Castiglione | Il cortegiano... Nuovamente stampato, Venice, 1546, contemporary limp vellum, Baron Christoph von Wolkenstein's copy

Baldassare Castiglione

Il cortegiano del conte Baldessar Castiglione. Nuovamente stampato, et con somma diligentia revisto con la sua tavola di nuovo aggiunta. Venice: Gabriel Giolito De Ferrari, 1546

8vo (158 x 101 mm), title page with woodcut device, colophon with large woodcut to verso, woodcut initials, contemporary limp vellum, upper cover with manuscript notes recording ownership of Christoph von Wolkenstein, faded manuscript title to spine, old paper label to tail of spine with manuscript shelfmark (K | 279), blue edges, occasional spotting, extremities rubbed with some loss of spine

An early edition of Castiglione's legendary philosophical treatise on the constitution of an ideal courtier, a cornerstone text of Renaissance humanism, in an unrestored contemporary limp vellum binding, with intriguing early modern provenance.

Castiglione organises Il cortegiano as a series of conversations between courtiers, discussing the traits and manners of the ideal courtier. In one conversation, the characters embark upon a discussion of how games play a role in making the perfect courtier. When asked by one courtier what he thinks of chess, another courtier describes the game as pleasant and ingenious amusement, but time-consuming. Excelling in chess, the courtier suggests, would take as much studying as learning anything of importance. For that reason, he claims that in chess "la mediocrità sia più laudevole che la eccellenza" (mediocrity is more praiseworthy than excellence).

PROVENANCE:

Christoph von Wolkenstein, Baron de Wolkenstein (1530–1600), ownership inscriptions to front pastedown, title-page, and upper cover dated May 1548, the former accompanied by the Latin motto "veritas odium parit" (truth breeds hatred); by descent to Sigismund von Wolkenstein, Graf von Wolkenstein-Rodenegg (1554–1624), ownership inscription to front pastedown; by descent to Anton Maria, Graf von Wolkenstein-Trostburg, Baron von Neuhaus (1775–1808), posthumous auction of his library, Würzburg, February 1809, lot 115

LITERATURE:

USTC 819506; EDIT16 10074; OPAC SBN MILE000449; Robin O'Bryan, Games and Game Playing in European Art and Literature, 16th-17th Centuries