Castiglione’s Allegory: Veiled Policy in ‘The Book of the Courtier’ (1528) by W. R. Albury (review)

W. R. Albury acknowledges that it took him ten years to bring his carefully considered, convincingly argued book to press. He tackles The Book of the Courtier, one of the most significant texts of the Renaissance, arguing with and against existing analyses of Castiglione’s work, re-examining it from an allegorical and contextualised perspective rather than a critical literary one. Albury places Castiglione firmly back into his historical context; his close analysis ‘is less concerned with literary criticism for its own sake than with history and political philosophy’ (p. 3). Castiglione and Albury both require unwavering attentiveness from their ‘judicious reader’, one schooled in picking up on acutezza recondite, the hidden subtleties or ‘veiled policies’ of their respective texts.

Albury’s study is divided into seven chapters, including an especially strong Introduction. His Epilogue, ‘The Silence of the Archive’, reiterates his chief concern with an allegorical reading of Castiglione’s book, ‘rather than an empirical study of [its] reception’ (p. 231). That stated, Albury’s Epilogue briefly discusses marginalia, and contemporary commentary, and what we should (or should not) infer from these regarding the reception of the Courtier and its ‘dangerous’ veiled policy as revealed by his contextualised, allegorical rereading of the text.

Albury’s revelation of Castiglione’s dangerous acutezza recondite—justifiable tyrannicide—with its analogy of medicine and statecraft, is convincing, and this reviewer cannot agree with the assertion (made by another reviewer) that he carries his thesis too far. Albury stands on firm ground with his interpretation, citing Cicero’s De officiis, Plutarch’s Moralia (That a Philosopher Ought to Converse Especially with Men in Power and Precepts of Statecraft) in support of his courtier–physician argument. John of Salisbury’s Policraticus is likewise firm that, when faced with a recalcitrant tyrant, tyrannicide is not only a necessity, but it is also every good citizen’s duty.

By adopting an allegorical approach grounded in Castiglione’s historical context to his reading of the Courtier, Albury emphasises Castiglione’s humanistic subtlety, and brings considerable and refreshing insight to the modern reader of this important work.