In the pages of The Cortegiano, alongside the repeated reiteration of the variety of fashions and customs, on both a European and Italian scale, a dream or auspice gradually takes shape, that, for Castiglione, constituted an essential part of his project: the hope that a common paideia (educational system) may soon affirm itself across Europe, founded on humanist studies, the knowledge of Greek and Latin, and the cult of poetry as a civilising force. To Castiglione this seemed to be the only way to stem the rising tide of hatred and the conflicts motives that took place on the European diplomatic and political scene in the first half of the 16th Century inspired by religious, with the resulting breakdown of Christianity determined by protestant reforms, and by military reasons with the wars fought by the great powers for the control of Italy.
In The Cortegiano, Castiglione, having matured the idea that the life of diplomacy is always preferable to that of war, never tired of advocating peace. In this perspective, in the first book, he praised Frances I King of France, for his capacity for promoting, in his court and in his nation, the arts and letters, as in the Italian model; in this manner the bellicose customs of French gentleman, traditionally faithful to the values of pride and glory, were softened and tempered by the magnanimity of grace. Similarly, in the fourth book, he mentioned the three magnificent sovereigns of Europe, Frances I of France, Henry VIII of England and Charles V of Spain and Germany. He augers that they may give birth to a new era, no longer under the ensign of conflict but of peace, defending the values common to humanism and Christianity, against the threat constituted by the “tante migliaia di uomini” (many thousands of men) of the “falsa setta di Maumet” (false sect of Mahomed) (B. Castiglione, Il Cortigiano edited by A. Quondam, Milan 2002, I, 355). In a Europe bloodied by decades of war, the resolving political option proposed by Castiglione is an appeal to substitute antagonism with understanding and friendship, so that, in the name of shared cultural and institutional principles, arms may be turned on the real enemies, coming from the Islamic world, whose eventual success would mark the downfall of western culture.
Hope for the future
