From manuscript to print

As Castiglione had been working for some time on The Cortegiano, and word had got around the Italian courts, the work was looked forward to and requested long before an edition had become finally available. From the 11^th March 1525 Castiglione resided stably in Madrid as the apostolic nuncio, and, in the imminence of the Sack of Rome, the feeling of impending disaster and the distance from his homeland lead the author to stop delaying and resolve the problem of publication. From the correspondence of those years we can glean indications of the doubts and worries of the author. Both the trepidation in the moment of separation from his work and the firm desire to avail himself of a prestigious publisher, provoked his obstinate reluctance. On the basis of what was said in the letter sent by Baldassarre from Valladolid to the family farmer Cristoforo Tirabosco (dated 9^th April 1527), and the following note written by Giovan Battista Malatesta, for the glorious publishing house founded by Aldo Manuzio the publishing of The Cortegiano was not the outcome of an easy and immediate decision, and it came about only after the author had humiliated himself by asking his friends for letters of recommendation and guaranteed his own financial contribution.

The manuscript sent from Spain, before being printed, was revised by Giovan Francesco Valier. He had the job of making the writing of the author, at the expense of his inclination for a courtly and Lombard manner of speaking, conform to the phonetic and morphological rules indicated by Pietro Bembo, in the Prose della volgar lingua, on the basis of the language of the Tuscan authors of the 14^th Century. Castiglione, from Spain, did not display any disappointment and, tacitly, consented. He left the execution of this part of his will, legitimizing without seeing it them corrections that brought his book in line with the customs in use at the time and the needs of the book market (without compromising the content of his pronouncements regarding the question of language: regarding problems of style and not grammar).