Courtesy manuals

“Young man, reading: Caxton’s Book of Curtesye”, in MedieVaria. Un liber amicorum per Giuseppe Brunetti, ed. Alessandra Petrina, Padova: Unipress, 2011, pp. 115-134.
This article discusses The Book of Curtesye, a manual of instruction for children written in the second half of the fifteenth century and published by William Caxton in 1477. The book is first set in the context of its genre; its original characteristics are then highlighted, together with the differences between the earlier manuscript versions and Caxton’s edition, in order to underline the reader-oriented manipulation operated by the printer. The most important trait differentiating this book from the great majority of courtesy books is the insertion of a list of English authors the child is encouraged to read: Gower, Chaucer, Hoccleve and Lydgate are not simply conventionally praised by the anonymous writer, but evaluated and discussed, while individual works are singled out and recommended: this makes of this book the first attempt at literary instruction in English literature. The book is then analyzed as part of a process of canonization of literature in the vernacular: a process initiated by Lydgate and strongly supported by Caxton, it recognized in Chaucer the father of the English language and the first literary spokesman of the nation.

Courtesy books have a special relationship to the age that produces them. By attempting to codify manners, styles, ideals and values of a society, they reveal the principles and presuppositions that shape and animate their world. Galateo does this brilliantly. It reflects the personal experience, wisdom, disappointments, and ambitions of its clerical but worldly-wise author as well as the fundamental values of his age. And, given that his age was that of the transformation from the High Renaissance in Italy to the world of the Counter-Reformation, and that Della Casa was an important actor in the events of his time, the lessons are particularly valuable and worth considering.

Archbishop Giovanni Della Casa (1503-1556) was an influential Vatican diplomat, papal nuncio to Venice, and instrumental in the establishment of the Venetian Inquisition and in its 1549 Index of Prohibited Books. He was also an accomplished poet, an arbiter of taste, and the most influential writer on social practice of his time. His book, Galateo, has in fact provided the modern Italian term for good manners: “not to know the galateo” is to have no manners at all!

Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference reveals the relationship between racial discrimination and the struggle for upward social mobility in the early modern world. Reading Shakespeare's plays alongside contemporaneous conduct literature—how-to books on self-improvement—this book demonstrates the ways that the pursuit of personal improvement was accomplished by the simultaneous stigmatization of particular kinds of difference. The widespread belief that one could better, or cultivate oneself through proper conduct was coupled with an equally widespread belief that certain markers, including but not limited to “blackness,” indicated an inability to conduct oneself properly, laying the foundation for what we now call “racism.” A careful reading of Shakespeare's plays reveals a recurring critique of the conduct system voiced, for example, by malcontents and social climbers like Iago and Caliban, and embodied in the struggles of earnest strivers like Othello, Bottom, and Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse, whose bodies are bruised, pinched, blackened and otherwise indelibly marked as un-cultivatable. By approaching race through the discourse of conduct, this volume not only exposes the epistemic violence toward stigmatized others that lies at the heart of self-cultivation, but also contributes to the broader definition of race that has emerged in recent studies of cross-cultural encounter, colonialism and the global early modern world.

This paper is a case study examining the choice and interaction of stylistic devices employed in The Schoole of Vertue, Francis Segar and Robert Crowley's manual of good manners for children issued between 1582 and 1687. It was designed to convince its readers that particular patterns of behaviour were socially beneficial and worth following. In order to enhance the attractiveness, persuasiveness, and mnemonic qualities of the text, several stylistic devices are employed in the manual, including, for example, rhymes, acronyms, as well as binomials. It is generally agreed that repetitive patterns (especially binomials) are typical of formal registers, and particularly plentiful in legal and literary texts in Early Modern English, but the present study shows that similar rhetorical devices were also readily employed in the less formal and elevated style of manuals of good behaviour. Another rhetorical device frequently used in the manual under consideration consists in addressing the reader directly with the second person singular pronoun, especially in imperative constructions, thus creating an ambiance of emotional closeness, characterising the relationship between the master and the pupil. Keywords: Early Modern English, stylistic devices, early modern etiquette manuals, early printed books

Resumen: Después de la publicación de su Filo-sofía cortesana en 1587, Barros no volvió a tomar la pluma hasta 1598. A pesar de ello, es evidente que a través de las letras reclamará el amparo de un nuevo patrón en ese delicado momento de transición al reinado de Felipe III. En este tra-bajo estudiamos la elección de García de Loaysa como dedicatario de sus Proverbios morales y su infructuoso resultado desde la perspectiva de los estudios sobre la Corte, teniendo en cuenta nue-va documentación de archivo. Abstract: After the publication of his Court Philosophy in 1587, Barros did not write again until 1598. Otherwise, it is evident that he claims with his books for protection from a new sponsor in that delicate moment of transition towards the kingdom of Philippe the Third. In this paper, we look into the choice of García de Loaysa for the dedication in Proverbios morales, according to the studies about the Court, and considering new documentation from antique archives. Palabras clave: Alonso de Barros, García de Loay-sa Girón, Proverbios morales, Dedicatorias, Corte, Patronazgo, Mecenazgo.

