# The Book of the Courtier

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- Book: [The Book of the Courtier](https://www.bookquiver.com/baldassare-castiglione/the-book-of-the-courtier) ([The Book of the Courtier.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/baldassare-castiglione/the-book-of-the-courtier.md))
- Authors: [Baldassare Castiglione](https://www.bookquiver.com/baldassare-castiglione)
- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-01-4191-651-4
- Published: 2004-04-29
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

In The Book of the Courtier (1528), Baldesar Castiglione, a diplomat and Papal Nuncio to Rome, sets out to define the essential virtues for those at Court. In a lively series of imaginary conversations between the real-life courtiers to the Duke of Urbino, his speakers discuss qualities of noble behaviour - chiefly discretion, decorum, nonchalance and gracefulness - as well as wider questions such as the duties of a good government and the true nature of love. Castiglione's narrative power and psychological perception make this guide both an entertaining comedy of manners and a revealing window onto the ideals and preoccupations of the Italian Renaissance at the moment of its greatest splendour.