author
Giovanni Della Casa
1503–1556
Best known for the book that gave Italian its everyday word for etiquette, this Renaissance writer brought together courtly polish, sharp observation, and literary grace. His work on manners outlived its moment and helped shape how civility itself was talked about for centuries.
1 Audiobook
A Renaissance Courtesy-book: Galateo of Manners & Behaviours
by Giovanni Della Casa
About the author
Born in Tuscany in 1503, Giovanni Della Casa became a poet, churchman, and diplomat during the Italian Renaissance. He studied in major cultural centers including Bologna, Florence, Padua, and Rome, and built a reputation for elegant Latin and Italian writing.
He is remembered above all for Galateo, his witty and influential treatise on manners, published after his death in 1558. The book turned practical advice about behavior into something lively and memorable, and its title became so closely linked with courtesy that galateo came to mean etiquette in Italian.
Della Casa also wrote lyric poetry and served in important church roles, including as archbishop of Benevento and papal nuncio in Venice. He died in 1556, but his mix of literary style, moral reflection, and social insight kept his name alive long after the Renaissance courtly world had passed.