21
The Pope’s General
One of his illegitimate sons was Cesare, born in 1475. Soon after Alexan-
der attained the papacy he appointed his son a cardinal. Cesare displayed
little interest in church politics or succeeding his father as pope. More-
How to Do the Reverence
To learn the dances of the era, many ladies and gentleman of
the Italian Renaissance turned to Fabritio Caroso, the most
esteemed dance master of Rome. In 1600 Caroso authored a
guide for student dancers, explaining the Reverence—a show
of respect a gentleman was expected to display to a lady before
beginning the dance. Not quite a bow, the Reverence instead
required the gentleman to first remove his hat, kiss the lady’s
hand, then slightly bend his legs:
You must, at the beginning of the music, slightly raise
the toe of your left foot (which is forward), and then
move it straight back in the time of two beats of music;
then note, in moving your left foot back, its toes are
even with your right heel; now keep [your foot] flat on
the ground, and do not raise your heel at all. Do not
do this on your toes, nor draw [your left foot] back too
far, nor separate it, as some do habitually and who, by
spreading their knees too far apart, appear to be pre-
paring to urinate; nor must you cross the aforesaid foot
behind your right, because all of this behavior looks ex-
tremely ugly to those around you.
Quoted in Julia Sutton, trans.,
Courtly Dance of the Renaissance: A New Translation and Edition
of the Nobiltà di Dame (1600) by Fabritio Caroso
. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1995, p. 98.
In Their Own Words
