Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Abbreviations Used in the Notes 1 Introduction 2 Nobility in Genoa 1 Maritime Enterprise and Metropolitan Government 2 Nobility and Commerce: Practice and Theory 3 Finance and Feudal Lordship 4 Picturing Genoese Nobility3 Expounding Elena Grimaldi 1 A Regal Nobility 2 Palace and Villa: Civility and Nature 3 The Reciprocal Gaze: Theatre and Scene 4 The Palatial Scrutiny 5 The Look of the Villa 6 Liberty and Loftiness 7 The Nature of Nobility4 The Prospect of Anton Giulio Brignole Sale 1 The House of Brignole: Its Rise and Its Future 2 Towards a Palazzo Brignole Sale? 3 The Feudal Landscape 4 Spanish Dominance: between Culture and Politics 5 Formality and Informality 6 Nobility, Lineage and savoir vivre 7 Picturing Lineage: Past, Present, Future 8 The Noble Man of Letters 9 A Newer Kind of Nobility5 New Identities: the Patrician between Courtier and Prince 1 Nobility and the Courtier 2 Castiglione 'Genovese'? 3 The Evolution of sprezzatura 4 Mutations of sprezzatura 5 Courtiers, Princely Rulers and the Republic of Genoa 6 Courtiers and Nobles 7 Sprezzatura for Academicians 8 The sprezzatura of the Cavalier 9 Chivalry, Culture and Politics 10 The Idea of a Princely Oligarch6 Afterword: Noble Potraiture as 'History' Bibliography Index.