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Courtesy, Manners, and Wit: An Etiquette Sampler, 16th Century to the Present, Fall 2016 @ Archives & Special Collections: Case I: A Sampler of Italian and English Works, 1528-1863

The Special Collections Department at the University of Pittsburgh presents an exhibition of works from the Darlington, Nesbitt, and Picchi collections.

A display case featuring the books, images, and supplementary texts listed on this page.
Case I:
"Sprezzatura, Witte & Jestes, The Spectator, Lord Chesterfield, and Scenes from Punch’s Pocket Books: A Sampler of Italian and English Works of Courtesy, Humor, and Wit, 1528-1863."

An etching of women on horseback racing through the countryside.
A Rather Fast Steeple Chase from Follies of the Year, [1868].

Follies of the Year is a satirical work, and the illustrations are accompanied by narration from a fictional elderly gentleman, with a group of young ladies as his reluctant audience:

"A young lady's education would be about complete if she adopted the curriculum proposed in this collection. She would be able to farm, cook, nurse, dress, flirt, swim, play croquet, ride, and select an eligible husband. Quite a Manual for the Fair Sex, as you used to be called in my time." 

A quote from Baldassare Castiglione in 'Book of the Courier,' reading' "Take care lest perchance you fall into the mistake of thinking to gain more by being merciful than by being just; for to pardon him too easily that has transgressed is to wrong him that transgresses not."

Origins of Etiquette

An oil painting of Della Casa.
Pontormo (1494-1557)
Monsignor Della Casa (1540's)
40.2 × 31.1in
Oil on Panel
​National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Two of the most important works of etiquette are books of courtesy that were written in Italy during the Renaissance. The Italian courtier, diplomat, and author, Baldassare Castiglione, count of Casatico, published his work, Il Cortegiano, or The Book of the Courtier, in Venice in 1528. Castiglione’s book provided advice to a young man on the education, dress, manners, morals, sports, and wit that was required---all performed with a certain graceful nonchalance, or sprezzatura---to become a prospective courtier and gentleman.

Giovanni Della Casa’s book, Il Galateo, overo de' costume, or Galateo, The Rules of Polite Behavior, was first published in Venice in 1558. Della Casa was a Florentine diplomat and writer, and his book was written with humor and wit as a guide to his young nephew on the proper behavior to use and what to avert in polite conversation, dress, and table manners, in order to be considered a gentleman. The Galateo, is the foundational work on etiquette and is considered a classic. Castiglione and Della Casa each wrote and first published their works in vernacular Italian. The books were then translated into English, French, German, Latin, and Spanish, and they have had a profound influence on European life and manners to the present, as the Galateo has been in print since it was first published.