3.1 General Historical and Political Background of Il Galateo

Giovanni Della Casa lived in times important for both Italian history and also the Roman church. In the first half of XVI century the last great attempt to resuscitate imperial hegemony in Europe took place. The place of clash for hegemony between two world-powers, France and Spain, was Italy, a country that had always been the richest, the most populated and the most cultured in the whole of Europe. The conflict became the inevitable and long lasting (almost forty years 1521-1559) transforming from the struggle for domination in Italy to the struggle for domination in Europe. For this reason for the next ten years the Italian peninsula became the battlefield of Europe. Constant war and battles (the most important took place in Agnello in 1509, in Marignano in 1515, and in Pavia in 1525) caused great destruction to Italian states, institutions, economy and culture.

The first drastic change in Italian political life occurred in 1492 when, together with Lorenzo the Magnificent's death, the laboriously maintained equilibrium between various states, was broken. Lorenzo the Magnificent died at the very moment when a new historical era was beginning. Six months later Christopher Columbus was to reach the new world and two years later the foolish Italian expedition of the French king Charles VIII plunged the Italian peninsula into half a century of suffering. In 1494 the king of France invaded Italy, he crossed the country rapidly and unopposed without suspecting that he was leaving enemies behind him. Charles VIII entered the territory of Florence, then was welcomed by the Pope in Rome and after that moved south and entered Naples in triumph where he proclaimed himself a king in 1495. The Italian adventure of Charles VIII did not last long as the opposition of Milan, Austria, Venice and the Pope were rallying against him. Old allies formed immediately a coalition against him and forced him to come back to France. Nevertheless, this episode exposed the instability and weakness of Italy and consequently it became easy pray for foreign rulers over the next thirty years.

In 1516 Spain took possession of Southern Italy, but their assertion of power did not stop there. Charles V, king of Spain, sent in 1527 his mercenary troops to Rome and they entered the defenseless city and looted it during the infamous Sack of Rome. In 1530 the Pope crowned Charles V proclaiming him King of Italy. In these circumstances Italian states, incapable of realizing a homogeneous and Unitarian policy and separated from the new Atlantic commercial flows had to bow their heads in front of powerful emperors. The entire peninsula, before 1540, with all its states was completely enslaved and under the great influence of the Spaniards (that explains Della Casa's hostile attitude towards that nation occurring in Il Galateo) as they ruled the biggest maritime cities and islands, Milan, Genoa, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and Tuscany. All over Italy only the Republic of Venice managed to maintain independence and autonomy.

During Della Casa's life the Roman church also experienced many changes. By the end of the fifteenth century there was a widely-held impression that the Catholic Church needed alteration. The financial corruption and pagan immorality within the Roman Church was very visible, but the papacy refused to reform itself. Finally in 1517 Martin Luther began the dissolution of the church and in his treatise The Babilonian Captivity of the Church, issued in 1520, Luther denounced the entire system of medieval Christendom as an unwanted human invention. The others soon followed him: John Calvin, Huldrich Zwingli and Henry VIII who withdrew from the Roman church. The approval of the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) formation by the Pope Paul II in 1540 was a striking opposition to the future spread of the Reformation. In Trent in 1545 met a great council⁶ met in order to introduce some changes and reform the church. With the establishment of new doctrines and rules the Council of Trent wanted to reanimate the church..

In the face of these many political and religious changes, the destruction of his homeland, the humiliation of the Popes and the Church, Della Casa composed Il Galateo. The book was a way of responding to the feeling of loss, caused by the complicated political circumstances in the Italian peninsula. In the treatise the author makes himself the interpreter of a world where rules of stability and order are based on social values.

3.2 The Origins of Il Galateo

Monsignor Giovanni Della Casa, an ecclesiastic out of self-interest, high-ranking persona involved in difficult and important offices, priest only in the last years of his life; unscrupulous man and scholar applauded because of his abilities and cleverness; eloquent, enthralling and maybe even the most famous orator of his times, is now known and acclaimed only because of his one book, Il Galateo. In Italy, everyone knows Giovanni Della Casa and his work, they often quote pieces of it, but only few have actually read it.

