A guide to what one should do and avoid in ordinary social life, this 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 as a general term for social etiquette.
It is fine for gentlemen and ladies to make jokes, della Casa writes, for everyone likes people who are funny, and a genuine witticism produces “joy, laughter, and a kind of astonishment.” But mockery has its risks.
“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".
[9] 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.
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.”[11] 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.”[12] 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.
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.
Valentina D'Urso, Professor of Psychology and author of Le Buone Maniere, writes, "The founding father of this literary genre, [Galateo] is an extraordinary read, lively and passionate.
However, Giuseppe Baretti and poets such as Giacomo Leopardi ranked Della Casa alongside Machiavelli as a master of Italian prose style.
Della Casa tells his reader that outward appearance is very important, so clothes must be tailored and conform to prevailing custom, reflecting one’s social status.
Della Casa brings us to behavior at the table, such as not scratching, not eating like a pig, not using a toothpick or sharing food.