Something should be said of the style in which the book is written. Its author tells us that one of the principal criticisms made upon it while it circulated for many years in manuscript, was that its language was not the language of Boccaccio, who was then accepted as the model for Italian prose-writers. Castiglione did not bind himself to the manner of the Tuscan speech. He was of Lombard birth and habit, and he chose--in the faith of which Montaigne is the great defender--the words, the phrases, the constructions that best fitted his thought, no matter whence he gathered them, if only they were familiar and expressive. He thus gained the force of freedom and the grace of variety, while the customary elegance and the habitual long-windedness of all Italian writers molds his sentences and makes them difficult of translation. There have been few translations made of his book; none (published) as yet, of any literary value; and Castiglione has not been much known out of Italy. One of the few mentions of him in English literature is to be found in Donne, Satire v., and it touches on a characteristic page of his book, for it notes:-- "He which did lay Rules to make courtiers (he, being understood, May make good courtiers, but who courtiers good?) Frees from the sting of jests all who in extreme Are wretched or wicked." In his own country Castiglione's fame has always been considerable. Ariosto--to whose brother Alfonso, "Messer Alfonso carissimo," the four books of 'Il Cortegiano' are dedicated and at whose desire it was written--Ariosto in his great poem speaks of Castiglione more than once; but a passage in Tasso's dialogue 'Della Corte' does him fit honor:--"I do not deem that Castiglione wrote for the men of his own day only:... the beauty of his writings deserves that in all ages they should be read and praised; and as long as courts shall endure, as long as princes, ladies, and noble gentlemen shall meet together, as long as valor and courtesy shall abide in our hearts, the name of Castiglione will be valued." OF THE COURT OF URBINO From 'Il Cortegiano'