It must be remembered that Della Casa, a man endowed with humanistic culture and profound literary sensibility, had published only several things for two main reasons; firstly because of his exasperating, very demanding and self-critical character and

secondly, his laziness and unwillingness to spread his uncompleted works. He did not have a good opinion of his compositions which were printed and published mostly in order to satisfy many relatives and friends and were “raccolte più per diligenza di Erasmo che per conto ne fusse fatto”.⁷ Della Casa was constantly racked and dissatisfied with his style, he often complained that he could not finish many of his numerous works belonging to different literary genres. What is more, he even wanted to destroy and burn all of them⁸ as “son tutte cose fatte da esso per puro esercitio […] et delle quail non faceva molta stima”.⁹ What goes with that, the biggest part of Della Casa's writings and compositions was not published during his life and that is why the author's qualities of original poet, prose writer, trilingual scholar, translator and interpreter of classic works, had emerged and had finally seen daylight as posthumous publications only after his death. A definition of his rich and growing progressively personality was obviously Il Galateo, a work that had finally revealed the original aspects of his literary production.

The treatise owes its title to Galeazzo Florimonte (Galatheus), bishop of Aquino and then of Sessa, the author of the unfinished Libro delle Inezie o Trattato delle Buone Creanze,¹⁰ friend and correspondent of Della Casa and, first of all, witty censor of human habits and vices. Della Casa composes Il Galateo in a favorable moment of his literary idleness, from about 1552 to 1555, almost at the end of his life (he died in 1556). He composes it in the quiet of Badia di Nervesa near Treviso, when after all the years of study, of many important and prestigious offices and honours, the years of struggle and delusions, he could finally satisfy his desire to “vivere in quiete, in riposo con ozio”¹¹ and spend days and nights absorbing the wisdom of such important (what were to him) books, as much as he wanted. At least in that retreat he could calm down and find sane, spiritual equilibrium. It may seem strange that this man, withdrawing himself to a private life after a very notable political career, had not written a book strictly connected with politics or history. He had been and remained mostly a witty man, disillusioned because of too many displeasing things he had seen and witnessed. Maybe for that reason Il Galateo is not only a series of norms and rules for the ben vivere in society, but a kind of a confession, a careful study of himself and what goes with that, a sort of spiritual testament. Erasmo Gemini wrote in introduction “Ai Lettori” in Bevilacqua's edition of Il Galateo that Galeazzo Florimonte was the one who suggested to Della Casa writing a book on human manners: “M. Galatheo, a petitione del quale e per suo consiglio presi io da prima a dettare questo presente trattato”.¹² Both personages had met probably in 1550 or 1551 in Rome, where

d'uno in altro ragionamento passando, vennero a dire del vivere civile e politico, e della leggiadria e convenenza de' costumi, e delle sconcie e laide maniere, che gli huomini usano bene spesso infra di loro; alla fine soggiuse il Vescovo, che allui molto a grado sarebbe di vedere intorno a' modi che la gente nell'usanza commune dee tenere o schifare, un Trattato nella nostra vulgar favella, acciocché più largamente comunicar si potesse.¹³

Florimonte praised Della Casa's literary capacities and expressed his readiness to help the poet to write a book on manners, serving as an example the praiseworthy behavior and conduct he met with during his stay at Giovanni Matteo Gilberti's house. Therefore Della Casa after his return from Venice started consulting literature connected with customs, habits and behaviour.

The person responsible for publishing Il Galateo was obviously Annibale Rucellai, Della Casa's nephew and heir of his works. The first issue of the treatise in 1558 was edited by Della Casa's secretary, Erasmo Gemini de Cesis as young Rucellai was always reluctant to publish his uncle's works because they were full of “sconciature et mostri”.¹⁴ Both Della Casa and his nephew were deeply wrong. Il Galateo, published for the first time in 1558 in Venice together with Rime and Orazione per la Restituizione di Piacenza with a Bevilacqua imprint, found immediately many enthusiastic supporters in Italy and then abroad. It must be remembered that Pier Vettori disapproved of and objected to the publication of the opere volgari in 1559 and particularly of the treatise Il Galateo with such obvious anti-Dante attitudes. For this reason Il Galateo, at the beginning, found some criticism because of its author's remarks on Dante's language in Divina Comedia. Annibale Rucellai, in a letter of reply, regrets giving his permission and authorization to publish the treatise, promises to be more careful in future and declares that his uncle was not completely satisfied with his works called “cosette fatte com'è ditto per scherzo” and evidently tries to defend his uncle: “Il Galateo fu fatto solo per scherzo et per vedere come la nostra lingua tollerava quello stile così humile et dimesso, et so che non era stimato dal compositore”.¹⁵

