same society which produced a Filippo Maria Visconti, a Galeazzo
Maria Sforza, a Sigismondo Malatesta, a Ferdinand of Aragon, gave birth
also to a Lorenzo de' Medici and a Federigo da Montefeltro. It is only
by studying the lives of all these men in combination that we can obtain
a correct conception of the manifold personality, the mingled polish and
barbarism, of the Italian Renaissance.

[1] It is not easy to say what a panegyrist of that period intended
by 'a complete knowledge of Greek,' or 'fluent Greek writing,' in a
Prince. I suspect, however, that we ought not to understand by these
phrases anything like a real familiarity with Greek literature, but
rather such superficial knowledge as would enable a reader of Latin
books to understand allusions and quotations. Poliziano, it may be
remarked, thought it worth while to flatter Guidobaldo in a Greek
epigram.

[2] After Guidobaldo's death the duchy was continued by the
Della Rovere family, one of whom, Giovanni, Prefect of Rome and
nephew of Sixtus IV., married the Duke's sister Giovanna in
1474.

Some more detailed account of Baldassare Castiglione's treatise _Il
Cortegiano_ will form a fitting conclusion to this Chapter on the
Despots. It is true that his book was written later than the period we
have been considering,[1] and he describes court life in its most
graceful aspect. Yet all the antecedent history of the past two
centuries had been gradually producing the conditions under which his
courtier flourished; and the Italian of the Renaissance, as he appeared
to the rest of Europe, was such a gentleman as he depicts. For the
historian his book is of equal value in its own department with the
Principe of Machiavelli, the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, and the
Diary of Burchard.

[1] It was written in 1514, and first published in folio by the Aldi
of Venice in 1528. We find an English translation so early as 1561
by Thomas Hoby. At this time it was in the hands of all the
gentlefolk of Europe. It is interesting to compare the 'Cortegiano'
with Della Casa's 'Galateo,' published in 1558. The 'Galateo'
professes to be a guide for gentlemen in social intercourse, and the
minute rules laid down would satisfy the most exacting purist of the
present century. In manners and their ethical analysis we have
certainly gained nothing during the last three centuries. The
princi