It is at
the same time very curious that, at least in the fifteenth century, the
inns and hotels were left chiefly in the hands of Germans, who
probably, however, made their profit mostly out of the pilgrims
journeying to Rome. Yet the statements on this point may refer mainly
to the country districts, since it is notorious that in the great
cities Italian hotels held the first place. The want of decent inns in
the country may also be explained by the general insecurity of life and
property.
To the first half of the sixteenth century belongs the manual of
politeness which Giovanni della Casa, a Florentine by birth, published
under the title 'Il Galateo.' Not only cleanliness in the strict sense
of the word, but the dropping of all the habits which we consider
unbecoming, is here prescribed with the same unfailing tact with which
the moralist discerns the highest ethical truths. In the literature of
other countries the same lessons are taught, though less
systematically, by the indirect influence of repulsive descriptions.
In other respects also, the 'Galateo' is a graceful and in- telligent
guide to good manners--a school of tact and delicacy. Even now it may
be read with no small profit by people of all classes, and the
politeness of European nations is not likely to outgrow its precepts.
So far as tact is an affair of the heart, it has been inborn in some
men from the dawn of civilization, and acquired through force of will
by others; but the Italians were the first to recognize it as a
universal social duty and a mark of culture and education.
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