Time and Space in the Composition of Il libro del cortegiano

Abstract

The co-ordinates of space and time are important inroads to the study of any literary text, as the fundamental studies by Georges Poulet and Jurij Lotman, respectively, suggest. For the Renaissance Italian classic by Baldessar Castiglione, space and time are especially crucial. If we examine the finished product, that is, the text of Il libro del cortegiano as it was published in Venice in 1528, we learn immediately in the prefatory letter that the author’s alleged aim was that of painting a portrait of an idealized space (“un ritratto di pittura della corte d’Urbino”) (6). It is also an ideal time from the past when (and I stress the word when) Urbino was headed by the Montefeltros.