It has been already mentioned that Il Galateo is a treatise written in volgare and that the book owes its title to Galeazzo (Galatheus in latin) Florimonte, bishop of Sessa, who induced Della Casa to compose the work. It was probably composed in Nervesa and published posthumously as Rime in 1558. As it may seem obvious, the incentive to write the treatise came from Il Libro delle Inezie of Florimonte, and it is possible that the author thought at the beginning only about a series of inezie, things of no importance, some small observations to be put in order but in a form different from that of a treatise.

As Della Casa himself wrote, Il Galateo is a “long continuous tale”.²² In fact, in the matter of the structure of the treatise, it can be easily concluded that Della Casa in his Il Galateo is very discontinuous and often disordered in writing. Internal divisions in the original of the book are not evident, introductions and conclusions to the discussed matters do not occur systematically and uniformly, repetitions are very common and recurrent. The narrator has an inclination to deviate from the subject and, in many instances, makes marginal comments and remarks not connected with the matter. Sometimes in different parts of the treatise where the absent-minded narrator often seems to cease to remember what he is really talking about and writes about something completely different. It can be observed at the very beginning of the book, in the prologue, in which the author reveals his motivation and uncontrolled will to present himself and seems to try to imitate high and sophisticated styles. Instead of that the beginning of the book seems to have no end.

The treatise has a form of a monologue of an old tutor - vecchio idiota, who gives instructions to a young boy in order to show him the benefits of good manners and proper behaviour. Bevilacqua in his edition of Il Galateo from 1558 printed on the front page these words that summarize the treatise and in which the term of vecchio idiota appears:

Trattato / di Messer Giovanni Della Casa, / nel quale sotto la persona d'un vecchio / idiota ammaestrante un suo giovinetto / si ragiona de' modi, che si debbono, o / tenere, o schifare nella commune / conversatione, cognominato / Galatheo / overo de' costumi.²³

The character of the old tutor is quite ironic, his false ingenuity is very visible and he attracts the attention of the reader. Della Casa writes not as a professional writer and literate, nor as a complete ignorant, he assumes a fictitious personality and culture, that of vecchio idiota.²⁴ The old tutor admits that he could not have learned anything from books (“Even though in my youth I did not progress very far with my schooling…”),²⁵ but knows a lot due to his gifts for observation and careful listening. In his opinion, even the ones who cannot serve as models of virtue should in some way tutor the others. In fact, the narrator emphasizes in the chapter XXV, with a hint of regret, that he could not be a real example to be followed:

This is so because in matters dealing with manners and customs of men it is not enough to know the theory and the rule, it is also necessary, in order to put them into effect, to practise. This cannot be acquired in a moment or in a short period of time, but should be done over many, many years. As you can see, I have very few years left now. ²⁶

Nevertheless his teachings are given scrupulously and in a detailed way, often presented together with concrete examples, sometimes in the form of anecdotes that render a teacher's monologue more agile and funny, helping his listeners to understand the argument. On many occasions narrator alludes to and quotes the classics, draws from Aristotle, Socrates, Cicero, Terence²⁷ and Plutarch,²⁸ and from humanistic writers like Erasmus and his De Civilitate Morum Puerilium. He often does it in an imprecise way as insertions of classical adductions are simplified or disfigured: “a wise and learned man”,²⁹ “a great foreign rhetorician”.³⁰ However, on the contrary, the narrator sometimes quotes the name of a personage, “man by the name of Socrates”³¹ and makes boastful declarations: “I once heard it said, for as you know I have very much frequented learned men…”³² In order to seem more illiterate and ignorant he uses anachronisms, translates the Greek name Policleto³³ as Maestro Chiarissimo or Diodato as Tedoro.³⁴ For that reason, the opposition between idioti and letterati present in the treatise is very visible:

Although I very often hear that the ancient sages included a great many dreams in their books, written with deep knowledge and in fine style, it is not suitable for us unlearned men and for common folk to do this in our conversation.³⁵

As one can see, Il Galateo, such as many Renaissance compositions, has a rich classical background. Furthermore, it is also possible to recognize and find many similarities with other famous Italian writers of the Cinquecento, such as Baldassare Castiglione, Pietro Bembo, Petrarch, Dante, Villani,³⁶ and most of all Boccaccio and his novelle.

