Baldassare Castiglione (1478–1529)

Baldassare Castiglione’s Il Libro del Cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier) first appeared in 1528 in Venice. Castiglione, born outside of Mantua in 1478, served the dukes of Mantua and Urbino, and later the Pope as a diplomat. Raphael, whom he had met at the court of Urbino, created the portrait of Castiglione as a humanist around 1514/1515.

Nicolas-Étienne Edelinck (1681–1767), Portrait of Count Baldassare Castiglione (1478–1529), etching based on a painting by Raphael Santi (1483–1520), 1729, source: www.gallica.bnf.fr, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6956018s/f1.item.