Giovanni Della Casa

Galateo - of manners and behaviours in familiar conversation is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1892. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

The volume is the facsimile reprint of a famous book about conduct written in the 16 th century by the Italian archbishop and scholar Giovanni Della Casa. Published for the first time in 1558, Galateo promotes civilized manners and warns against many bad attitudes. 1st edition: November 2013 1st reprint: October 2017

Galateo is a treatise on polite behavior written by Giovanni Della Casa (1503-56) for the benefit of his nephew, a young Florentine destined for greatness. In the voice of a cranky yet genial old uncle, Della Casa offers the distillation of what he has learned over a lifetime of public service as diplomat and papal nuncio. As relevant today as it was in Renaissance Italy, Galateo deals with subjects as varied as dress codes, charming conversation and off-color jokes, eating habits and hairstyles, and literary language. In its time, Galateo circulated as widely as Machiavelli's Prince and Castiglione's Book of the Courtier. Mirroring what Machiavelli did for promoting political behavior, and what Castiglione did for behavior at court, Della Casa here creates a picture of the refined man caught in a world in which embarrassment and vulgarity prevail. Less a treatise promoting courtly values or a manual of savoir faire, it is rather a meditation on conformity and the law, on perfection and rules, but also an exasperated - often theatrical-reaction to the diverse ways in which people make fools of themselves in everyday social situations.