The paper for which the following abstract was written was presented at the 2010 International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Baldesar Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano concerns itself primarily with identifying and explicating the qualities necessary in an advisor to rulers. Much of the text discusses academic study and forms of etiquette as well as the necessity of sprezzatura, and rightly so. However, what is often overlooked in the text is the importance of military proficiency to a ruler’s advisor; many, if not most, of a ruler’s duties touch on or directly employ martial activities, and advisors cannot advise on subjects in which they have no knowledge. Castiglione recognizes this in his work, portraying it as one of the most important sets of knowledge an advisor can have.