This paper is part of a wider research project in which main goal is to study the courtesy of Ancient
Regime while reflex of the theories about the essence and dynamics of society.
This paper particularly focuses on two neglected but related books: the Proxeneta (1570) of the Italian humanist Gerolamo Cardano and the Traicté de la Court (1616) of the French noble and statesman Eustache de Refuge.
Some ideas of the great seventeenth century moralists, for example Gracián, La Rochefoucauld and La Bruyère, are already formulated by these authors and both draw a picture of a society which anticipates Hobbes’ philosophical theories. These ideas about society have a great influence on Cardano’sand Refuge’s conceptions of courtesy, which becomes a ‘dangerous’ but essential skill for survival either in the society or in the court.

Key words: Courtesy, Political philosophy, Education of the elites, Baroque.

La Filosofía cortesana de Alonso de Barros es una recreación de la corte sobre el tablero de un juego de la oca convenientemente adaptado. El artículo tiene como propósito explicar las enseñanzas contenidas en aquellas instrucciones de juego sobre las casas marcadas, donde quedan cifradas las condiciones y dificultades que afrontará el pretensor cortesano.

Courtesy literature shared common ideologies with medieval and renaissance narrative paintings, dramas and devotional literature. All had exemplary functions and all assumed a moral equivalence between outward behaviour and inner character. Their strictures were often, but not exclusively, applied to women. Looking at paintings in the light of these sources can illuminate their exemplary role in the lives of the people who saw them.

La Filosofía cortesana es una obra clave en la tradición del discurso cortesano en lengua castellana, que tiene en autores como Baltasar de Castiglione y Baltasar Gracián al-gunas de sus cimas. Al tiempo, la obra de Barros constituye un hito de la literatura gráfica del juego en los Siglos de Oro. Alonso de Barros se vale para representar la vida y las vicisitudes de un pretensor en la corte madrileña de Felipe II de un juego de tabla de procedencia italiana y de moda a finales del siglo XVI: el juego de la oca. La obra se compone de un libro y de un tablero con el recorrido espiral de las 63 casas características-que se ofrece como pieza separada en el seno de esta edición-. La Filosofía cortesana se convierte así en la primera representación de la oca en la ludoteca es-pañola, muy anterior al ejemplar balear de la imprenta Guasp, datado c. 1652, y en la primera adaptación metafó-rica de la historia de este juego en cualquier dirección. Barros modifica las casillas especiales de origen (la Oca, el Pozo, el Laberinto…) para representar icónicamente los avatares que conducen-o no-a la obtención de favores y prebendas, es decir, al medro cortesano: la Casa del Pri-vado, el Trabajo, el Paso de la Esperanza, el Pródigo, la Po-breza, la Palma de la Victoria o la Muerte del Valedor son algunas de esas circunstancias que el hombre de corte debe afrontar y que aquí quedan representadas. Cada casa se concibe como un emblema, donde la imagen o icon, lleva un título a modo de lema y va acompañada de una letra ri-mada o epigrama, que sintetiza o aclara su significado. El conjunto resultante es también una de las primeras mani-festaciones españolas del género. El libro contiene las reglas del juego, así como el comen-tario que explicita las relaciones cortesanas entre los juga-dores, uniendo a lo lúdico una finalidad didáctica y una...

Revisión de la traducción de este manual de cortesía clave de la Modernidad francesa por parte de este murciano afincado en los espacios cortesanos y culturales galos.
Edición digital en la revista electrónica de arqueología e histórica de la Comunidad Murciana: , Servicio de Patrimonio Histórico. Dirección General de Cultura. Consejería de Educación y Cultura de Murcia. http://www.patrimur.com/publicaciones/tesis/tesis.php

Les manuels de conduite du dix-huitième siècle destinés aux femmes traitent des questions reliées à lʼâge et aux intersections entre lʼâge du destinataire et son rôle de genre. Quoiquʼils ne mentionnent que rarement un âge chronologique, les manuels prescrivent des comportements appropriés à différents âges et comparent la jeunesse avec la vieillesse. Une perspective sombre sur le vieillissement des femmes contraste avec la présentation assurée dʼécrivains plus âgés (hommes et femmes) comme mentors.

Das Thema ‚Lebensalter‘ wird in Verhaltenslehren für Frauen des 18. Jahrhunderts allgemein und in Hinblick auf geschlechtsspezifische Aspekte behandelt. Präzise chronologische Altersangaben werden selten gemacht, aber Jugend und Alter werden verglichen und Regeln für altersgemäßes Verhalten aufgestellt. Die düstere Darstellung des weiblichen Älterwerdens steht im Gegensatz zu der positiven Selbstdarstellung der älteren Autor*innen als selbstbewusste Mentorfiguren.

