Canon-making and the Italian tradition of moral enquiry

"This paper will focus on the tradition which, departing to some degree from the Renaissance treatises on manners, embodied, on the threshold of the modern age, a new ideal of citizenship. I am especially interested in examining the influence of the Galateo by Giovanni della Casa, the seminal text of a minor tradition of “moral enquiry” which I plan to re-read and situate in a different context . I will seek to show that this text is a breakthrough within the tradition which originated from early-modern treatises on courtesy. With the Galateo the age-old tradition of Courtesy Books is at a crossroad.