aeo An important new study of one of the most famous texts of the Italian High Renaissance, Castiglionea s Book of the Courtier. aeo The author analyses the text itself as well as its diffusion and reception throughout Europe. aeo This is a major new work on the renaissance by one of the leading scholars in the field: it will do very well.

List of Plates. Preface and Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. 1. Tradition and Reception. 2. The Courtier in its Time. 3. The Courtier in Italy. 4. The Courtier Translated. 5. The Courtier Imitated. 6. The Courtier Criticized. 7. The Courtier Revived. 8. The Courtier in European Culture. Appendix 1 Editions of the Courtier, 1528-1850. Appendix 2 Readers of the Courtier before 1700. Bibliography. Index.

Castiglione's Cortegiano, or Book of the Courtier, first published in 1528, is one of the most famous texts of the Italian High Renaissance, with over a hundred editions printed in numerous languages. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it has generally been read as a text which represented the Renaissance. During the Renaissance itself, however, the book was read for very different reasons: it was a guide to contemporary conduct, not a guide to the values of a past age. The aim of Peter Burke's new book is to understand, if not to close, the gap between these two divergent readings of the Courtier. It also attempts to use the rise, decline and transformation of interest in the Courtier in the first century after its publication as indicators of changing social values, and the regional variations in its reception as a means of exploring the unity and variety of the culture of Renaissance Europe. To achieve these aims, Burke begins with a discussion of the text itself, showing how, in successive editions, the dialogue was presented in different ways, partly in order to appeal to men and women who were insecure about their status. Later chapters chart the history, geography and sociology of enthusiasm for the book as well as the reactions against it, both official and unofficial. The book concludes with a discussion of the later fortune of the Courtier, and its appeal to writers as different as Samuel Johnson and W. B. Yeats. Combining minute research with broad conclusions about the culture of early modern Europe, The Fortunes of the Courtier will be recognized as a major contribution to the history of the Renaissance.

"The Fortunes of the Courtier is a valuable book. It should lead on to further important work, as its author suggests, especially as he has provided an invaluable bibliography and appendices detailing editions up to 1850 and known readers before 1700." Times Literary Supplement "The Fortunes of the Courtier, original, spare and stimulating, is a model monograph." The London Review of Books "Burke's painstaking research and engaging speculations make it much easier to see Castiglione's position clearly." Times Higher Education Supplement "A readable oscillation between the generalised and the particular." Parergon