NOTES TO THE DEDICATORY LETTER
Note 18, page 5. The reference here is to Plato's "Republic," Xenophon's Cyropœdia, and Cicero's De Oratore.
Note 19, page 6. In the letter quoted in note 13, Vittoria Colonna wrote: "I do not marvel at your portraying a perfect courtier well, for by merely holding a mirrour before you and considering your inward and outward parts, you could describe him as you have; but our greatest difficulty being to know ourselves, I say that it was more difficult for you to portray yourself than another man."
Note 20, page 6. More than 140 editions of The Courtier have been published. Most of these are mentioned in the list printed before the Index of this volume. A few of the editions there set down differ from one another only in title-page; a few others, perhaps, exist only in some bibliographer's erroneous mention. Deductions to be made for such reasons, however, are probably offset by other editions that the present translator has failed to bring to light.
In the bibliographical notes appended by the brothers Volpi to their (1733) edition, The Courtier is said to have been translated into Flemish; while in his preface to the Sonzogno (1890) edition, Corio speaks of the introduction of the book into Japan in the 17th century, and also of a Russian translation by Archiuzow.