It is not at all difficult to notice the omnipresence of Decameron, from which Della Casa extracts and quotes many examples, as if it was a treatise on good manners. For example in chapter XII where a dream of Flaminio Tomarozzo is described or in the most beautiful chapter of Il Galateo, the fourth, that was written by Della Casa as a real novella in Boccaccio's style (the author tells us what did Messer Galateo to count Ricciardo on the command of bishop of Verona).³⁷ However, these two chapters are not enough to discuss fully Della Casa's secret aspirations as a novelist. In various matters illustrated in Il Galateo no book is quoted so frequently as the Decameron. Boccaccio's masterpiece is the most persuasive and adequate correspondence, which one need to refer to, in order to explain and clarify the concrete examples described by Della Casa. In chapter VIII we read about Corrado Gianfigliazzi,³⁸ and in chapter XIX, in order to show the impropriety dello schernire³⁹ the story of Forese da Rabatta and Giotto is remembered.⁴⁰ On the other hand, the vecchio idiota reveals once in a while a certain reserve towards Boccaccio's sense of humor, writing that witty remarks and deceptions “perhaps, they did not benefit Messer Giovanni Boccaccio very well”,⁴¹ or a disapproval towards ambiguous “vulgar and low-class manners of Dioneo” who in order to make other people laugh used obscene and indecent words such as: “Madonna Aldruda, lift your tail!“⁴²

For this reason manuscripts and letters left by Della Casa are enormously important being strictly connected with the poet's literary creativeness, most of all, letters of his nephew Annibale Rucellai written to Piero Vettori and published by Antonio Santosuosso.⁴⁴ Even more revealing, they constitute a very interesting source of knowledge about Della Casa, about Il Galateo and the figure of vecchio idiota as they are rich in information and reflections on behavior and attitude of the illustrious Rucellai's uncle towards life. That is why Il Galateo is a sort of ideal continuation of Della Casa'a letters.

Giovanni Della Casa, the author of Il Galateo, does not want to discuss moral excellences or talk about chastity in every detail that can be found only in extraordinary people, nor suggest singular or sublime examples, but describe manners and conduct characteristic to every group of society and not only to people of high social status as courtiers, princes or heroes. Therefore his purpose is obvious, functional, and realistic: to tutor common people, indicating to them the essential rules of behaviour and proper conduct and he wants to focus their attention on various faux pas and other embarrassing blunders or mistakes that anyone can commit in everyday relations with other people. In his short treatise on manners he mentions and discusses successively things that are repugnant to our senses, appetite, imagination and mind. In this advice, Della Casa did not lose sight of well-defined society with its habits, characters and caricatures. He thought, for example that no perfect gentleman would thrust unpleasantly smelling fish under his friends' noses, or closely examine the content of his handkerchief, or reveal intimate parts of their body while sitting, or spit and break wind. The fact that Della Casa found it indispensable to expatiate on such matters in his treatise on gentlemanly behaviour reflects the rudeness, roughness, primitiveness and uneducated nature of much of Renaissance society.

In the general concept of Il Galateo appears a certain ideale estetico with its famous definition of beauty, as “beauty has unity, as much as possible; and ugliness, instead, multiplicity”.⁴⁵ Della Casa stressed that no man could be a gentleman without modesty, without being desirous of “beauty, measure, and proportion”.⁴⁶ These words are a sign of Della Casa's inclination and fondness towards classic harmony. We see a man of taste that wants to savour the most from life. Vecchio idiota advises one to dress according to contemporary fashion and circumstances without excessive elegance, eccentricity or shabbiness, “according to his status and age”.⁴⁷ Men should let the custom conduct them, even when it may seem to be less comfortable and fascinating than previous fashions. He wants men to have and perform some grace, measure and respect towards the others:

For example, if your legs are very long and the fashion calls for short clothes, you could make your garments a little less short. If someone has very thin legs, or unduly fat ones, or perhaps crooked ones, he should not wear hose of bright or attractive colors so as not to invite others to gaze at his defect.⁴⁸

