ABSTRACT
In Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier (the second draft transcribed 1520-21, as in the final version), it was given to Count Ludovico Canossa to stress the importance of the literature of Antiquity for the courtier, whose 'principal and true profession ... must be arms'. 1 Canossa echoed the theoretical view of Italian humanists who regarded Classical Antiquity as the model to adopt, a model which in the fifteenth century in some measure was consciously manifest in warfare on the Italian peninsula. Vespasiano da Bisticci's life of Federico da Montefeltro, written by 1498, emphasized that the latter's military reputation was a direct consequence of his classical studies: 'the Duke wrought the greater part of his martial deeds by ancient and modern example; from the ancients by his study of history .. .' .2 The recommendation to learn warfare from the ancients is most vividly portrayed in a miniature by Giovanni Pietro Birago, dated about 1490, depicting the successful condottiere Francesco Sforza, who gained the duchy of Milan by military means, listening attentively to such classical commanders as Hannibal, Scipio and Caesar (fig. 1).3 Canossa knew his claim had come to be seen as very flawed, for the French were victorious, yet as he admitted had little interest in letters, classical or otherwise; Canossa was forced to concede contrariwise that for all their knowledge of them 'the Italians have shown little worth in arms for some time',
1 For the courtier's profession see B. Castiglione, La seconda redazione del 'Cortegiano', ed. G. Ghinassi (Florence, 1968), Bk. I, xx, 28, and for the date of the second draft see C.H. Clough, The Duchy of Urbino in the Renaissance (London, 1981), item XVI, 24. The same passage is in the final version, see B. Castiglione, ll Libro del Cortegiano, ed. B. Maier (Turin, 3rd ed. rev., 1981), 112; trans. C. Singleton (Garden City, NY, 1959), 32. For the importance of letters see note 4 below.
