How to Do It: Guides to Good Living for Renaissance Italians - Rilegato

Bell, Rudolph M.; Bell, Rudolphm

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0226042103 ISBN 13: 9780226042107

Casa editrice: Univ of Chicago Pr, 1999

Riassunto

How to Do It shows us sixteenth-century Italy from an entirely new perspective: through manuals which were staples in the households of middlebrow Italians merely trying to lead better lives. Addressing challenges such as how to conceive a boy, the manuals offered suggestions such as tying a tourniquet around your husband's left testicle. Or should you want to goad female desires, throw 90 grubs in a liter of olive oil, let steep in the sun for a week and apply liberally on the male anatomy. Bell's journey through booklets long dismissed by scholars as being of little literary value gives us a refreshing and surprisingly fun social history.

"Lively and curious reading, particularly in its cascade of anecdote, offered in a breezy, cozy, journalistic style." --Lauro Martines, Times Literary Supplement

"[Bell's] fascinating book is a window on a lost world far nearer to our own than we might imagine. . . . [H]ow pleasant to read his delightful, informative and often hilarious book." --Kate Saunders, The Independent

"An extraordinary work which blends the learned with the frankly bizarre." --The Economist

"Professor Bell has a sly sense of humor and an enviably strong stomach. . . . He wants to know how people actually behaved, not how the Church or philosophers or earnest humanists thought they should behave. I loved this book." --Christopher Stace, Daily Telegraph

"[This] book is a first-class social history and is welldocumented both in its historical and scientific portions. [Bell] lets the data speak for itself and emphasizes the difference between the medieval anorexic saint and the modern anorexic."—Vern L. Bullough, ;IAmerican Historical Review;X

“Bell’s book Holy Anorexia concentrates on Italian saints, and is especially rewarding for connoisseurs of the spiritually lurid.”—Hilary Mantel, London Review of Books

Su questo libro

Product Description

Hope to conceive a boy? Tie a tourniquet around your husband's left testicle. Pregnant and fear a weak or malformed baby? Frequent hearty laughter should reduce the risk. And if you're a teenager of good repute, avoid dancing at all costs and stay away from wine, cosmetics, and flashy dress. What may seem quirky to today's readers certainly wasn't to its original audience - Renaissance Italians. They read advice manuals prodigiously, seeking guidance from the latest books by best-selling alchemists and snake-oil peddlers like Mrs. Isabella Cortese and Dr. Leonardo Fioravanti with an avidity not bestowed even on a Dante or a Machiavelli. This work shows 16th-century Italy from an alternative perspective: through manuals which were staples in the households of middlebrow Italians just trying to lead a better life. Rudolph M. Bell uncovers a culture much like our own in which people sought advice for everything from reining in a wayward spouse to running an efficient household. Italians who faced such timeless challenges turned to these books, which were written specifically for families of moderate means, complete with indexes, tables of contents, and marginal summaries making them easy to consult as problems arose.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Univ of Chicago Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1999
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0226042103
• ISBN 13: 9780226042107
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 375
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: Wiley-VCH GmbH; product_safety@wiley.com; ; Boschstrasse 12; Weinheim; 69469; Germania