ook are feigned to have occurred in
the winter of 1506-7. At that time the author was in England, an envoy
from the Duke of Urbino to Henry VII., sent as the Duke's proxy to be
installed as Companion of the Garter. He carried with him splendid
gifts for the King, fine falcons, beautiful horses, and a picture by
Raffael--St. George and the Dragon, in which St. George wears "the
Garter."

Castiglione's public labors had made him well known, when between him
and his high-born friends there was talk of his marriage with a
daughter of the house of Medici; but political influences caused her
to be given by preference to a Strozzi. Had this alliance been formed,
Castiglione would have found himself, in later years, the nephew of
two popes and the uncle of a queen of France. But better luck was in
keeping for him. In 1516 he had the singular good fortune to make a
marriage of tender affection; but his wife died only four years later:
from that time his chief pleasure was in the society of his friends.

They numbered all the most distinguished Italians of his day; men
whose intellectual powers found artistic expression alike in words,
or the painter's canvas, or the sculptor's marble, or the architect's
stone: and it is the reflection of this wide and varied companionship
that gives charm and also weight to the pages of 'Il Cortegiano.' A
more delicate delightfulness comes from the tone of liberal refinement
with which the impression is conveyed of singularly ennobling
intercourse with women.

Castiglione was the contemporary and the friend of the famous
Marchioness of Pescara, Vittoria Colonna; of the brilliant Isabella
d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua, whose daughter, the beautiful Duchess
of Urbino, is immortalized by Titian's many portraits of her, both as
she was in youth and in age, and also as in youth he saw her
idealized. This Duchess of Urbino was the niece of Castiglione's own
Duchess Elisabetta; and by marriage with the nephew of Guidobaldo she
became the successor of Elisabetta. These great ladies were involved
by family ties in all the stirring events of their times. Isabella
d'Este was the aunt of Constable Bourbon and the sister-in-law of
Lucrezia Borgia. Vittoria Colonna's husband was the cousin of the
famous Alfonso d'Avalos (Marquis del Vasto) of Spain: and in the
entangled interests of these personages and of the rulers of Urbino,
Castiglione was constantly concerned and occupied.

His counsels were also so