THE CENSORSHIP OF “IL LIBRO DEL CORTEGIANO” IN SPAIN: EXPURGATORY INTERVENTIONS IN SOME SAMPLES OF "EL CORTESANO" PUBLISHED BETWEEN 1534 AND 1581

Abstract

The court debate reached its peak in the early 16th century. The book by Baldassarre Castiglione, published in 1528, was certainly very topical, both in the European and Italian contexts. The text was the result of a process of writing and rewriting that lasted many years. Five manuscripts have survived that reveal significant changes, the result of a sort of self-censorship that shows that the author was forced to adapt the text to the spiritual climate of his time. In Spain the book was initially published in the original language; the Castilian version of 1534, translated by Juan Boscán, was the first in another language. The history of the censorship of Il Libro del Cortegiano in Italy began in 1576 when Camillo Castiglione, son of Baldassarre, asked the censors for a license to publish an amended version of his father's work. After many years, in 1584, a revised and corrected version will be realized by the theologian Antonio Ciccarelli. In this work, we will present the first results of a study on the expurgatory interventions applied to the editions that circulated in Spain between 1534 and 1581.