In his book, On the Art of Exercise, the Italian physician Girolamo Mercuriale writes in a way that makes you think that, just like Botticelli and Michelangelo had ‘rediscovered’ the art of ancient Greece in Renaissance Italy, he too had rediscovered a lost art, the art of exercise. But, was that true? Did people stop exercising with the fall of …
Imagine you are the ruler of an Italian city in the Renaissance; your husband has been murdered and your children were taken hostage by your political enemies, who hope to take control of your fortress. Yet the people inside are still loyal to you and are not surrendering. So, leaving your children with your enemies, you go inside the castle, …
Can being possessed by the devil ever be a good thing…? Well, for a 17th-century Italian nun who claimed to have seen Jesus Christ, plus literally marrying him, it kind of was. Plus it helped with all the accusations of her having sex… with another nun. Let me tell you a story. The story of Sister Benedetta Carlini, sometimes described …
Leonardo Fioravanti was called a Charlatan, a Poisoner, a Reformer, a Knight, a Prophet, a Miracle-Worker, a Saviour, an Alchemist, and a Fraud.
One of the silliest historical myths out there is that people in the past were somehow ‘dirty’ and had poor hygiene, especially compared to today’s standards. Of course, I’m generalising; each culture had different practices depending on time and place. But think of people living in the Italian Renaissance: how did they cleanse their bodies? Bodily hygiene was intimately connected …
In the early modern period, an impotent man might be prescribed boiled orchid roots. But why? Well, they resembled testicles and were consequentially believed to be useful in improving male potency. If you think this sounds weird, stay with me. Efficacy aside, prescribing this remedy makes sense… if you accept the premise of the doctrine of signatures, one of the …
