Nosce te ipsum: know yourself
A specific theme of the fourth book of The Cortegiano is an analysis of the relationship between the courtier and the prince. The complex make up of the perfect gentleman, upon which the first books insist, is not an end in itself: rather, it follows a precise political project, so that the courtier may use his arts to gain the trust and benevolence of the prince, up to the point where he can allow himself, in every circumstance, the frankness of true communication.
This argumentative point is the highest defining point Castiglione’s political reflections. He aims at defining the relationship between the courtier and the prince in dialectic terms, arguing that they are in a certain way equal: the man of court must not only simply instruct and educate the person who holds political power, but he is called to intervene directly in running it, through his advice and personal considerations. Why the prince needs an adviser who always tells him the truth is explained by Castiglione in the following terms: the worst evil that afflicts politicians of all ages is the intrigue of ignorance and presumption, that induce him to arrogance and errors. The prince, as is realistically pointed out, makes mistakes because he knows no better: he is exposed to errors by “ignoranza non solamente delle cose estrinseche, ma di se stesso” (ignorance not only about objective matters, but about himself) (B. Castiglione, Il Cortigiano, edited by A. Quondam, Milan 2002, I, 322).
What stands out in the portrait of the ideal prince, as proposed by Castiglione, is the classical warning of Socratic stamp: nosce te ipsum =(know yourself). In this way, every mistake on the ethical or political front is presented as a deficiency of theory: from ignorance of himself and the world that surrounds him, the prince derives an unhealthy desire for power, which he identifies in the exercise of politics. Reason and justice, therefore, appear to him as constraints, as a reduction of his lordship. The ignorant prince believes he is infallible, and believes that politics is nothing other than the use of force. As a remedy for this degeneration Castiglione proposes the figure of a councillor who, conversing with the prince, warns him and restores to him his image of himself.
