egions infernal.” (Oration on the Dignity of Man) This supports the idea that Dante could have inspired the idea of improving the self in order to avoid the downward pull. This proposal coincides with Pico’s belief that we have the potential or choice to become either bad or good. Pico’s text relays the Supreme Maker as saying “It will be in your power to descend to the lower, brutish forms of life; you will be able, through your own decision, to rise again to the superior orders whose life is divine.” (Oration On the Dignity of Man)Dante’s great poem illustrates hell as an organized system based upon sin. One sin addressed in The Inferno is that of excessive pride. Dante inspires modesty among his readers as they wish to avoid due punishments in their afterlife. Likewise, Castiglione motivates readers to evade being “…a stupid flatterer or boaster,” (The Courtier, 126) as bragging yields the consequence of an unachieved ideal self. In regards to affectation, which is also related to pride or the appearance of pride, Castiglione says:I have discovered a universal rule which seems to apply more than any other in all human actions or words: namely, to steer away from affectation at all costs, as if it were a rough and dangerous reef, and (to use a novel word for it) to practise in all things a certain nonchalance which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived and effortless. (The Courtier, 67)This supports the idea that Dante’s work could have been a source or inspiration for these authors for it is possible that they adapted old ideals to complement the humanism point of view. The Book of the Courtier, by Baldesar Castiglione, confirms the major preoccupation of the Renaissance culture with fashioning an ideal self. Castiglione communicates the characteristics one should have in order to achieve the ultimate self. Pico Della Mirandell...
