Renaissance and Reformation Biographies | Baldassare Castiglione Biography

December 6, 1478
Casatico, Mantua, Italy
February 7, 1529
Toledo, Spain

Diplomat, author, courtier

"It is better to pass in silence that which cannot be recalled without pain."

Baldassare Castiglione in Book of the Courtier.

The Italian author, courtier, and diplomat Baldassare Castiglione was one of the most influential writers of the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a cultural movement initiated by scholars called humanists, who promoted the revival of the human-centered literature and philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome as well as new translations of biblical texts (Hebrew holy books and the Christian Bible). He ranks with the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare (1564–1616; see entry) and the French essayist Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592; see entry) in importance to the literature of Europe. Castiglione is...