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Article published In:
Politeness in and across Historical Europe
Edited by Annick Paternoster, Gudrun Held and Dániel Z. Kádár
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24:1] 2023
► pp. 105–123

A European model of polite conversation?

Della Casa, Gioia and Knigge

| University of Catania

This paper reconstructs the model of polite conversation that is outlined in two Italian conduct books, Della Casa’s Galateo (1774 [1558]) and Gioia’s Il Nuovo Galateo (1802–1827), a model which will then be compared with one detailed in the German text Über den Umgang mit Menschen by Adolph Knigge (1788). The main aim of this study is to highlight the similarities and differences in texts from different historical time periods and geographical areas, in order to identify a European model of polite conversation, whose roots lie in classical, humanist and Renaissance traditions, and which has some features that are still relevant today. There are some clear similarities between this European model and first-generation theories of politeness, despite the different intent that should distinguish “normative texts” and “descriptive models”. This raises an interesting theoretical question: when studying a social and ethical issue such as politeness, to what extent is it possible to advocate a clear separation between description and prescription?

Keywords: conduct books, conversation, Della Casa, Gioia, Knigge, politeness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Management of conversation
    • 2.1Della Casa’s Galateo and its historical sources
    • 2.2Gioia’s Il Nuovo Galateo and Knigge’s Über den Umgang mit Menschen
    • 2.3Comparison with politeness theories
  • 3.Non-verbal communication
    • 3.1Prosody, kinesics and proxemics in Della Casa’s Galateo
    • 3.2Non-verbal communication in Gioia’s Il Nuovo Galateo and Knigge’s Über den Umgang mit Menschen
    • 3.3Emotive and non-verbal communication in politeness theories
  • 4.Listeners’ behaviour
    • 4.1Della Casa’s Galateo
    • 4.2Gioia’s Il Nuovo Galateo and Knigge’s Über den Umgang mit Menschen
    • 4.3Historical sources
    • 4.4Comparison with first-generation theoretical models
  • 5.Conclusion: Main results and open questions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00066.alf
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