The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-11-22
Giovanni della Cass's "COurtesy
Book"


Baldass are Castiglone's treatise on
manners. "Libro del Cortegiano," was
first published at Venice in 1928, and
was translated into English in 1851.
/ Castiglione embodied in his imagined
dlscourses the courtly ideals Of the Mid
silc Ages and the Renaissance. In 1b0S
GIOVANNI DELLA CASA, Archbishop OF
Bcnevento. published somewhat sim
| liar courtesy book, The Gdidtco-Of
Manners and Behdviours, which was
translated into English in 1875 by Rob
| ert Peterson. n London barrister; now
| handsomely reprinted. with an intro
duction by J. T.. Spingarn In The HUI
manist's Library" under the general ed
/ itorial supervision Of Lewis Eingtein
! CThe Merrymount Press, Boston,.
I Della Casa belongs to the post Rensis-
/ sance Catholic reaction" which, criti-
cal whore the Renaissance created.
/ soldly codfed in art, literature and al
/ most everything else what the blazing
! preceding period had brought forth. As
/ the spirit of his time differed from that
| Of Castlglone's does Della Casa's book
/ differ from its model. 1t codlf1ed man
ners for all cultivated civilians and es-
tablished the modern European standard
! of social conduct.
Giovanni della Casa scion OF two dis
tinguished Florentine famiiies-his
mother was n ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. poet
and orator. was n very gay bird in his
student days az Bologna. Pedua and
Rome. and did not altogether lay aside
his worldlness when. in 1884, he took
holy orders. In Cardinal Alessandro
Farnese lie had an excellent friend and
patron and when the Cardinal became
Pope Paul III. Della Casa had him
10 thank for successive appointments
as apostolic envoy to Florence, Arch
bishop of Benevento and papai nunC!o
TO Venice But the succeeding Pope
was less kindly disposed. and II may he
true that the RIGHTEOUSNESS of some OF
the churchman's verses did him out of
a cardnalate. He wrote a life of Pietro
Rembo, editor of Petrarch and
Dante: translated from Thucydides,
and anticipated Chesterfield IN his Gala
;eo" treatise, written IN the retirement
OF his town house in Venice and his
villa in tho Marcs Triv.sians. with
gallant company OF gentlemen and la
dies to share his enforced hut charming
leisure" He gave the Italian language
new word for the paragon OF good
manners Is in Italy to-day "galateo.
According 20 the much quoted motto
OF William Of Wykeham, the English
churchmau, statesman and architect
manners makyth men" Long before
Wlllom was, or Wickham itself, Corne-
I,us Nepos in the vita Attici' had man
ners, "mores" making the fortunes OF
men. In tho Scottish proverb, Meat
feeds an claith cleeds. but manners MAX
. a man" Etymology encourages cynical
speculation: manners and morals are al
: tho base OF triangle with Roman mos
, morris" at the apeA; we have carried the
Roman "manners and customs" over
into the territory az righteousness and
virtue in conduct. An chronological his
tory, suggestive though no: clearly
established is that OF "c.iQuette" signl'
fyiug first the label Of Identification OF
. contents of package, then card ol
: direction for the indivd uars part IL
\ high social functions; now in French 6
% ticket, in English code 81 manners
Z LtXtcographers get II from OilC
S "stecheu," to stick; hence 60 "stuci
e mp" Moierns OF culture mot Prussan
abhor manners concrete and seek man
, ncr abstract--with success In som,
: notable instances In the abstraction
j more than IN the mos. Courtesy" an'
:. "civility" are philolog!cally enlishtenn,
r 10 the curious student OF man
p n.r science. Polite" polished. in III,
: days Of SIR Isaac denoting a physica
4 property. ms IN "a polite surface" ha
miscellaneous suggestion; polite" ha
u been graduated from physical science q
. the art Of department. but smooth" hsl
:, lively social connotation. The man WIN
. writes OF manners and morals Ia just,
suspect in his own. and the merry Arch
!, bishop Of Bsnevento could write @
y faults without exposing ignorance O
!, his subject.
. Does II seem strange that q perso,
a OF such attachments, clerical and III
v erary, ss the archbishop possesse
: should have devoted his rare talent I
d the production OF a mere code of socia
. decency? The answer is simple, say
Professor SpinGarn: 1T is tust becaus
J. such distinguished men as our aroh
= bishop formulated these details for u
v in the Renaissance that they have be
d come part and parcel OF our soc!f
- code" Books on manners We're nothin
n new. the novel contribution was tn
le survey Of the best practice and the A.
e lection and orderly presentation, in es
s quis!te Tuscan, of the essential detail
II IL not nj all ponderous Philosophy
IT when Della Casa makes Of good man
T. ners a virtue he is merely concedin
n. authority TO contemporary ideals. WI
10 tue is a rigid thing, manners, as h
40 saw them, elastic, for the desire to Civ
81 pleasure and 10 AVOID the giving OF al
X fence must take into consideration III
n varying whms and moods of other
is Morals are concerned with the suhstanC
N Of actions. manners with their forr
:" Dclla Casa like Castiglone an
N Sanna2zaro IN Arcadia" borrows fro,
ID The classics; the "Ncomachean E,hic.
TX OF Aristotle, the moral eXpositions
ID Plutarch, the characters" OF The
Of phrastus and the dicta Of Cicero are
a lis mosaic. But upon these are supe
in imposed the delicate obscrvances of Il
o. fashionable world of Trb!no, M1ntl
n and Fcrrara. To the courtoisie of m
dlWval Provence and France he nd,
he tho "civ!itas," "urban!tas" in which q
g. modern idea Of a gentleman 10 roote
tr He expanded the gentle Baldassar
ne also the Fifty Courteses Of the Tab,
NJ compiled Ivy Isonves!n da Riva, Il
"A Manners and Behavior of Women"