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''Galateo: The Rules of Polite Behavior'' (''Il Galateo, overo de' costumi'') by Florentine Giovanni Della Casa (1503–56) was published in Venice in 1558. A lively guide to what one should do and avoid in ordinary social life, this influential courtesy book of the Renaissance explores subjects such as dress, table manners, and conversation. It became so popular that the title, which refers to the name of one of the author’s distinguished friends, entered into the Italian language. To “not know the Galateo” means to be impolite, crude, and awkward in polite society.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/galateo/ )〕 Della Casa directs his attention to an indefinite world of gentleman citizens who wish to convey a winning and attractive image. With a casual style and dry humor, he writes about everyday concerns, from posture to telling jokes to table manners. “Our manners are attractive when we regard others’ pleasure and not our own delight,” Della Casa writes. Unlike Baldassare Castiglione’s ''The Book of the Courtier'', the rules of polite behavior in ''Galateo'' are not directed to ideal men in a Renaissance court. Instead, Della Casa observes the ordinary habits of people who do not realize that clipping one’s nails in public is bad. “One should not annoy others with such stuff as dreams, especially since most dreams are by and large idiotic,” we are advised. Della Casa never lived to see his manuscript’s immediate, international and lasting success. It was translated into French (1562), English (1576), Latin (1580), Spanish (1585), and German (1587), and has been read and studied in every generation. Della Casa's work set the foundation for modern etiquette writers and authorities on manners, such as “Miss Manners” Judith Martin, Amy Vanderbilt, and Emily Post. Valentina D’Urso, Professor of Psychology and author of ''Le Buone Maniere'', writes, “The founding father of this literarary genre, () is an extraordinary read, lively and passionate. One doesn’t know whether to admire more its rich style or the wisdom of the practical words of advice.” ==Context== In the twentieth century, scholars usually situated ''Galateo'' among the courtesy books and conduct manuals that were very popular during the Renaissance. In addition to Castiglione’s celebrated ''Courtier'', other important Italian treatises and dialogues include Alessandro Piccolomini’s ''Moral institutione'' (1560), Luigi Cornaro’s ''Treatise on the Sober Life'' (1558-1565), and Stefano Guazzo’s ''Art of Civil Conversation'' (1579). In recent years, attention has turned to the humor and dramatic flair of Della Casa’s book. It has been argued that the style sheds light on Shakespeare’s comedies. When it first appeared in English translation by Robert Peterson in 1575, it would have been available in book stalls in Shakespeare's London. Stephen Greenblatt, author of ''Will in the World'', writes, "To understand the culture out of which Shakespeare is writing, it helps to read Renaissance courtesy manuals like Baldassare Castiglione’s famous Book of the Courtier (1528) or, still better, Giovanni della Casa’s ''Galateo or, The Rules of Polite Behavior'' (1558, available in a delightful new translation by M.F. Rusnak). It is fine for gentlemen and ladies to make jokes, della Casa writes, for we all like people who are funny, and a genuine witticism produces “joy, laughter, and a kind of astonishment.” But mockery has its risks. It is perilously easy to cross a social and moral line of no return." 〔New York Review of Books, September 26, 2013〕 Distinguished historians argue that ''Galateo'' should be read in the context of international European politics, and some contend that the work expresses an attempt to distinguish Italian excellence. “During the half-century when Italy fell prey to foreign invasion (1494-1559) and was overrun by French, Spanish and German armies, the Italian ruling classes were battered by - as they often envisaged them - "barbarians". In their humiliation and laboured responses, Italian writers took to reflecting on ideals, such as the ideal literary language, the ideal cardinal, ideal building types, and the ideal general or field commander. But in delineating the rules of conduct, dress and conversation for the perfect gentleman, they were saying, in effect, "We are the ones who know how to cut the best figure in Europe".〔Lauro Martines, Times Literary Supplement, August 16, 2013〕 A skilled writer in Latin, Della Casa followed Erasmus in presenting a harmonious and simple morality based on Aristotle’s ''Nicomachean Ethics'' and notion of the mean, as well as other classical sources. His treatise also reveals an obsession with graceful conduct and self-fashioning during the time of Michelangelo and Titian: “A man must not be content with doing good things, but he must also study to do them gracefully. Grace is nothing other than that luster which shines from the appropriateness of things that are suitably ordered and well arranged one with the other and together.” The work has been edited in this light by such distinguished Italian scholars as Stefano Prandi, Emanuela Scarpa, and Giorgio Manganelli. The work may be read in the context of what Norbert Elias called the “civilizing process.” It is generally agreed that, given the popularity and impact of ''Galateo'', the cultural elite of the Italian Renaissance taught Europe how to behave. Giulio Ferroni argues that Della Casa “proposes a closed and oppressive conformity, made of caution and hypocrisy, hostile to every manifestation of liberty and originality.” Others contend, on the contrary, that the work represents ambivalence, self-control, and a modern understanding of the individual in a society based on civility, intercultural competence and social networking. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Il Galateo」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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