The Rome of the prelates, frivolous and social

During he first half of 1505 Castiglione lived in Rome in thecompany of the Duke of Roma Urbino, Guidubaldo di Montefeltro. During this stayhe discovered things that, at least in part, mitigated his initial enthusiasm. The archaeological andartistic treasures of the city fascinate him, but he remained deeply perturbed,as he declared in a letter to his mother Aloisia, bythe luxury, opulence, and the amount of money that it is necessary to spend notto appear inferior. He was forced repeatedly forced to ask his family in Mantuato send him money and the clothes that he needs, finding himself in a situation where he has to lead, against hiswill, a frivolous and opulent life. To justify himself he described in detailthe ecclesiastical and political ceremonies, which were dominated by clothes and the most eccentrichairstyles and, in the final analysis, the perpetual exhibition of riches.

Castiglione wrote to his mother that in Romeeverything is bought and everything must be  bought; an insatiable voracity always seems to countersign thefashions, that oblige one continually to change clothes, horse, armour, house,leading to immeasurable expenses: “Le nostre spese sono come se usanone le corte, in modo che pur è forza che sempre qualche cosa se spendi” (Our expensesare those common in the court, so we are obliged always to spend money on) (B.Castiglione, Lelettere, edited byG. La Rocca, I, Milan 1978, 47). Light and shadows, splendours and miseries,virtues and vices mix and intertwine in an ambiguous and paradoxical reality, sothe same city is, at one and the same time, thecapital of culture and study (“fonte de li homini docti”, ed. cit., p. 62) and the theatreof a dangerous degeneration of eccl;esiatical customs. The young Castiglione, inthe end, cannot but confess a feeling of estrangement and unease over the usesand customs and behaviours that are so different to the sobriety to which he was educted: “Adir el vero queste cose di Roma non apartengono niente dal canto nostro: ches’io volesse avisare de prelati, vescovi, cardinali ciò che fanno, ciò chedicono, credo che la M. V., non conoscendo le persone, se ne pigliaria pocoapiacere. Vero è che qui concorreno tutte le nove del mundo, di Franza eSpagna, ma io considero che non apertengono a nui” (To tell the truth, these things of Rome have nothing to do with us: if I informed you about what the prelates, the bishops, the cardinals do, what they say, you, my dearest mother, would not be pleased) (ed. cit., p. 51).