Recreation in the Renaissance: Attitudes Towards Leisure and Pastimes in European Culture, c.1425-1675 [Paperback]

In Renaissance Europe, when 'leisure classes' used social gathering to define civility and the commercialization of leisure was beginning, the human need for recreation became a cultural topos. The book explores the vocabulary of play and games; the spectrum of leisure activities, often gender-specific or appropriate to particular social groups; the medical discourse on the preservation of health, where amusements were assessed as physical exercise; the moral approach to play; legal treatises on gambling; and the visual representation of leisure.List of Figures Preface PART 1: INTRODUCTION Games and Leisure between history and social theory PART 2: THE NEED FOR RECREATION Paradise Lost A saint, an archer and his bow (story of an exemplum ) A right to be idle? PART 3: THE MEDICAL DISCOURSE Motion and rest Ancient and modern forms of exercise 'The manner of governing health' Amor et alea PART 4: THE MORAL DISCOURSE Reason versus Joy A virtue to remember A view from Paris Games without a chance Juego(s) A time for play? PART 5: GAMES AND LAW Ius commune De ludo Panem et circenses The regulation of extravagance PART 6: VARIETIES OF PASTIMES Leisure and social hierarchy Plaisirs des dames Children's games Medieval and Renaissance taxonomies PART 7: CONCLUSION Appendix: the European Vocabulary of Recreation Notes Bibliography Index

'An original, learned, lucid and accessible study that should be essential reading for students of the history of sport, leisure and the Renaissance.' - Professor Peter Burke, University of Cambridge

'In this elegant and wide-ranging book, Alessandro Arcangeli sets medical exercise among other types of recreation discussed by European writers during the long Renaissance.' - Vivian Nutton, Medical History

ALESSANDRO ARCANGELI (PhD Pisa) Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Verona, has studied at the Warburg Institute (1989-90) and was a Fellow of Villa I Tatti (1998-99). His book on the culturalóm