ABSTRACT
As early as in its dedication to Don Michel de Silva, Castiglione informs his readership of the vast audience of men and women alike that The Book of the Courtier had already conquered, even before the time of its first publication. Indeed, as the text that would become the book circulated in the courts before its actual publication, we know that learned women were among Castiglione’s early admirers. One of the book’s aficionados was the Marchioness Vittoria Colonna. She read the text twice in 1524 and had it transcribed without either the author’s knowledge or permission, as he explained in his dedication, in a prose that was elegant but did nothing to veil his disappointment, perhaps because he feared that control over his text had been taken away.
