3 Quotes & Sayings By Baldassarre Castiglione

Baldassarre Castiglione was born in Bologna, Italy. He received his first education at the renowned Collegio Ghislieri, where he learned Latin and Greek. In 1502, he entered the University of Bologna to study law. In 1505, he became a Doctor of Civil and Canon Law Read more

During this time, he wrote The Book of the Courtier, a treatise on courtly manners that became a classic manual for European nobles. In 1513, Castiglione left Italy for Spain to serve as secretary to Pope Leo X under his uncle, Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici. After the pope's death in 1521, he traveled through France and Germany before settling in Florence under Cosimo I de' Medici.

In 1528, Castiglione married Lucrezia Crivelli. There they adopted two sons and two daughters from their previous marriage.

1
Outward beauty is a true sign of inner goodness. This loveliness, indeed, is impressed upon the body in varying degrees as a token by which the soul can be recognized for what it is, just as with trees the beauty of the blossom testifies to the goodness of the fruit. Baldassarre Castiglione
2
Then the soul, freed from vice, purged by studies of true philosophy, versed in spiritual life, and practised in matters of the intellect, devoted to the contemplation of her own substance, as if awakened from deepest sleep, opens those eyes which all possess but few use, and sees in herself a ray of that light which is the true image of the angelic beauty communicated to her, and of which she then communicates a faint shadow to the body. Baldassarre Castiglione