Comte Baldassare Castiglione

Castiglione, Comte Baldassare (1478–1529), Italian courtier, diplomat, and author. His Il Cortegiano (The Courier) (1528), a portrait of the ideal courtier and his relationship with the prince he serves, greatly influenced Renaissance mores and inspired writers like Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, and Miguel Cervantes.

See also: Renaissance.