This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/16/2023
CASTIGLIONE, Baldassare (1478–1529). Il Cortegiano, or The Courtier. Edited by A.P. Castiglione. London: W. Bowyer for the editor, 1727.
4to (244 x 194 mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece by G. Virtue after Raphael (some light browning to title–page and frontispiece margins). Full contemporary calf twice ruled in gilt, neatly rebacked preserving original spine, salmon morocco lettering–piece gilt. Provenance: engraved royal bookplate with single letter cypher (“C” with crown).
FIRST EDITION OF THIS ENGLISH TRANSLATION. First published in 1528 at the Aldine Press, the work shaped and changed the culture of the European upper classes in the Renaissance by celebrating the characteristics of the ideal aristocrat and “has remained the perfect definition of a gentleman ever since” (PMM). Lowndes, p. 386; NCBEL II, 1543; PMM 59 (first edition).