglione was an Italian courtier, diplomat and writer best known for his dialogue Il libro del cortegiano (1528; The Book of the Courtier).He was born into an illustrious family at Casatico, near Mantua (Lombardy), where his family had constructed an impressive palazzo. Castiglione was educated at the humanist school of Giorgio Merula and Demetrius Chalcondyles, and at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. He returned to Mantua in 1499 to enter the service of the marquis, Francesco Gonzaga, transferring to the service of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, in 1504. Among his duties was a mission to England to receive the Order of the Garter as a proxy for Guidobaldo. Baldassare Castiglione of Mantua, endowed by nature with every gift and the knowledge of many disciplines, learned in Greek and Latin literature, and a poet in the Italian (Tuscan) language, was given a castle in Pesaro on account of his military prowess.