Contents

Castiglione’s letters, above all, help us understand more fully the personality of their author, testifying to his emotional sensibility and his political and diplomatic acumen. The numerous pages of Baldassarre’s family correspondence reveal the frankness and outspokenness of his dealings with questions that concerned his most intimate relations, that were often far away: his mother, his wife, for whom he displayed true, genuine and lasting love, capable of surviving the toughest trials. His mother Aloisia and the master of the house Cristoforo Tirabosco, were his privileged interlocutors, whom he asked to execute all those practical household duties, of administrative, logistical and financial nature, that in his absence still have to be dealt with.

In his dispatches from the embassy, on the other hand, his civil passion emerges, as well as his elevated and fervid conscience regarding the responsibilities connected to his role as courtier; here Castiglione demonstrates that he is an acute and precise interpreter of the political, military, cultural and social forces that dominated the Italian and European stage of his time. He demonstrated intuition, mastery and clarity in explaining, every step of the way, his personal opinions on the historical events that he witnessed, particularly the day after the election to the imperial throne of Charles V. Both at the time he was at the embassy, on behalf of the Gonzagas, at the Pope’s court, and as apostolic nuncio in Spain, Castiglione theorized and upheld, without being fully understood by his interlocutors, the necessity for an “Italian” strategy, to defend the freedom of action and independence of the various states in the peninsula, putting an end to separatist ideas.

What stands out in particular is the freedom of speech that Castiglione felt he had a right to, even when evaluating the conduct of the popes, without his religious convictions and attachment to the Church of Rome ever being damaged. This is documented by the many letters written regarding the theological and political polemic with the Personal Secretary of the Emperor, Alfonso de Valdés, after the Sack of Rome.