An old Italian book about how to be the perfect court gentleman isn't exactly easy reading, but it has its charms. This is written as a symposium or dialogue between friends that last across a series of evenings, debating what makes a man or woman perfect. Interesting especially for its portrayal of the war between the sexes (the exchanges between the bitter misogynists of the group and the women are amusing, and the misogynists by no means get the best of the women) and the image of a courtly culture that is quite different from our own, and yet familiar in many ways.