How to Do It

Guides to Good Living for Renaissance Italians

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by Rudolph M. Bell

University of Chicago Press

Due/Published October 2000, 376 pages, paper

ISBN 0226042006

New in paper (F00)

Interested in advice manuals from Renaissance Italy? Maybe the advice you've been getting lately hasn't been so great? Well, now's your chance. 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, too. These things may seem odd to today's readers, but wasn't to its original audience--Renaissance Italians. They read advice manuals on these subjects and more, seeking guidance from the latest books by best-selling alchemists and snake-oil peddlers like Mrs. Isabella Cortese and Dr. Leonardo Fioravanti. Bell uncovered these jewels after decades of archival research, and How to Do It shows us sixteenth-century Italy from a new perspective: through manuals which were staples of the households of middlebrow Italians just trying to lead a better life.