The nobles in different parts of Italy 362 The nobility and culture 363 Bad influence of Spain 363 Knighthood since the Middle Ages 364 The tournaments and the caricature of them 365 Noble birth as a requisite of the courtier 367 CHAPTER II. OUTWARD REFINEMENT OF LIFE. Costume and fashions 369 The toilette of women 371 Cleanliness 374 The ‘Galateo’ and good manners 375 Comfort and elegance 376 CHAPTER III. LANGUAGE AS THE BASIS OF SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. Development of an ideal language 378 Its wide diffusion 379 The Purists 379 Their want of success 382 Conversation 383 CHAPTER IV. THE HIGHER FORMS OF SOCIETY. Rules and statutes 384 The novelists and their society 384 The great lady and the drawing-room 385 Florentine society 386 Lorenzo’s descriptions of his own circle 387 CHAPTER V. THE PERFECT MAN OF SOCIETY. His love-making 388 His outward and spiritual accomplishments 389 Bodily exercises 389 Music 390 The instruments and the Virtuosi 392 Musical dilettantism in society 393 CHAPTER VI. THE POSITION OF WOMEN. Their masculine education and poetry 396 Completion of their personality 397 The Virago 398 Women in society 399 The culture of the prostitutes 399 CHAPTER VII. DOMESTIC ECONOMY. Contrast to the Middle Ages 402 Agnolo Pandolfini (L. B. Alberti) 402 The villa and country life 404 CHAPTER VIII. THE FESTIVALS. Their origin in the mystery and the procession 406