ABSTRACT

Although they will be mentioned, Baldassare Castiglione [1478–1529] and his Il libro del cortegiano [1528] are not the focus of this essay. This ‘most representative book of the Renaissance’ 1 along with the writings of Machiavelli, provoked a Catholic reaction from Baldassare’s younger cousin, Frà Sabba da Castiglione, who spent his long life [ca. 1480–1554] serving his religious, military and Hospitaller Order of St John of Jersualem. Frà Sabba deserves better than to be interpreted as standing in the shadows of his cousin Castiglione and Machiavelli. 2 The twofold charism of his Order of St John – fighting the Muslim infidel and tending the poor and sick – shaped Frà Sabba’s experiences as a Knight of Rhodes and as the commendatore of the Hospitaller estates at Magione di Faenza in Lombardy, where he matured as a Christian humanist and exemplified Catholic lay piety on the eve of the Council of Trent.