Can I read The Prince's Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renaissance Medicine (I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History) on EtoBox?

The Prince's Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renaissance Medicine (I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History) by Valeria Finucci is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Prince's Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renaissance Medicine (I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History) about?

Defining the proper female body, seeking elective surgery for beauty, enjoying lavish spa treatments, and combating impotence might seem like today's celebrity infatuations. However, these preoccupations were very much alive in the early modern period. Valeria Finucci recounts the story of a well-known patron of arts and music in Renaissance Italy, Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua (1562-1612), to examine the culture, fears, and captivations of his times. Using four notorious moments in Vincenzo's life, Finucci explores changing concepts of sexuality, reproduction, beauty, and aging. The first was Vincenzo's inability to consummate his earliest marriage and subsequent medical inquiry, which elucidates new concepts of female anatomy. Second, Vincenzo's interactions with Bolognese doctor Gaspare Tagliacozzi, the "father of plastic surgery," illuminate contemporary fascinations with elective procedures. Vincenzo's use of thermal spas explores the proliferation of holistic, noninvasive therapies to manage pain, detoxify, and rehabilitate what the medicine of the time could not address. And finally, Vincenzo's search for a cure for impotence later in life analyzes masculinity and aging. B

Author

Valeria Finucci

Publisher

Harvard University, Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies

Published

2015

Language

EN

ISBN

9780674735668

Subjects

Memoir, History, Biography