A  finales  del  siglo  XIX  se  descubrió  un  insólito  manuscrito  en  el  santuario  de  Loyola;  se  trataba  de  un  breve  manual  de  urbanidad  en  euskera,  una  pieza  que  para  la  época  en la  que  se  estimaba  escrita,  el  siglo  XVIII,  era  de  una  singularidad  remarcable.  Las  investigaciones  que  se  han  realizado sobre el texto han sido parcas desde entonces. En el presente artículo se engloba el manual dentro  del  contexto  histórico  y  cultural  en  el  que  se  estima  fue  escrito  y  se  da  a  conocer  la  fuente  concreta de la que a todas luces fue traducido junto con unas breves reflexiones sobre la difusión de la obra.

The manuals on the uses and the "manners" in Spain of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries attach particular importance to the art of speech and, more precisely, to the art of the formula, which can take different faces (sentence, "mote", "agudeza"). The article studies the use of the formula and its evolutions in the texts on the education of the courtier in Early MOdern Spain

The disruptive other can erupt into the ordered, structured world of the medieval court of romance – not least on the highly formal occasion of the feast – initiating ‘an engagement with the more chaotic and less readily manageable elements of the world at large’ (Aisling Byrne).  Though the ‘otherness’ of Malory’s women is widely recognised and discussed, and studies like Byrne’s usefully examine the widespread motif of the interrupted feast, the form and function of the specifically feminine intrusion into the court on occasions of high solemnity has not been sufficiently addressed. 
The arrival of the damsel of the Lady Lyle girt with a sword instigates the adventure of Balin and Balan and the Dolorous Stroke (and so, ultimately, Arthurian chivalry’s apogee in the Quest of the Holy Grail). Nenyve’s interruption of the wedding feast of King Arthur with ‘thirty couple of blacke rennynge houndis’ sparks the first quests of a nascent Round Table and the establishment of the crucial Pentecostal Oath. These feminine intrusions into the court constitute a ‘necessary threat’ – characterised as noisy, disruptive and distinctly other – which serves to galvanise the (overly structured?) male world of chivalric fellowship.
Utilising evidence from little-studied medieval courtesy books, Johan Huizinga’s classic work on the pervasiveness of highly structured ‘play’, and Victor Turner’s theories of liminality and communitas, this paper examines the way such violent intrusions by the feminine other (markedly indecorous compared to comparable male interruptions) act as ‘social drama’ forcing breach, crisis and reintegration.

The titular crux of Much Ado About Nothing revolves around the repeated problem of hearsay. Shakespeare’s characters form opinions about each other based on reports, eavesdropping, and hearsay. While imperfect understandings are the means by which the play develops tension, the true issue at stake is one of honor and reputation, and the differences between the feminine virtue of chastity and the masculine quality of virtù, a combination of strength, ingenuity, talent, and other abilities. Whereas a man’s reputation may withstand the assault of a false report, as it is based on actions and deeds, a woman’s honor is ethereal and fragile. Though Hero consistently performs the behaviors expected of maidens, she is brought down by slander and dubious spectacle. Though Don Pedro and Claudio act abominably, their deeds do not affect them in the same way that their accusations affect Hero. This paper will explore the way in which Benedick and Beatrice rectify the situation, with her virtù engaging his virtue to pursue the redress which only a martial challenge can bring, the open confrontation of the accusations against Hero.

La teoría europea moderna sobre la risa estaría incompleta si no tuviéramos en cuenta la perspicaz y profunda reflexión sobre lo jocoserio que surge en los tratados de Baltasar Gracián (El Héroe, 1637; El Discreto, 1646). Lejos ya del uomo urbano e faceto renacentista, los aciertos del juicio en el "filósofo cortesano" se expanden gracias al ingenio. Los primores y realces ingeniosos no solamente aportan gracia y soltura, sino que se convierten en instrumentos tácticos capaces de auxiliar incluso al gobernante perfecto, que ha de saber manejar los afectos de acuerdo con la ocasión (El político don Fernando El Católico, 1640). Este libro analiza la mezcla jocoseria en los tratados gracianos, sin exceptuar el encuentro de lo agudo y lo risible comprendido en la Agudeza y arte de ingenio (1648), desde las especies poéticas menores hasta las sublimes agudezas, graves o festivas; pues la misma unión de risa y llanto, de Heráclito y Demócrito, constituyó una paradoja formal, semejante a aquellas que gustaban compendiar autores como Ortensio Lando o John Donne y que igualmente reverberan en los trescientos aforismos del Oráculo manual (1647).