The court was defined by Cesare Ripa as "a company of well-bred men in the service of a distinguished superior".

The ideal number for a court was set by Francesco Priscianese at "107, with a stable of 40 horses; which I take to be a very fitting number, neither too many nor too few". These include the major-domo, comptroller, master of the household, master of the horse, and the auditore, in charge of legal affairs.

These palace employments indicate the main functions of a court of whatever size: internal organization of the palace, administration of revenue, and the application of justice in what were known as "lesser causes" - that is, actions brought between fellow subordinates of the signore or between them and outsiders. In other words, there is a nucleus of magistrates and officials - their numbers varying in accordance with the size of the estate and revenues in question - with whose presence the "company of well-bred men" united in the service of the distinguished lord becomes a court. It is they, supplemented by the staffs of the different offices and chanceries, by servants and bodyguard, who perform the primary and essential duty of any lordship, or government.

The court, in this sense, may be seen as a microcosm of the state, and as carrying out all the chief business of the state. It ranges from the concistorium or consilium at the highest level, advising the ruler in all his undertakings (first and foremost, in the direction of justice, it acts as a supreme tribunal with membership often including his closest relations, sons or brothers, and his chief vassals), to the various chanceries and departments for finance and administration.

Yet there are aspects in which the court differs from the state. It is, for one thing, the ruler's actual, physical home, where he lives with those who serve and guard him. Since it is a centrifugal structure, revolving about the dominus, the ruler's household and its departments must be in his place of residence, and his place of residence distinct from the lands he rules. The palace or castle - palatium, castrum or castellum - is, moreover, not only his residence and seat of administration and justice. It is also the seat of the curia, and the abode of functionaries, law-officers, courtiers, pages, servants and soldiers, each with a direct personal link to him, in the still feudal chain. These people are not employed; they receive no salary. They are "bodies" at the lord's disposal and where he lives they serve him, surrounding him as bees surround the queen in a hive.

In monogamous societies the presence of a legitimate consort led naturally to duplication of the male side of the organization, and the entire court, governmental departments excepted, was divided into twin branches, male and female. Vespasiano da Bisticci, who sold manuscripts in Florence, relates that Federico da Montefeltro "kept his daughters in a separate part of the house, attended by many noblewomen of respectable age and irreproachable conduct; and to these apartments there was no admittance . . . When he visited his daughters, all those accompanying him were left outside the door". At Ferrara, there was even separate accommodation for those of differing age and status, with lodgings reserved for girls, "elderly ladies" and widows. Leon Battista Alberti, in Book V of his treatise De re aedificatoria, says that "the apartments of the prince's wife should be separated from those of her husband, save for the innermost, shared room which contains the matrimonial bed" and that there should be bedrooms provided for "married ladies, young girls and guests".

On the women's side there was the same direct and personal relationship with the mistress, the domina, as that of the men with the dominus. At Mantua in 1587 the Duke had about him 12 secretaries and counsellors, 6 gentlemen to serve his table, 31` pages, 10 valets and 17 bedchamber attendants; while the Duchess had 25 ladies, 7 household officers, 7 grooms and 3 maids.


Excerpted from The Courts of the Italian Renaissance, Sergio Bertelli, Facts on File Publications, 1986.