The Fortunes of the Courtier

by Peter Burke

s/t: The European Reception of Castiglione's Cortegiano Castiglione wrote Cortegiano, or Book of the Courtier as a practical guide to contemporary conduct. With this in mind, cultural historian Peter Burke sets forth in his brilliant new book to explore how readers over the years have responded to Courtier.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

Hardcover

First published October 1, 1995

About the author

Peter Burke is a British historian and professor. He was educated by the Jesuits and at St John's College, Oxford, and was a doctoral candidate at St Antony's College. From 1962 to 1979, he was part of the School of European Studies at Sussex University, before moving to the University of Cambridge, where he holds the title of Professor Emeritus of Cultural History and Fellow of Emmanuel College. Burke is celebrated as a historian not only of the early modern era, but one who emphasizes the relevance of social and cultural history to modern issues. He is married to Brazilian historian Maria Lúcia Garcia Pallares-Burke.

Reviews

[Juli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Te quiero mucho, Peter Burke.

[Domenico Ianuale · Rating 2 out of 5]

👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻
Burke fatti una vita

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough exploration of how Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier fared after it's publication in Italy, the rest of Europe, and in a later changing political climate (a.k.a. the rise of absolutism). It was this last section that was most useful to me as it's the period I'm studying, but there was also a really interesting exploration of how translators dealt with translating words with very specific concepts, most especially 'sprezzatura,' a word invented by Castiglione for the form of courtly nonchalance that he was advocating (there isn't really an exact translation into English, you can see how confusions start to happen...). Also in the introduction Burke briefly goes into the influential ideas Castiglione includes and where they were from - a mix of classical Greek and Roman ideas of excellence and self-discipline along with medieval chivalry and religious connotations imposed onto Roman army discipline.

All in all, a fascinating read that I would recommend to anyone interested in social history and the 'Europeanisation of Europe,' to quote Burke himself, and although I've read the Courtier I'm pretty sure this would also be very accessible to those who haven't.