But gentility and measure almost in every aspect of life was not only an attribute of correct conversation and attitude towards other people or well-chosen clothes. It was the whole being of man that could help every man become a real gentleman. Reading Il Galateo it is very easy to point out the main themes on which our treatise is based and which continuously return page after page. First of all, vices and bad habits, besides being nasty and unpleasant, are also disharmonic and improper.⁴⁹ There is no vice that is not “offensive to other people, for vices are such ugly and improper things that their unsuitability displeases and disturbs a very sober and well-balanced spirit”.⁵⁰ Moreover, in chapter XXV Della Casa explains:

If in my youth, when I was pliable and impressionable, those who cared about me had known how to bend my habits - which were perhaps somewhat hard and rough by nature - and had softened and polished them, I could perhaps have become a man such as I am now trying to make of you who are to me no less dear than a son.⁵¹

and that is why one can change, win and correct oneself listening to our reason not to become the ones who are “similar to beasts, to whom God did not grant reason”.⁵²

Another important piece of advice offered by Della Casa is that we should do our best to follow science, goodness, kindness and virtue as long as we are young and until we have enough time to take and absorb all the important and essential things from life. He admits that rules and principles can be tedious and fatiguing, but men should do their best to follow them and live according to them, as they constitute an essential part of our life and society we live in. Della Casa himself believes that he had wasted the best moments and times in his life and because of that only now knows how to lead a good life and enjoy it. For that reason, in the name of complete pleasure, that can be called a satisfaction of oneself, he invites the others to do their best in order to enter in possession of these goods. We should listen to our reason from the early youth and put all his advices into practice as soon as possible ”because youth in its purity takes on colours more easily; and also those things to which one first grows accustomed always tend to be more pleasing”.⁵³

Il Galateo of Giovanni Della Casa is a book created from a careful and honest examination of the author by the author and it can serve as a real and authentic guide for the others, a sort of advice, warning them not to commit the same sad mistakes that he had committed in his youth. The treatise has all the loving and affection and also the spontaneity of the family letters of Della Casa, and in fact it is an honest and authentic letter to his dearest nephew, Annibale Rucellai, a letter that had been written in a particular moment of Della Casa's life, but it is more finished and ordered than other letters as it has a certain aim. The work, put together and structured as a long letter of advice, had left uncovered a complete analysis of life, with Della Casa's regrets and complaints about the things that had been wasted, satisfactions that had been enjoyed and that could come as a result of many changes in life. Consequently Il Galateo is a book that provokes vivid emotions, with its tone of natural and friendly conversation of a learned man that reprimands because he loves, the vecchio idiota invites simply to contemplate the ideal and serene harmony between feelings, thoughts and acts.⁵⁴ With the understanding of human weaknesses Della Casa shows and confesses openly his mistakes, and it is that living sense of humanity that makes these lessons natural, persuasive and justified, without losing its spontaneity and effectiveness.

44

Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), Italian Lorenzo Il Magnifico, Florentine statesman, ruler and patron of arts and letters, the most brilliant of the Medici. He ruled Florence with his younger brother, Giuliano (1453-1478), from 1469 to 1478 and, after the latter's assassination, was sole ruler from 1478 to 1492. According to the historian F. Gucciardini Lorenzo's regime was “that of a benevolent tyrant in a constitutional republic”. Britannica 2001.

Charles VIII (1470-1498), king of France from 1483, known for beginning the French expeditions into Italy that lasted until the middle of the next century. Ibid.

Charles V (1500-1558), king of Spain (as Charles I, 1516-1556) and Archduke of Austria (as Charles I, 1519-1521) who inherited the Spanish and Habsburg empire, extending across Europe from Spain and the Netherlands to Austria and the Kingdom of Naples and reaching overseas to Spanish America. He struggled to hold his empire together against the growing forces of Protestantism, increasing Turkish and French pressure, and even hostility from the Pope. At last he yielded, abdicating his claims to the Netherlands and Spain in favour of his son Philip II and the title of emperor to his brother Ferdinand I and retiring to a monastery. Ibid.

Huldrich Zwingli (1484-1531), the most important reformer in the Swiss Protestant Reformation and the only major reformer of the 16^th century whose movement did not evolve into a church. Ibid..

