To speak of curiosity in relation to the Renaissance seems at first an anachronism. When art is everywhere—in the minds and customs, at church, in the palace, at home, in the street, in the very atmosphere—the taste for beautiful things is an instinct, an unspoken understanding; it has no name. For a word to emerge, it must serve to designate something specific, well-characterized, a particular state or object.
The word "virtue" only entered the language on the day vice appeared on the horizon; similarly, "curiosity" was only given a name on the day it needed to be distinguished from a lack of taste or from bad taste. Until then, with everyone being more or less a connoisseur, the connoisseur had no specific designation; curiosity was anonymous.
It is true that Henry Estienne, in his French-Latin dictionary of 1538, mentions "ung homme curieux d'avoir ou sçavoir choses antiques" (a man curious to have or know of antique things), which he translates as antiquarius. But this very periphrasis proves that the word had not yet been fully formed. Besides, this refers to a specialty: the search for antiquities, medals, inscriptions, and engraved stones—a new and well-defined taste, resulting from the excavations undertaken in Italy since the 15th century and touching more on archaeology than on pure curiosity.
The word "curiosity," as we understand it, dates from the 17th century. In the Renaissance, it was not yet born; its time had not yet come. Seeking out works of art in all their forms was still a normal need found everywhere, the natural attribute of fortune and good education. Thus, when the old Sabba da Castiglione addresses his Ricordi to his nephew—a collection of lessons on the conduct of a true gentleman—and comes to speak of the interior decoration of a house as it was understood in his time, he describes, without realizing it, like M. Jourdain speaking prose, the house of what we would today call a connoisseur.
The Life of a Renaissance Gentleman
Monsignor Sabba da Castiglione, born around 1485, was a Milanese gentleman, a relative of Count Balthazar Castiglione, the celebrated author of The Courtier. After studying in Milan and Pavia, he began to travel; in 1505, while in Rhodes, he was received as a Knight of Saint John of Jerusalem. From Rhodes, where he stayed for three years, Sabba went to Rome, entrusted with the affairs of his order, which he administered until 1516.
Two years later, forced to retire following an injury that deprived him of the use of his right hand, he obtained the commandery of the Magione of Faenza.1 The old monastery, already much damaged by time, had suffered cruelly during the siege of Faenza by the Valentinois. The new commander set about restoring the buildings; on the facade of the cloister, one can read: Vetustate. Collapsam. Restituit. F. Subbas, Cast. Med. M. Hier. (Miles Hierosolimitanus). - Sedente. Clemente VII, Pon. Max. Optq. Anno Domini MDXXV.
