Sociologist, Biologist, Introvert, Foodie, History Buff, Italophile, Herbalist, Ethnographer, Traveler, Thinker, Dreamer...
We now have a Renaissance Village YouTube Channel! Please subscribe today and like our videos! Plus we have uploaded our first video, so please share this link: Renaissance Village YouTube Call for Content Transcript of video with instructions on how to submit your content to us: Buongiorno amici! I am Maestra Giata, founder of … More Call for Virtual Renaissance Village Content!
(Repost from anamericaninrome.com) File this under things you learn during a lockdown: The word “quarantine” comes from the Italian word quaranta – forty. It is a term that was initially used to refer to ships that were kept at sea to ensure that there was no disease aboard. The policy of “quarantine” was first used … More The Italian Origins of “Quarantine”
The spread of the Covid-19 virus has triggered an epidemic of advice. This advice is important, but it seems destined to make our lives more miserable and isolated. However, there is an unusual source of counsel which offers another way to deal with an epidemic. That source is the Decameron. The Italian Renaissance author Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the Decameron in … More Surviving the Corona Virus: Medieval Italian Style
At Gulf Wars XXIX on Wednesday I will be teaching a class on the toilette of my favorite person from the Renaissance, Caterina Sforza! Caterina Sforza (1463-1509), Countess of Imola, was an exceptional woman. In her private life Caterina was devoted to various activities, among which were experiments in alchemy and a love of hunting and dancing. Her stillroom book was … More Caterina Sforza Toilette Class 2020
So much planned for my fellow living history enthusiasts!! Our living google document schedule is here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PYlHs9f94j69KIY6rSHCPCGAHHiFPiLJN_FUEdSC2PE/edit?usp=sharing
The Tragic Anna Guarini (ca 1563 –1598) Italian Renaissance courts, glittering and dazzling though many were, could also often be dangerous places full of intrigue and gossip as this post on the murder of Anna Guarini, one of the most celebrated singers of late 16th-century Italy, illustrates. I first came across this story in a … More Anna Guarini
Alternately titled “wherein we learn the Italian art of how to use a salad recipe to insult both the Germans and the English”. Intro The expressions “throw shade“, “throwing shade“, or simply “shade“, are slang terms for a certain type of insult, often nonverbal. Anna Holmes called shade “the art of the sidelong insult”. Merriam-Webster defines it … More Throwing Shade Renaissance Style
I found an extant gamurra for a pious working class woman in Mantova circa 1496! Apparel of: Osanna Andreasi Date Created: 1496 Here is the information on Osanna and her dress from Google Art & Culture: This garment, that the tradition associates to the person of the Blessed Osanna, was a long dress, tight in the upper part … More The Extant Gamurra of Beata Osanna
One important place for the exchange of ideas was the salon. The word salon first appeared in France in 1664 (from the Italian word salone, itself from sala, the large reception hall of Italian mansions). Italy had had an early tradition of the salon; Giovanna Dandolo became known as a patron and gatherer … More The Salon of Giovanna Dandolo Malipiero
There were many cures for impotency in the pharmacopoeia of the Italian Peninsula during the Renaissance. All manner of elixirs and compounds could be made to restore or enhance the vigor of an aging or infirm nobleman or prince like Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua. Using the Galenic theory of signatures, foods that resembled the … More The Puzzlement of Potency
