Gentlemanly conduct.- Castiglione (Baldassare) Il Libro del Cortegiano, first edition, collation: *⁴, a-o⁸, p⁶, Roman type, large Aldine woodcut device on title, and on verso of final leaf, blank spaces for capitals, with printed guide letters, lightly washed, short tear to lower blank margin of fol. l7 skilfully restored, without any loss, first leaf uniformly browned, small stain to blank lower outer corner of fol. *4, early 20th-century honey morocco over pasteboards, by Katharine Adams, ruled and lettered in gilt, blue pastedowns and endpapers with old 17th century front endpaper preserved (with some ink annotations), inner gilt dentelles, g.e., small folio (288 x 183 mm.), Venice, Aldo Manuzio's heirs and Andrea Torresano, 1528.

⁂ First edition of the Cortegiano, the earliest and most famous work on courtesy. In his treatise, the Mantuan poet and diplomat Castiglione depicts the perfect Renaissance gentleman who displays refinement, good manners, and military prowess, together with an appreciation of literature and music. The work takes the form of a conversation held in 1506 at the palace of Urbino, where the author, who served there at court, is surrounded by such figures as Guidobaldo de Montefeltro, Elisabetta Gonzaga, Pietro Bembo, and Giuliano de' Medici. The treatise enjoyed wide and lasting popularity, and was translated into several languages, including an English translation in 1561 by Thomas Hoby. Its influence was felt in the works of writers such as Shakespeare, Rabelais, Cervantes, Molière, Sidney, and Burton. "The Courtier' depicts the ideal aristocrat, and it has remained the perfect definition of a gentleman ever since. It is an epitome of the highest moral and social ideas of the Italian Renaissance [...] This Renaissance ideal of the free development of individual faculties and its rules of civilized behaviour formed a new conception of personal rights and obligations in Europe" (PMM).

Provenance: the British art historian Kenneth Clark, later Lord Clark of Saltwood (1903-1983; ex-libris on the front pastedown; his sale Sotheby's, 3 July 1984); Kenneth Rapoport (ex-libris on the front pastedown).

Literature: Adams C-924; STC Italian 156; Renouard Alde, 105.3; Ahmanson-Murphy 252; Cataldi-Palau 115; PMM 59.