Paul II (1417-1471), original name Pietro Barbo, Italian pope from 1464-1471. Ibid.

⁶ Council of Trent, 19^th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic church (1545-1563), highly important for its sweeping decrees on self-reform and for its dogmatic definitions that clarified virtually every doctrine contested by the Protestants. Ibid.

⁷ “collected more with Erasmo's diligence than because of his [Della Casa's] consideration about them”. Annibale to Pier Vettori, 29^th January 1559, Bologna in A. Santosuosso, Bibliography, p. 100.

⁸ See note 61 in Chapter II of the present thesis on Della Casa's life.

⁹ “these are things done by him simply as an exercise […] and of which he did not have a good opinion”. Annibale to Pier Vettori, 29^th January 1559, Bologna in A. Santosuosso, Bibliography, p. 100.

¹⁰ Galeazzo Florimonte was also the author of many translations, of the learned Ragionamenti Sopra l'Etica di Aristotele (1554). See S. D'Onofrio, Il Galateo di Monsignor Della Casa e Il Libro delle Inezie di Galeazzo Florimonte (Napoli, 1938).

¹¹ See note 55 in Chapter II of the present thesis on Della Casa's life.

¹² “M. Galatheo, on whose request and guided by his advice I started to dictate this treatise”. See comment in appendix in Il Galateo, ed. by Gennaro Barbarisi (Venezia, 1991), p. 120.

¹³ “passing from one subject to another, they started to talk about civil and political life, about prettiness and advantages coming from customs, indecent and filthy behaviors that men often perform; finally the Bishop added that it would be a pleasure for him if he could see around manners that men have to apply or disgust, a Treatise written in our vernacular speech, that could be widely spread”. Ibid.

¹⁴ “indecencies and monsters”. See letter from Rucellai to Pier Vettori, 29^th January 1559, Bologna in A. Santosuosso, Bibliography, p. 100.

¹⁵ “The Galateo was written only for fun and to see how our language tolerated such humble and modest style, and I know it was not esteemed by its composer ”. Ibid.

²² „favellar disteso e continuato”. Della Casa, Il Galateo in La Letteratura Italiana, XXI, p. 33; English trans. by Eisenbichler and Bartlett (Ottawa, 1990), p. 37.

²³ “Treatise of Messer Giovanni Della Casa, in which under the person of old idiot tutoring a young man, discusses manners that should be applied or disgusted in common conversation, named Galatheo, or rather a treatise on manners and behaviour”. Della Casa, Il Galateo, ed. by Bevilacqua (1558) quoted by G. Barbarisi in appendix of his edition of Il Galateo, p. 116.

²⁴ See C. Berra in op. cit., p. 285 and appendix to Il Galateo ed. by Emanuela Scarpa, p. XII.

²⁵ “Et come che io nella mia fanciullezza poco inanzi procedei nella grammatica…”, Il Galateo in La Letteratura Italiana, XIX, p. 30; and Galateo trans. by Eisenbichler and Bartlett, p. 34.

²⁶ “Con ciò sia che nelle cose appartenenti alle maniere e costumi degli uomini non basti aver la scienza e la regola; ma convenga, oltre a ciò, per metterle ad effetto, aver eziando l'uso; il quale non si può acquistare in un momento nè in breve spazio di tempo; ma conviensi fare in molti e molti anni, ed a me ne avanzano, come tu vedi, oggimai pochi”. Ibid., XXV, p. 44; ibid., p. 48.

²⁷ It must be remembered that Terence (195 BC-159? BC) was the greatest Roman comic dramatist, the author of six verse comedies that were long regarded as models of pure Latin. Terence's plays. Britannica 2001.

²⁸ Plutarch's (AD 46-after 119) works strongly influenced the evolution of the essay, the biography, and historical writing in Europe from the 16^th to the 19^th century. Ibid.

²⁹ “un dotto e scienziato uomo”. Il Galateo in La Letteratura Italiana, XXVI, p. 46; Galateo trans. by Eisenbichler and Bartlett, p. 51.

³⁰ “gran retorico forestiero”. Ibid., XXI, p. 34; ibid., p. 38.

³¹ “che ebbe nome Socrate”. Ibid., XXIX, p. 52; ibid., p. 58.

³² “E io udii già raccontare, ché molto ho usato con persone scienziate, come tu sai…”. Ibid., XXX, p. 54; ibid., p. 60.

