Castiglione Baldassare

Castiglione, Baldassare, was born at Casatico, near Mantua, in 1478, and having been educated at Milan, entered the service of Ludovico Sforza, afterwards attaching himself to the court of the Duke of Urbino, who sent him in 1506 as ambassador to England. He was then envoy to Leo X., who made him generalissimo of the Papal army. Clement VII. sent him in 1525 as envoy to Charles V. at Madrid. He settled in Spain as Bishop of Avila, and he was suspected of having betrayed his master to the emperor. If so, he was a consummate hypocrite, for his famous work, Il Coriegiano ("The Courtier"), nicknamed by the Italians Il Libra d'Oro, is one of the noblest sketches of the character of a gentleman, and is, moreover, a model of Italian prose style. He also composed neat poems in Italian and Latin, and his letters are elegant and witty. He died at Toledo in 1529.