Rome, however, possessed in the unique court of Leo X a society to
which the history of the world offers no parallel.
Education of the 'Cortigiano'
It was for this society--or rather for his own sake--that the
'Cortigiano,' as described to us by Castiglione, educated himself. He
was the ideal man of society, and was regarded by the civili- zation of
that age as its choicest flower; and the court existed for him rather
than he for the court. Indeed, such a man would have been out of place
at any court, since he himself possessed all the gifts and the bearing
of an accomplished ruler, and because his calm supremacy in all things,
both outward and spiritual, implied a too independent nature. The inner
impulse which inspired him was directed, though our author does not
acknowledge the fact, not to the service of the prince, but to his own
perfection. One instance will make this clear. In time of war the
courtier refuses even useful and perilous tasks, if they are not
beautiful and dignified in themselves, such as, for instance, the
capture of a herd of cattle; what urges him to take part in war is not
duty but 'l'onore.' The moral relation to the prince, as described in
the fourth book, is singularly free and independent. The theory of
well-bred love-making, set forth in the third book, is full of delicate
psychological observation, which perhaps would be more in place in a
treatise on human nature generally; and the magnificent praise of ideal
love, which occurs at the end of the fourth book, and which rises to a
lyrical elevation of feeling, has no connection whatever with the
special object of the work.
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