Entertainment / Literature / Sprezzatura: An Italian term that doesn't translate well into English, the word embodies both the appearance of reckless spontaneity and its opposite quality, careful and practiced preparation. Sprezzatura is carefully practicing witticisms, cultured eloquence, and feats of athletic prowess in private, and then later, when other viewers are present, pretending to make the witticism, the eloquent speech, or the athletic feat 'off-the-cuff,' i.e., spontaneously and effortlessly. It would appear to viewers that the courtier's superior performance was one triggered by superior creativity, wit, and athleticism, and the performance would elide the hours of preparation that the courtier took in developing the skill. The Italian writer Baldessare Castiglione argues in his treatise, The Book of the Courtier (1528), that sprezzatura is one of the defining requirements for a young nobleman. Sir Thomas Hoby translated Castiglione's treatise into English in 1561, where the treatise had a profound influence on courtly manners in the Renaissance. (Italian, 'recklessness')
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