Castiglione's Library
Castiglione died in Toledo on 8th February 1529. A few months later, on 25th June, the notary Giovan Bartolomeo Sanpaolo, Following the instructions of Baldassarre’s mother, Aloisia Gonzaga, compiled a list of the things that he had left in his house in Mantua, the elegant palace in Contrada Montenegro, and in his two family residences in Casatico and Pelaloco. This inventory included a folder specifically reserved for the description and cataloguing of Castiglione’s books, that, at the end of 1524, shortly before leaving for Spain, he kept in his home. It is a list of 144 books, to which must be added the 40 volumes Baldassarre had with him in Toledo, at the time of his death, and that were described by the same notary on 4th February 1530, the day after their return to Italy.
These two lists are the mirror of Castiglione’s private library. A considerable part of it was made up by the works of classical authors, (with Cicero standing out most of all), alongside the works of the humanist authors of the XVth Century: Giovanni Pontano, Flavio Biondo, Ermolao Barbaro, Angelo Poliziano, Lorenzo Valla and others. The presence of works in Greek (from Xenofont to the New Testament) confirms Baldassarre’s competence in this field, as a result of his youthful studies at the school of Demetrio Calcondila. Of notable interest is the presence, among Castiglione’s books, of some works by Erasmus of Rotterdam: the Institutio principis christiani, the Spongia adversus aspergines Hutteni, the Paraphrasis in quatuor evangelia et acta apostolorum, the Paraphrasis in evangelium Lucae and his translation of the New Testament.
Castiglione’s culture, as reflected in these two lists, was anchored to classical authors, but with marked openings towards modern thinking. It is not by chance that, while still in Spain during the period of his nunciate, Baldassarre tried to keep up to date with the Italian literary scene, as is demonstrated by the letter dated 14th March1525, in which, from Madrid, he asked for the works of Firenzuola (Discacciamento), Trissino (Castellano), Bembo (Prose della volgar lingua), Leone Ebreo (Dialoghi d’amore) to be sent to him.
