Courts being now the only centers in which it was possible for a man of birth and talents to shine, it followed that the perfect courtier and the perfect gentleman were synonymous terms.
Castiglione's treatise may therefore be called an essay on the character of the true gentleman as he appeared in Italy.

Eliminating all qualities that are special to any art or calling, he defines those essential characteristics which were requisite for social excellence in the sixteenth century.

It is curious to observe how unchangeable are the laws of real politeness and refinement.

Castiglione's courtier is, with one or two points of immaterial difference, a modern gentleman, such as all men of education at the present day would wish to be.
The first requisite in the ideal courtier is that he must be noble.

The Count of Canossa, who proposed the subject of debate, lays down this as an axiom.