In these respects he should aim at combining individuality with simplicity, so as to produce an impression of novelty without extravagance or eccentricity.

He must be very cautious in his friendships, selecting his associates with care, and admitting only one or two to intimacy.
[1] From many passages in the 'Cortegiano' it is clear that Castiglione is painting the character of an independent gentleman, to whom self-culture in all humane excellence is of far more importance than the acquisition of the art of pleasing.
Circumstances made the life of courts the best obtainable; but there is no trace of French 'oeil-de-boeuf' servility.
In connection with the general subject of tact and taste, the Cardinal Bibbiena introduces an elaborate discussion of the different sorts of jokes, which proves the high value attached in Italy to all displays of wit.

It appears that even practical jokes were not considered in bad taste, but that irreverence and grossness were tabooed as boorish.

Mere obscenity is especially condemned, though it must be admitted that many jests approved of at that time would now appear intolerable.

But the essential point to be aimed at then, as now, was the promotion of mirth by cleverness, and not by mere tricks and clumsy inventions.
In bringing this chapter on Italian Despotism in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to a conclusion, it will be well to cast a backward glance over the ground which has been traversed.