³³ Policleitus was 5th century BC Greek sculptor known for his masterly bronze sculptures of young athletes; he was also one of the most significant aestheticians in the history of art. His work known as the Canon is a theoretical work that discusses ideal mathematical proportions for the parts of the body. His name appears in IlGalateo in chapter XXV.

³⁴ See chapter XXV and note 25.5 in notes to translation of Il Galateo included in the present thesis.

³⁵ “Et, come che io senta dire assai spesso che gli antichi savi lasciarono ne' libri da loro compilati più et più sogni scritti con alto intendimento e con molta vaghezza, non perciò si conviene a noi idioti né al commun di ciò fare ne' suoi ragionamenti”. Il Galateo in La Letteratura Italiana, XII, p. 18; and Galateo trans. by Eisenbichler and Bartlett, p. 19.

³⁶ Giovanni Villani (1257-1348), famous Italian chronicle, author of famous Cronica or Storia Fiorentina, whose European attitude ho history foreshadowed humanism. Ibid.

³⁷ See chapter IV of Il Galateo.

³⁸ See ibid., VIII, p. 15.

³⁹ schernire [it]- mocking

⁴⁰ See chapter XIX of Il Galateo.

⁴¹ “per aventura non convennero gran fatto a M. Gio. Boccaccio”. Il Galateo in La Letteratura Italiana, XX, p. 32; English trans. by Eisenbichler and Bartlett, p. 35.

⁴² “I vulgari modi et plebei di Dioneo”, “Madonna Altruda alzate la coda”. Ibid., XX, p. 33; ibid., p. 37.

⁴⁴ See A. Santosuosso, Bibliography, p. 91-117.

⁴⁵ “vuole essere la bellezza uno, quanto si può, e la bruttezza per lo contrario è molti”. Il Galateo in La Letteratura Italiana, XXVI, p. 46; and English trans. by Eisenbichler and Bartlett, p. 52.

⁴⁶ “bellezza e della misura e della convenevolezza”. Ibid., XXVI, p. 46; ibid., p. 51.

⁴⁷ “secondo sua condizione e secondo sua età”. Ibid., VII, p. 12; ibid., p. 12.

⁴⁸ ”Chè se tu aria per avventura le gambe molto lunghe, e le robe si usino corte; e se alcuno le avesse o troppo sottili, o grosse fuor di modo, o forse torte, non dee farsi le calze di colori molto accesi, nè molto vaghi, per non invitare altrui a mirare il suo difetto”. Ibid., XXVIII, p. 49; ibid., p. 55.

⁴⁹ The lack of obedience towards father can be compared to “vizio enorme e ad ingratitudine odiosa”. Letter to Annibale Rucellai, 19^th October 1549 in Prose Scelte e Annotate, p. 91.

⁵⁰ “per sé, sanza altra cagione, convien che dispiaccia altrui, con ciò sia che i vitii siano cose sconcie e sconvenevoli sì, che gli animi temperate e composti sentono della loro sconvenevolezza dispiacere e noia”. Il Galateo in La Letteratura Italiana, XXVIII, p. 48; English trans. by Eisenbichler and Bartlett, p. 54.

⁵¹ “E se nella mia fanciullezza, quando gli animi sono teneri ed arrendevoli, coloro a' quail caleva di me, avessero saputo piegare i miei costumi, forse alquanto naturalmente duri e rozzi, e ammollirli e polirli, io sarei per avventura tale divenuto quale io ora procuro di render te, il quale mi dèi essere, non meno che figliuol, caro”. Ibid., XXV, p. 44; ibid., p. 49.

⁵² “simili a coloro a chi Dio non la diede, cioè alle bestie”. Ibid., XXV, p. 44; ibid., p. 49.

⁵³ “perocché la tenera età, sì come pura, più agevolmente si tigne d'ogni colore; a anco perché quelle cose, alle quail altri si avvezza prima, sogliono sempre piacer più”. Ibid., XXV, p. 46; ibid., p. 50.

⁵⁴ See P. Pancrazi, Nel Giardino di Candido (Firenze, 1950) quoted by Michele Dell'Aquiola in Umanità nelle Lettere. Dal Cinquecento al Settecento (Roma,1969), vol. II, p. 293.

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